Skiing and ski equipment have seen many significant changes over the years. More emphasis is placed on creating skis with high-performance capabilities and with innovative designs and styles. Nordica skis for women and men, for instance, can provide better performance support, comfort, and safety on the slopes than traditional ones.
Origins of Skiing
Skiing was originally designed for movement and transportation. In ancient times, it was used as an efficient means of getting from one point to another.
The Sami people of Northern Scandinavia are largely given credit for inventing the ski. Their genetic lineage reflects a history of geographic isolation, genetic drift, and genetic bottlenecking. This led them to spend massive amounts of time trekking through deep snow. It was the exhaustion that drove the invention of ski for hunting and transportation through the snow.
The use of skis spread quickly as the world becomes more connected. Improvements and continued developments of the materials used to create skis allowed the sport to provide a recreational purpose.
Development of Skiing Materials
Early skis used for practical purposes like transportation were bulky and used thick planks of wood. Massive changes and technological developments occurred since then. In terms of their style, shape, and purpose, skis today are vastly different from they were centuries and decades ago.
Skis were made with arches bending upwards towards the center around 1840. This design increased reliability and ease of use so the skier’s weight would remain centrally distributed. Older designs involved skis that sunk into the snow from the skier’s weight.
Ski technology only continued to become easier, cheaper, and more convenient. Skis were triple-laminated and made of aluminum by 1930. More styles with various other materials and lamination were tested and refined. The 1950s brought in newer materials like polyethylene that quickly became popular alternatives for ski materials. In snow conditions, a polyethylene base is slippery enough to eliminate the need for putting wax on skis. Polyethylene can also be used to repair minor scratches and gouges.
The first fiberglass ski was designed in 1959. By 1969, this concept had surpassed the use of wood and aluminum skis for recreation and racing. Aluminum laminates, however, continued to be used for high-speed skis. The fiberglass material has seen further improvements and changes since then and continues to be used until today.
Styles of Skiing
Three different styles of skiing exist in the modern age. Nordic and Telemark skiing are more advanced and are used for purposes more closely related to skiing’s original purpose of transportation. Alpine, or downhill skiing, is used for recreational purposes. This type of skiing involves fixed-heel bindings that don’t allow for any movement of the feet.
Other forms of skiing have also emerged. These include grass and indoor skiing, as well as that involving dry-ski slopes.
Skiing has evolved from its original purpose of transportation into a sport for enjoyment and recreation. The massive changes in the materials used to create skis and the methods to make them contributed to the popularity and success received by the recreational sport.