Many of the world’s greatest arts and cultures have been lost to time, engulfed by streams of more dominating subjects of society. People like the Anasazis simply died out and disappeared. Artistic crafts such as quilting and basket weaving are quickly being forgotten. Archeologists and paleontologists have been studying these mysteries for decades with little to no avail.
It is not an invasion from a more powerful opponent that wipes these civilizations into nonexistence. Nor is it disease, or a more interesting hobby, or a pack of various rodents. The true answer is quite pathetic and solvable. They die out. There is no one else to take on the life after the current generation has passed. Why do none from the younger wave carry on the skills of the elders? What must be done to inspire such a revival? And what must be done to make sure that such a cataclysm does not occur again?
FreeHeelLife looks deep into the life of freeheel skiing as an example to such misfortunes. A sport deep in lifestyle and art but just might happen to face the same catastrophe as the Atlantians, extinction. Although skiing without a fastened heal was the first way that people moved atop the snow, the late twentieth century saw a rise of other means of transport that were rapidly becoming more popular. Yet, freeheel skiing managed to hold on. People of middle age were picking up the sport as something new when they had exhausted the other various snow sports. But as the twenty-first century begins to pick up pace, with life in general beginning to move faster, it just doesn’t seem enough to just exist, one needs to keep up, one needs to progress. Alpine skiing and snowboarding have each taken their sports to new levels. While there still remains a strong recreational group in each discipline, younger athletes in each are pushing each other to new levels every day beyond what many who witnessed winter sports in the seventies and eighties even thought possible. But what about freeheel skiing?
The lifestyle behind freeheel skiing is usually one that is very relaxed. It holds the ideals behind being one with skiing. It reminds the participant, “Ah yes, this is why I ski.” But how long can such a culture last if there remains no one to carry it on. In today’s fast moving society, if there are none to progress the sport alongside its winter sport brothers, then it just might disappear into the Norwegian history books. There is a significant lack of younger freeheelers out ripping up the slopes these days. For many youths, the reason for not freeheeling isn’t because it is “un-cool,” but because it just doesn’t seem to include their styles. Yes many youngsters, that includes twenty year olds, wear baggy clothes, listen to rap and punk rock. Many in this group find Terrain Park skiing to be just as invigorating as those in the older crowd finds a powder day. There seems to be an enigma about such a mixture of styles and interests in freeheel skiing. But there is no reason why there should be.
Young people who are interested in freeheel skiing should pick it up, whether or not they think that their personalities could fit the current stereotype. Freeheel skiing in the twenty-first century has such a large amount of space for progression that people of any style have room to adapt the sport to their own flair. And the sport needs that too.
If the younger generations do not begin to progress the sport of freeheel skiing to the levels of their various winter sport brethren, then it just might be lost to the seas of the Atlantic or the sands of New Mexico. There is no reason why freeheel skiing should disappear with the likes of basket weaving and quilting (which in all seriousness might be very disappointing to see vanish). There is no reason why freeheel skiing should not progress. Every season, resorts around the world put on clinics where youths may try out equipment and take lessons. Every season, there are opportunities for the few youths available to push the sport in competitions and show what this sport can do. But where are the youths?
Freeheel skiing, as the founder of all snow sports (besides perhaps ice sculpting, snow angel making, and snow ball fights) should not pass into oblivion next to the other great cultures of the world. There needs to be a youth to replenish the stock. But no longer is the freeheel community closed to such progression. In fact, it is ripe with opportunites that every snow-enthused youth should take advantage of.
It is not an invasion from a more powerful opponent that wipes these civilizations into nonexistence. Nor is it disease, or a more interesting hobby, or a pack of various rodents. The true answer is quite pathetic and solvable. They die out. There is no one else to take on the life after the current generation has passed. Why do none from the younger wave carry on the skills of the elders? What must be done to inspire such a revival? And what must be done to make sure that such a cataclysm does not occur again?
FreeHeelLife looks deep into the life of freeheel skiing as an example to such misfortunes. A sport deep in lifestyle and art but just might happen to face the same catastrophe as the Atlantians, extinction. Although skiing without a fastened heal was the first way that people moved atop the snow, the late twentieth century saw a rise of other means of transport that were rapidly becoming more popular. Yet, freeheel skiing managed to hold on. People of middle age were picking up the sport as something new when they had exhausted the other various snow sports. But as the twenty-first century begins to pick up pace, with life in general beginning to move faster, it just doesn’t seem enough to just exist, one needs to keep up, one needs to progress. Alpine skiing and snowboarding have each taken their sports to new levels. While there still remains a strong recreational group in each discipline, younger athletes in each are pushing each other to new levels every day beyond what many who witnessed winter sports in the seventies and eighties even thought possible. But what about freeheel skiing?The lifestyle behind freeheel skiing is usually one that is very relaxed. It holds the ideals behind being one with skiing. It reminds the participant, “Ah yes, this is why I ski.” But how long can such a culture last if there remains no one to carry it on. In today’s fast moving society, if there are none to progress the sport alongside its winter sport brothers, then it just might disappear into the Norwegian history books. There is a significant lack of younger freeheelers out ripping up the slopes these days. For many youths, the reason for not freeheeling isn’t because it is “un-cool,” but because it just doesn’t seem to include their styles. Yes many youngsters, that includes twenty year olds, wear baggy clothes, listen to rap and punk rock. Many in this group find Terrain Park skiing to be just as invigorating as those in the older crowd finds a powder day. There seems to be an enigma about such a mixture of styles and interests in freeheel skiing. But there is no reason why there should be.
Young people who are interested in freeheel skiing should pick it up, whether or not they think that their personalities could fit the current stereotype. Freeheel skiing in the twenty-first century has such a large amount of space for progression that people of any style have room to adapt the sport to their own flair. And the sport needs that too.
If the younger generations do not begin to progress the sport of freeheel skiing to the levels of their various winter sport brethren, then it just might be lost to the seas of the Atlantic or the sands of New Mexico. There is no reason why freeheel skiing should disappear with the likes of basket weaving and quilting (which in all seriousness might be very disappointing to see vanish). There is no reason why freeheel skiing should not progress. Every season, resorts around the world put on clinics where youths may try out equipment and take lessons. Every season, there are opportunities for the few youths available to push the sport in competitions and show what this sport can do. But where are the youths?
Freeheel skiing, as the founder of all snow sports (besides perhaps ice sculpting, snow angel making, and snow ball fights) should not pass into oblivion next to the other great cultures of the world. There needs to be a youth to replenish the stock. But no longer is the freeheel community closed to such progression. In fact, it is ripe with opportunites that every snow-enthused youth should take advantage of.
Contributed by Josh Madsen