Ski freestyle

The ski freestyle is a discipline of the Alpine skiing considered as a extreme Sport. Often confused with the Hot-dogging (called " freestyle skiing" in English), the ski freestyle is a new discipline appeared at the end of the Nineties, resulting from several other disciplines like the ski of bumps, the half-pipe or the lifting jump.

The ski Freestyle is practiced in special zones called snowparks or of except track (one speaks then about backcountry ). It consists has to carry out figures starting from structures in snow or metal.

The skier who practices the ski freestyle is called freestylor ( freestyler ), or more generally ridor ( to wrinkle ).

History

The ski freestyle appears gradually during the Nineties when candidates of ski of bumps (discipline made up of fast scull in a field of bumps and jumps lifting) put themselves to be interested more in the jumps at the scull. In parallel, the Snowboard, then in full rise in particular in the young people, develops its own surfaces of practice of the jumps: the snowparks, which attract soon the skiers.

Whereas possibilities of ski-jumps of bumps seem limited (size of the bumps, counting of the points which attaches much more importance to time of race than to the difficulty of the jumps), the rideurs develop their own figures. Vertical and horizontal rotations quickly make shade with the simple jumps variations of the skiers of bumps.

So the ski freestyle is sometimes called ski new school by oppositon with the Hot-dogging traditional said old school .

Description

The ski freestyle consists in carrying out in ski of the jumps starting from various structures in snow or metal called modules , then to achieve in the air of the figures, said tricks , before to replate , i.e. to fall down on the skis moving before or behind ( fakie ).

The sought-after goal is multiple: performance, esthetism of the jump, feelings during the flight, spectacle.

The freestyle backcountry indicates a practice of the discipline apart from the ski slopes. It is a question of practicing freestyle at the time of a run of Except track, in virgin spaces.

Equipment

The basic equipment is composed of a pair of skis with double spatulas ( twin-tips ), skis raised with before and with the back, which make it possible to slip in front of like behind. These skis are generally lighter, shorter than the average and parabolic. The first models double spatulas appeared at the end of the Nineties. The majority of the marks of skis develop today a range of skis freestyle. The market being in full expansion.

Advised for the Alpine skiing, the port of the Casque appears essential for partic ski freestyle. It makes it possible to mitigate the effect of the shocks to the head, frequent at the time of the missed receptions.

The falls being able to be violent, the wearing of sunglasses is to be proscribed, because glasses could break and involve serious lesions with the eyes. It is rather advised to carry a mask. This last being also an accessory of esthetic use which takes part in the image of the freestylor.

Lastly, for the practice of the bars of slide in particular, the port of a reinforced dorsal protection is advised.

Modules

The ski freestyle consists of jumps on or using various structures:

Big air
Hip
Step-up
Half-pipe
Quarter-pipe
Bar of slide
Waterslide
Box
Wall
Road gap

Tricks

The panel of feasible figures in the air increases day in day as the freestyleurs progress (the discipline being relatively recent). One can nevertheless classify the tricks in several categories.

Types of tricks

Grabs

A grab consists in catching with the hand an end of the ski during the jump. The verb " to grab" mean " attraper" in English.

Each type of seizure bears a name:

Safety : seizure of one ski in front of fixing with the hand on the side of the seized ski. The legs remain grouped, the skis remain parallel during the seizure.
Him Kang : alternative of the safety in which the leg whose ski is not grabé is tended.
Phil grab : alternative of the safety in which the skis are crossed instead of being parallel.
Transfers : seizure of one ski in front of fixing with the hand on the side opposed to the seized ski.
Tail grab : to seize part postpones of a ski.
True tail : alternative of the tail grab in which the seizure is done at the back end of the ski. The tail grab and the true tail can be realized with the skis parallel ( parallel tail ) or crossed ( cross-country race tail ).
Nose grab : seizure of before ski, more close possible of the front point.
True Nose or High Transfers : alternative of the nose grab in which the seizure is done on the end before ski. This grab can be carried out with the parallel skis ( True Nose ) or cross ( High Mute ).
Double true nose : alternative of the true nose in which each hand seizes a ski at the front end.
Japan or Japan air : seizure of the ski opposed to the hand which grabe, the back of fixing, while passing behind the leg, often by folding up the grabée leg.
Critical : alternative of the japan air in which the grab is done in front of fixing.
Double japan : alternative of the japan air in which the other hand seizes the ski already grabé in front of fixing, while passing in front of the body.
Ewe : seized of the ski with the hand of with dimensions of the seized ski, in front of fixing, on the interior cross-section.
Truck driver : seizure of before each ski with the corresponding hand, by keeping the tended legs.
Cannonball : seizure of the two skis with the hand corresponding to the level of the shoe (under the shoe) by folding the legs.

A grab is all the more successful that the seizure is long. Moreover, the jump is all the more esthetic as the seizure of the ski is frank, which makes it possible to the ridor to accentuate the torsion of its body thanks to the tension of its hand on the ski. It is said whereas the grab is tweaké .

Rotations

The term rotation is used to indicate only horizontal rotations (vertical rotations are flips ).

