Freeski History

Evidence of flips and tricks being performed on skis dates back to the early 1900s but to really find the origins of our discipline we look to the 1960s. A time of social revolution, self expression and revolt against established authority was reflected in the ‘no rules’ anything goes approach of the early freeski adopters. The hotdoggers of the 60s/70s layed the groundwork for the generations to follow: bump skiing, air time, flips and tricks became a growing side note in the world of skiing. By the end of the 70s, largely due to the number of injuries involved, the International Ski Federation (FIS) had taken notice and the first true disciplines, and their regulations, were established in an effort to improve the safety of this burgeoning new sport.

In 1980, the first Freestyle world cup was held with athletes competing in moguls, inverted aerials and acroski (more commonly referred to as ski ballet) and the following decade saw international growth in all three disciplines culminating in the launch of freeskiing at the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games. All three events were demonstration sports with moguls and aerials becoming true Olympic sports in the following two winter games. Although this propelled our sport onto the global stage the boundaries and regulations this provided led once again to a movement against authority, against conformity and towards freedom and expression. Two avenues evolved behind the competition’s limelight: snowboarding and extreme skiing. One driven by fluidity, expression and creativity and one by pushing the boundaries of steepness, air time and cliff drops.

At the turn of the 90s the first terrain parks were being established in North American resorts. These would be exclusively for snowboarders and featured the first jumps, rails and half pipes built for public use. During this time skiing was going through a revolution of its own with huge improvements in materials and manufacturing leading to radical new shapes and much shorter ski designs. The hourglass shaped ‘parabolic’ skis we know today began to replace the 2m+ straight skinny skis of old. In 1995 Line Skis, the first dedicated freeski manufacturer, produced their first skiboard, a twin tip ski less than a metre in length. Driven by skiers’ desire to spin further and land backwards and designed specifically for freestyle, this spurred some of the big players in ski manufacturing to take note, listen to their skiers, and bring the first full-length twin tip skis to the market. In 1998, Salomon launched the 1080 and the modern freeski movement was established. What followed was an era of ducking ropes to sneak into the snowboard parks, ski movies circulating on VHS and the addition of skiing to the 1999 Winter X-Games.

Modern Day Freeski

With the stage set and the world starting to take note, the 2000s were a time of huge progression. Each year the hotly anticipated DVD releases from the likes of Level 1 and Poor Boyz Productions would showcase the newest tricks from the best athletes in our world. The parks became a place for all mountain users and as features grew and were refined they started to resemble what you see today.

From 2000 to 2010 the halfpipe grew from 11.5ft to 22ft, jumps changed from huge step downs to a more level takeoff and landing point which allowed for increased air time without exponential risk and suddenly skiers had gone from spinning a straight 1260 to double cork 1440. Big Air, Superpipe and Slopestyle became the prime time events of Winter X-Games and freeski athletes became household names. The progression was fast, prize money was big and the competition circuit was global. It was time for freeskiing to once again be welcomed to sport’s biggest stage.

In the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, Slopestyle and Halfpipe made their debut. As soon as representing one’s country became the goal, the support structure and work ethic once again changed. Coaches, air bags, physiotherapists, nutritionists and year round training programmes all became the norm for the top athletes in the game and progression again exploded. Triple corks, quad corks, 1800º plus spins and the inclusion of Big Air in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games again increased demand for freestyle facilities with New Zealand stepping up to the plate as the go-to southern hemisphere destination. And with that dedication and commitment, Beijing saw New Zealand’s most successful Winter Olympics ever. As more of our mountain guests set freestyle as a goal, now is the time to shape the next evolution of our sport. Will you be part of it?