"A pair of skis are the ultimate transformation to freedom." (~Warren Miller) The evolution of skis

"Skiing is a dance and the mountain always leads"~unknown. Skiing is a sport that I am very passionate about. The wind blowing in your face, racing down the hill is an action that I crave. Skiing has evolved so much over hundreds of years, from the from early skies made of wood, to the carbon fiber skies today, there are many differences.

The physics of skiing are not to complicated. Skiing relies mostly on gravity as gravity pulls everything around us to the center of the Earth. The gravity that pulls everything to the center of the Earth pulls skiers down the hill as well. It causes skiers to increase their speed.  A skier's increase of speed is also affected by friction. Manipulating that friction gives a skier control. The types and styles as well as the materials used to make skies can help to have all these factors to make skier’s faster.

At the very beginning when skies were used, they were all custom made  from single planks of wood. There were special ski makers who knew how to make the ski nicely and well. Other skies could be made by family members or neighbors.

In 1850 the cambered ski was invented. The cambered ski was invented by woodcarvers in the province of Telemark, Norway. After the bow shaped cambered ski the first Telemark ski was demonstrated. After a few more skies being invented and tweaked, in 1932 the first successful laminated skies with three layers were invented. They were invented by Bjorn Ullevoldsaeter in Norway.

Many, many skies have been developed over many years. All these skies made and designed all led to the skies today, the skies I ski on. At races, on the mountain I see hundreds of types of skies by themselves. I don’t know if I will ever see every type, but skiing is my passion and the physics and the materials used for skies all affect me. I hope to be skiing my whole life, the wind in my face, the feeling of the cold white snow. I don’t want to ever give that feeling up.

 Watch these cool videos!!

Freestyle Skiing

Ski Jumping Olympics

Top female Racer

Personal Ski Run

Works Cited

“Elan RCG Waveflex Plate Junior Race Skis.” skis.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.

“let’s laugh at old gear.” New schoolers. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.

“A Short History of Skis.” International Skiing History. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. <https://www.skiinghistory.org/history/short-history-skis-0>.

“Skis.” On the snow. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.

“Vintage Ski Decor.” Vintage Winter. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. <http://www.vintagewinter.com/collections/vintage-winter-antiques-and-home-decor?page=11>.

Skiing Since Two

Skiing has been a challenge and success for me. I started at the early age of two years old! My family always said, “better early than late” for my skiing career. All my family has loved skiing, even my great great-grandfather who skied until he was in his late 80’s. I have gone on many ski trips with my family from Park City, to Alaska. I started to be able to ski without help at five, but that is when I started to dislike it. My family thought I was an amazing skier that could ski anything, so they would always take me to places that were very difficult and they would expect me to glide down the run. I would get caught behind and have to find my way to where my mom stopped to wait for me, which is ironic, because she went too far down for me to see her.
When I was four years old, I skied straight into a tree and hurt my entire face. I have learned from that, and since then I have never got distracted from skiing, because hitting your face on a tree really hurts.
I have gone on ski trips with friends to places like Alaska, and Canada. They are always a lot of fun, but we usually end making ski jumps and sledding off of them the entire time. On the Canada trip, we would stay outside sledding for five hours sometimes!
When I was six I became a ski racer. I was on the MAC team with all of my friends, but I never won any races. It was still a lot of fun. I quite ski racing when I was seven.
I have always wanted to be able to do crazy back flips and spins, but I could never push myself to do any of it. I know a couple of kids that can do crazy tricks. I have always been super jealous of them.
I started to snowboard when I was eight. I never understood the concept of turning, so I would crash very frequently. Being able to snowboard well has been a goal of mine for a while, but I haven’t snowboarded for a long time, so I don’t think I will meet my goal of becoming a world class snowboarder. I have stuck to skiing for a long time, and I very rarely snowboard.
I regained my liking for skiing last year. Because then I could get ahead of my family and not the other way around.
physically, skiing is not very challenging for me. But after many hours, my legs and arms will start hurt from constantly moving and springing around. It is physically hard for most people to ski, even though you get ten minute lift breaks every fifteen minutes. The lifts are what I hate most about skiing, I have always thought about a ski resort having teleporters from the bottom of the mountain to the top, but sadly there hasn’t been teleporters yet. The early morning wake-ups are also very difficult, especially for ski bus when everyone has to wake up at 6:00 AM for the 7:00 o’clock bus ride to the mountain. But I instantly wake up after I see my friends on the bus.
Skiing has been in my jeans since I was born. Even though it is hard in it’s own ways, it is still the sport that I am best at and like the most and I want it to stay that way.

Image URL:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Freestyle_skiing_jump2.jpg