The principle is to carry out a horizontal rotation during the jump, in order to plate ahead where behind. Rotation is named by the number of degrees carried out:

180 for a half turn
360 , three six or three sixty for a rotation full
540 , five four or five forty for a turn and half
720 , seven two or seven twenty for two full rotations
900 for two turns and half
1080 for three turns

A rotation can be decorated of a grab, which makes the jump more esthetic but also more difficult because the tweakée position tends to unbalance the ridor and to offset rotation. Moreover, the direction of rotation tends to support a direction of grab rather than another. For example, a rotation in the opposite direction of the needles of a watch facilitates a grab right hand. If the ridor carries out a grab hand disadvantaged by rotation, it is said that the grab is carried out in reverse .

In the same way, each ridor with a direction of rotation appearing to him easier than the other. So the rotations carried out in the opposite direction of its usual direction are known as unnatural .

Rotations of more than three turns exist but are particularly rare, initially because the enough large modules to launch such a jump are rare, and then because the number of revolutions is so high that a grab becomes difficult, which makes the jump considerably less esthetic.

To note, certain rotations are feasible only on vertical modules, where the point of impulse is confused with the reception (like the Half-pipe S, the Quarter-pipe S, and to a certain extent, the Hip S), for example a sense of smell (kind of back flip twisted) or a alley-hoop .

Lastly, to enter on a bar of slide, the ridor must put himself perpendicular to the axis of the bar, and must thus make at least a quarter of facing lathe. However, it is also possible to make more than one quarter of turn. There is thus the following denomination for this type of rotations:

90 for a quarter of turn
270 for three quarters of turns
450 for a turn a quarter
630 for a turn three quarters
810 for two turns a quarter
etc

Flips

A flip is a vertical rotation. One distinguishes the face flips , rotations ahead, and the back flips , rotations behind.

These figures are particularly impressive for a public not initiated because the ridor passes " the head in bas". However, these rotations are technically much less difficult to realize than horizontal rotations, because of capacity of the internal ear to detect the vertical naturally, which makes it possible to the ridor to be easily located in space.

In the same way, and once again contrary to appearances, the back flip is technically easier than the face-flip, because during second half of the back flip, the ridor has the eyes in direction of the ground and can thus anticipate his reception and finish his rotation at the good moment, contrary to the face flip where during all the end of the jump the ridor has the eyes towards the sky and thus nothing the reception sees (it can thus just trust with his internal ear).

It is possible to make several flips after, and to add a grab to rotation.

The decorated flips of a gimlet also exist, but in a way much rarer, and often merge with certain excentric horizontal rotations.

Nevertheless, in spite of the relative technical difficulty of such a figure, the danger to fall down on the head or the nape of the neck is real and conduit certain ski stations to prohibit such figures in its snowparks.

Excentric rotations

An excentric rotation is a rotation initially horizontal but launched with a particular movement of the shoulders which offsets rotation. There exist various types of excentric rotations ( corskrew or Cork , rodeo , D spin , bio , misty etc) according to the way in which the bust is launched. Some of these rotations, although initially horizontal, make pass the upside down.

Although some of these rotations are easier to make on a certain number of revolutions (or halves turns) that others, it is in theory possible to plate any excentric rotation with any number of revolutions, while exploiting the quantity of offsetting in order to find itself with the driving position at the desired time.

It is also possible to decorate an excentric rotation by a grab, and to carry out it in unnatural.

The switch

The switch is a term indicating the fact of passing from the front position to the back position. The fact of skiing behind is called to ski in fakie , but by abuse language, one also says that one skis in switch or in cab .

Certain figures as rotations with the number of odd half turns make land in switch. It is also possible to launch any trick in switch (i.e. to approach the module behind and to carry out the jump in fakie).

To note, a figure often considered as a rotation although it is not based on the switch: the No spin or zero spin which consists in making a fakie to fakie, i.e. to leave behind and make a right jump to fall down behind without any rotation. In spite of appearances, this figure is particularly delicate because the fact of even turning the head to look at the reception tends to unbalance the ridor in the air, which will have of another choice to replate correctly only to do one 180 in catastrophe and to land moving front.

Slides

A slide consists in slipping on a Barre of slide. In ski, the slide is made the skis perpendicular to the axis of the bar (contrary to the snowboard or the width of the board slider either in the axis allows, or perpendicular).

One can slider the skis centered compared to the bar (this one is located roughly at the lower part of the feet of the ridor), but also in nose slide , i.e. before skis on the bar, or in tail slide , the back of the skis on the bar.

Just as for a rotation, each ridor has a direction preferred to take a bar (before skis pointed towards the right-hand side or the left). To carry out a slide in the opposite direction is then known as unnatural .

