Freeskiing

Freeskiing is a type of skiing in the field of extreme sports. It's about as impressively as possible to perform various tricks to overcome obstacles or to slide over so-called " obstacles " ( sliden ). The skis used are Twintips, front and rear curved high to allow reversing and landing.

Origin

The term scope of Freeskiing is controversial. The name on the one hand basically stand for the modern, unconventional Extreme Skiing, among which both driving on artificial parks and driving in deep snow and terrain. In this case, the pure park skiing is defined in scene circles as " newschool ". Otherwise, one divided between freeskiing ( Park ) and freeriding ( terrain ). In any case, the notion of accrual of the classic freestyle skiing, which is rejected by the modern freeskiers because of its strict assessment guidelines and regulations in competitions serves.

Various disciplines of freeskiing

Big Mountain skiing

See Freeride_ ( Winter sports )

Park and Pipe skiing

The term stands for driving in artificial terrain parks. Equipped with rails, boxes, halfpipes, jumps of different sizes and various other obstacles ( " obstacles " ) on which spectacular tricks performs.

This fun parks are increasingly being built in ski resorts or ski domes, as the demand of athletes rising and the tourism has recognized the trendy potential.

Urban Skiing

This term includes driving in urban areas with the use of urban infrastructure. These include, for example, the so-called " grind " on (stairs ) railings and walls, riding along small artificially erected jumps and obstacles in the integration of tricks. The freeskiers tried to use the city as a kind of existing park. Comparable is the street skateboarding. Urban skiing can actually be operated anywhere where snow is present.

Equipment

In freeskiing " twin tip " skis are mostly used to allow more mobility, driving backwards and land. In order to improve the balance and the rotational behavior of jumps and obstacles, the binding is often mounted in the center, while it is attached rather a bit behind the middle of the classic on-piste ski for stability reasons. For off-road driving, modern " freeride skis " that are often 10 inches or wider in the middle of the ski are. If the classic free-riding with jumps and tricks combined, these skis have curved ends. Most freeriders have here a backpack with avalanche transceiver ( LVS), probe and shovel off-road rides. This facilitates in an avalanche the search for the victim and indicates the additional option to build the terrain kickers ( jumps ).

Other equipment

Protector jacket with back, chest, shoulder and elbow protectors

Popularity

In the U.S. Freeskiing managed primarily by the film The Blizzard of Aahs breakthrough that contributed to the open ground was made accessible to the athletes. In recent years, the popularity of the freeskiing increased by its inclusion in the X-Games. Even big names in the sport like Glenn Plake, Candide Thovex, Tom Wallisch, Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey, Tanner Hall, Eric Pollard, Jon Olsson, Simon Dumont and Kristi Leskinen increased their popularity.

At the Winter X Games 2012, the 29- year-old professional ski freestyler Sarah Burke fell in the Superpipe on the head and into a coma and died on 19 January 2012. Their deaths made ​​aware of the dangers of the sport (s).