Snowboards are boards where the user places both feet, usually secured, to the same board. The board itself is wider than most skis, with the ability to glide on snow. Snowboards widths are between 6 and 12 inches or 15 to 30 centimeters. Snowboards are differentiated from monoskis by the stance of the user. In monoskiing, the user stands with feet inline with direction of travel, whereas in snowboarding, users stand with feet transverse to the longitude of the board. Users of such equipment may be referred to as snowboarders. Commercial snowboards generally require extra equipment, such as bindings and special boots which help secure both feet of a snowboarder, who generally ride in an upright position. These types of boards are commonly used by people at ski hills, mountains, backcountry, or resorts for leisure, entertainment, and competitive purposes in the activity called snowboarding.
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing, which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for recreation or for sport, it is typically practiced at ski resorts, which provide such services as ski lifts, artificial snow making, snow grooming, restaurants, and ski patrol.
Skiing, or traveling over snow on skis, has a history of at least eight millennia. The earliest archaeological examples of skis were found in Karelia and date to 6000 BCE. Although skiing's origins were purely utilitarian, the modern sport evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia, starting in the mid-1800s skiing became a popular recreational activity and sport, becoming practiced in snow-covered regions worldwide, and providing a market for the development of ski resorts and their related communities.
A ski binding is a device that connects a ski boot to the ski. Before the 1933 invention of ski lifts, skiers went uphill and down and cross-country on the same gear. As ski lifts became more prevalent, skis—and their bindings—became increasingly specialized, differentiated between alpine (downhill) and Nordic styles of skiing. Until the point of divergence in the mid-20th century, bindings held the toe of a flexible, leather boot against the ski and allowed the heel to rise off the ski, typically with a form of strap or cable around the heel.
The parallel turn in alpine skiing is a method for turning which rolls the ski onto one edge, allowing it to bend into an arc. Thus bent, the ski follows the turn without sliding. It contrasts with earlier techniques such as the stem Christie, which slides the ski outward from the body ("stemming") to generate sideways force. Parallel turns generate much less friction and are more efficient both in maintaining speed and minimizing skier effort.
Ski boots are footwear used in skiing to provide a way to attach the skier to skis using ski bindings. The ski/boot/binding combination is used to effectively transmit control inputs from the skier's legs to the snow.
The Arlberg technique is a progressive system that takes the skier from the snowplough turn to the parallel christie through measured stages of improvement. The system, or slightly modified versions, remains in widespread use to this day. Modern ski equipment is also capable of a more efficient turning style known as carving that uses entirely different techniques and movements. Some ski schools have started moving students directly from the snowplough to carving as early as possible, avoiding learning stemming habits that may be difficult to un-learn.
Marker International is a German manufacturing company of equipment for winter sports established in 1952 and headquartered in Straubing, Lower Bavaria. Founded by Hannes Marker, the company is known for pioneering releasable binding technology. Marker's first model, the Duplex was followed in 1953 by the Simplex toe binding which was a huge success in the 1950s. New models introduced in the 1980s were major competitors on the alpine racing circuit.
Shin-bang is a general sense of discomfort or pain in the lower anterior portion of the tibia that contacts the tongue of a ski boot, especially when pressed against the boot. It should not to be confused with shin-bite, which is a condition where the shin is rubbed raw due to irritation inside of the ski boot.
Nordica is an Italian manufacturing company of winter sports products, focusing on skiing. Based in Giavera del Montello, Nordica is currently a division of Tecnica Group, after it was acquired from Benetton in 2003.
Spademan was a type of ski binding, one of a number of "plate bindings" that were popular in alpine skiing during the 1970s. It used a bronze plate screwed into the bottom of the boot as its connection point, held to the ski by a clamp-like mechanism that grasped the side of the plate. Unlike conventional bindings, the Spademan could release in any direction, in response to any force or torque. It provided greatly improved protection compared to contemporary designs, which generally allowed release of the toe to the sides and heel directly forward, keeping the foot attached in any other fall direction.
The Head Standard was Howard Head's first successful ski design, and arguably the first modern downhill ski. The Standard used composite construction, with a plywood core sandwiched between aluminum outer skins, steel edges tapering into the core, and a hard plastic base, sidewalls and topsheet. The only major changes in ski materials since the Standard are the use of fibreglass structural layers in place of the aluminum layers, and substitution of expanded plastic foam for the wooden core.
Look's Nevada, released in 1950, was the first recognizably modern alpine ski binding. The Nevada was only the toe portion of the binding, and was used with a conventional cable binding for the heel. An updated version was introduced in 1962 with a new step-in heel binding, the Grand Prix. These basic mechanisms formed the basis for LOOK bindings for over 40 years, changing mainly in name and construction materials. The Nevada toe pattern is almost universal among bindings today.
Cable bindings, also known as Kandahar bindings or bear-trap bindings, are a type of ski bindings widely used through the middle of the 20th century. It was invented and brand-named after the Kandahar Ski Club in 1929 by ski racer and engineer Guido Reuge. They were replaced in alpine skiing by heel-and-toe "safety bindings" in the mid-1960s.
The Look Integral was a downhill ski binding that worked in conjunction with a custom ski boot made by Nordica. The Integral was fairly common in ski rental shops in the 1980s and into the 90s, but has since disappeared.
Hanson Industries invented and popularized the rear-entry ski boot. Formed by brothers Chris and Denny Hanson in 1969, the company became a huge success in the late 1970s. A series of missteps in the early 1980s led to a rapid death spiral and the company went bankrupt in 1984. It was purchased by Daiwa, a Japanese fishing tackle company that handled Hanson's distribution in Japan. Daiwa ended sales in North America and Europe. European products, notably the famous Salomon SX series, used Hanson's exit as a springboard to market domination during the second half of the 1980s. Denny Hanson later introduced the "Apex" design, which combines features of alpine and snowboarding boots.
Rosemount Ski Boots introduced one of the earliest all-plastic ski boots for the downhill skiing market, competing with Bob Lange for the title of "first". Rosemount's design was easily distinguished by its use of the uncommon "side-entry" method for putting the boot on, which was rare at the time and is no longer used.
Lange is a major producer of ski boots used in alpine (downhill) skiing, founded in 1948 in the USA. They introduced the world's first plastic ski boots in 1962, and a greatly improved model aimed at the racing market in 1965. After several World Cup and Olympics wins in 1967 and 1968 made them a must-have on the circuit, Lange has remained a force in the racing market ever since. Their boots have equipped five times as many World Cup medal winners as any other brand into the 2000s. The front-entry design introduced by Lange is used by almost every modern ski boot to this day. Lange remains a major brand worldwide.
The Flexon was a downhill ski boot introduced by Raichle in the winter of 1980/81. Based on designs by Sven Coomer, Al Gross and Erik Giese, the Flexon used a unique system to control forward flex in a predictable way, as well as making the boot more comfortable and easier to put on and remove. The basic layout was, and is, generally referred to as a "three-piece" design -- three-piece boots preceding the Flexon included the Henke Strato, Nordica Comp 3 and a dozen other designs from Italian bootmakers.
Nutukas, finnesko, or simply Sámi boots are traditional Sámi winter footwear made of reindeer hide. Because they are soft, the nutukas will not freeze as solidly as thick boot leather, making them relatively easy to put on after overnight exposure to subzero temperatures. From 1890, they are regularly mentioned in accounts of polar travel.