Old school

The term old school indicates the whole of the figures known before the appearance of the ski freestyle, in particular those codified in the ski of bumps:

Jump variation : legs drawn aside to the maximum before gathering them to land
Twist : quarter of turn of the skis on with dimensions then replacement the right
Daffy : an ahead tended leg, one behind, to put the skis out of V
square Daffy : alternative of the dafy in which the skis are not out of V but vertical and parallels between them, a front the skier and behind
Cosaque : jump variation in which the skier passes the arms and the sticks in front of further bringing them possible between the legs
Hélicoptère : ancestor of the three six, the helicopter consists in making a full rotation in the air while remaining right, the skis tight and the isolated arms

These figures are generally carried out while remaining very right, the quite tight skis (at least in reception for the jump variation, the dafy and the cossack), important criteria in the notation with the ski of bumps, but which now give an obsolete and comic side to these figures. Indeed, the current trend privileges a curved posture and skis drawn aside with the shoulders to facilitate the impulse and stability in the air.

Denomination of the tricks

Jumps

The tricks are for most of the time, of rotations which can be several types, combined or not with a grab, and carried out ahead or behind. The denomination of the figures thus created answers the following use:

initially the word “ switch ” if the figure is carried out while leaving
behind then the word “ unnatural ” if it is about a rotation carried out in the opposite direction of the usual direction for the ridor
then the name of the type of offsetting of rotation if the figure is an excentric rotation
then the name of rotation itself, i.e. the number of degrees carried out
if the figure is grabée:

the word “ reverse ” if this one is carried out by the hand disadvantaged by the direction of rotation
finally the name of the grab

For example, a “ switch rodeo five four tail grab ” is a jump in which the ridor leaves behind, makes a horizontal rotation of a turn and half with an offsetting of the type rodeo , and catches the back of the one of its skis during rotation.

The knowledge of the starting mode (normal or switch) and of the number of revolutions is enough to know the direction in which the ridor will land (ahead or in fakie).

Bar slide

For the bars of slide, the denomination is done in the following way:

initially the name of the figure of entry if it is other than one 90, followed English word to
the name of the slide ( nose slide or tail slide ) or the word English rail if the slide is traditional
finally the name of the figure of exit if it other than one 90, is preceded by the English word to

For example, a switch 270 to rail means that the ridor leaves in step back, that it normally carries out three quarters of turn before slider on the bar, then that it leaves with a quarter turn.

A “ rail to switch ” means that the ridor left the bar with a quarter of turn which ammené it behind. In the same way, the “ switch to rail ” consists in entering on the bar while leaving behind and by carrying out a quarter of turn.

When the ridor carries out a rotation in the middle of the bar, one adds in the name of the figure a “ to figure to rail ”. For example, a 270 to rail to 180 to rail to switch means that the ridor returns on the bar with 3 quarters of turns, then carries out a half turn in medium of bar (that the riders also call “ sexchange ”), and leaves finally with a quarter turn which makes it land behind.

Sometimes, when only the figure of entry or exit is notable, for example one 630, one speaks about a “ 630 in ” or “ 630 out ”.

Competitions

Disciplines

There exist 4 disciplines of freestyle courrues in competition:

the Big air
the Half-pipe
slopestyle: a sequence of various modules
the Boardercross

The Half-pipe is discipline Olympic in snowboard since the Olympic Games of Nagano in 1998.

The Boardercross is also discipline Olympic in snowboard since the Olympic Games of Turin in 2006.

The slopestyle, the half-pipe and the boardercross are disciplines courrues with the X Ranges, equivalents of the Olympic Games for the extreme sports, in ski and snowboard. The half-pipe is called SuperPipe because the module is much larger than with the practice (for the Olympic Games for example), and the boardercross is called Skier X (pronounce Skieur Cross-country race) for the skiers and Snowboarder X (pronounce Snowboarder Cross) for the snowboarders.

The Big air was discipline of X Ranges in snowboard and in ski but is not it currently any more. It was replaced by slopestyle, disciplines much more general-purpose and technical. On the other hand, of many ski stations organize regularly competitions of big air, often opened to the amateurs with demonstrations of professionals.

Notation

The competitions of freestyle are the subject of controversies. Indeed, with the experiment of the ski of bumps which sclerosed itself in the Nineties because of its strict marking system leaving only few freedoms to the skiers on the figures, of the voices protested against the competitions of freestyle not to lead to the same result.

A compromise seems to be reached today with a marking system leaving a good place to voluntarily subjective concepts, like the general esthetics of the ridor.

All in all, the regrouping of extreme sports, generally visual, to the X Ranges contributes to preserve the spirit of opening and spectacle of freestyle: such competitions are today especially a large visual spectacle in which the podium has only one interest secondary.

Principal skiers freestyle

Ingenuous Thovex
To tan Hall
Jon Olsson
Vincent Dorion
Simon Dumont
JF Cusson
Laurent Favre
Pep Fujas
Michael Deschenaux
JP Auclair
Charles Gagnier
CR Johnson
Sarah Burke
Virginia Faivre
Julien Régnier Lafforgue
TJ Schiller
Corey Vanular
Mathias Wecxsteen
Marie Martinod
Grete Eliassen
Jacob Wester
JL Ratchel
JF Houle
Andreas Hatveit
Sammy Carlson
Romain Grojean
Stephan Vaillant
Golly Mickael
Thomas Krief
Sylvain Francez-Carrère
Guerin maxim

External bonds

SkiPass.com - site Community of information general practitioner on the ski and snowboard freestyle and freeride
Site of the World cup of ski freestyle

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