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| | WHAT IS FREESTYLE?
Freestyle skiing is the latest and greatest wave of winter
ski acrobatics. This page displays the various disciplines in this
exciting sport:
Freestyle Disciplines
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Skiers
race individually or side by side, down a steep pitch covered with large
snow mounds (moguls). Skiers must perform two different jumps during their
run and are judged on speed, technical turns in the moguls, and aerial
maneuvers.
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Aerialists are vaulted up to forty feet
in the air off jumps up to 10 feet high. While in the air, they perform a
combination of twists and flips with the goal of a perfect landing.
Take-off, form in the air, and landing are critical factors in the
judging.
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Aerial
maneuvers consisting of grabs, twists, somersaults, off axis spins, and
flips, with names such as Misty, Rodeo, Sunrise, D-spins, and 1080s. Jumps
are designed to launch the skier in a lower trajectory than a traditional
aerial ‘kicker’, and can also be done off tabletops and/or rails in
terrain parks in competitions referred to as Slopestyle. Tricks are judged
by execution, air, degree of difficulty, and overall showmanship with
deductions taken for landing errors.
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A halfpipe competition is a variation of
New School, and is performed in a ‘halfpipe’, a snow bowl shaped similar
to a pipe sliced lengthwise and built on a slope. ‘Superpipes’ can have
walls close to 20 feet high. Skiers start at the top and ski in a zigzag
pattern down the pipe. At each point where the skier reaches the lip of
the pipe, they perform a new school trick, such as a 540, flare, or rodeo.
The difficulty, execution, air above the lip of the pipe, variety, and
number of tricks in a run are the main factors used in judging this event.
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(not part of our program at this time)
Skier X is a fast course-skiing race with
heats of six skiers racing over tabletop jumps, banked turns, rollers, and
gaps. This is a timed sport with no judging for style or form.
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