If you will all bear with my inclination for long-winded exposition, I am going to start this thread with an anecdote.
Two years ago, I was skiing a beautiful day at venerable Cannon Mountain ski area in NH (when it has snow, which is admittedly rare, it is one of the most magical places for an expert to ski on the planet). The legendary 'Kinsman's Glades' is often purported to be the most challenging tree run at Cannon, however, I disagree. While kinsman's is quite challenging, and incredibly long, and thoroughly exciting to ski, it is not the 'hardest glade' to ski. Cannon has several other of these shorter, scrub pine glades that are so tight, it is hard for a 6 foot man to stand upright while skiing them, let along extend your arm safely for a pole plant (yes we are talking about patented 'Bushwacka' territory here).
I was skiing one such glade with a buddy of mine and his wife, doing my best to pick and navigate my way through this fairly vexing arboreal labyrinth. As I neared the end, I was suddenly passed (as if I were standing still) by a dozen young guys (mid 20's), who came flying through the trees, quickly navigating the tight spaces and gullies and then all hitting (some with some real style and flair, others not so much), in succession, a narrow jump near the exit that dropped them onto a groomed trail. In a blink of an eye they were gone.
I remember remarking to my friend that though they were fast, they lacked real skiing 'technique.' He laughed and said, "Well, they sure skied it better than us and they seemed to enjoying it as well". Which was a notable contrast, as I couldn't wait to extricate myself from that terminable nest and made a point of not skiing it (or any glade like it) again for the remainder of the day.
Those young skiers, like so many young skiers, skied with a fairly familiar style: That of the park rat who has finally grown up and is taking his hard won sense of balance and fun to the off-piste. Perhaps more than old patrollers who ski with wide-rotary movements, these skiers are the most maligned by established purveyors of proper ski technique (and here I mean PSIA as well as others who see themselves this way). But their style of skiing has some incredible advantages and reflects a pursuit of some very specific, and in my estimation, very worthy skiing goals.
So let me start with just one video here (more will follow): Again, staying with my theme of everyday, real life skiers I have selected a video from 2008 that was filmed at my Home mountain, Berkshire East in Massachusetts (which is another reason it is selected, I just like showing all the great off-piste, on the map skiing opportunities this little ski area serves up! Everything skied in this video is a marked and patrolled ski run).
It is from a powder day in December, 2008, about a foot of snow fell on otherwise bare trails. The two young guys in this video, are an excellent, and I think for most, a very recognizable embodiment of the free-skiing jibber style. They aren't pros or even anywhere near the highest level of this sort of skiing (JP Auclair they Ain't), yet, they get the zeitgeist of style. Young guys, who love skiing and really get the adventure and fun possible on any mountain on any slope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6UDzUAxMFE&feature=relatedI'd watch the whole 4 minutes as the skiing and terrain gets better as it rolls along
So what is the style:
As can be seen, much of it is derived from park skiing: 1. taking fairly direct lines to find that interesting feature or roll that you can do something fun off of. 2. Skiing a fairly erect, narrow stanced, mostly stacked body position (same way these guy approach table tops, etc)--which translates nicely into straighter lines through the moguls. They keep a very direct, eyes forward approach...always scouting for an upcoming opportunity to play...when they see it, they go straight for it! 3. A pronounced poppy, bounciness to their skiing...always on their toes ready to spring off or over anything that strikes their fancy.
But beyond specific goal oriented style choice, I really appreciate their wider-embodiment of skiing: These guys, due to their youth, their lack of orthodoxy have
no pre-conceived biases against
any movements on skis:
If they feel like twisting they twist, jumping they jump, bouncing along, they bounce. When in chunky snow (they are on mid 80mm waisted non-rockered twin tips) they ride 'ski-wheelies.' All moves, all ways of using a ski on are the table. Which is not surprising, since park skiing shows us skis can be 'buttered', twisted, flicked on a rail, etc. I love how much they make out of these short trails, and I believe their style, it's corresponding techniques, and their general playful approach to skiing is what makes that possible.
I will have more to say about this, and more videos (of higher end, and some 'name' skiers) to post in this thread. But I wanted to get this started, started with a video of real world, recognizable skiing.
I should add, these guys still ski B' East regularly, and are now in their late 20's and have joined in with a larger, slightly older crew of similar skiers we all call 'The Twin Tip Warriors' who usually show up on powder days and rip and style the lift line all day long.