Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

"It use to take years on the hill to learn how to arc a turn with grace. Then in the early 1990’s parabolic skis hit the market and any monkey could jump on a pair of skis, push down in the middle and make the ski turn."

"Back in the day you could get a pretty good idea of how good someone was by the length of their skis. I would like to see some park thug jump on a pair of 240cm DH boards and make it look good."

Source: https://unofficialnetworks.com/2014/11/ ... inny-skis/

I can't agree with this more... it's very pertinent to many aspects of the ski industry today that I find puzzling.

#5 It was all about the skiing: It sometimes seems that skiing today is all about the EXTREME. Your not cool unless you huck the biggest cliff, tuck the backflip into a double or ski that no fall zone line. When everyone was on skinny skis it seemed to be more about the skiing. Sure there were times when people would get rad and send some monster cliff but that was not the focus. The enjoyment was in the skiing not the adrenaline rush.

They have ruined the sport we love. We ski for the feel-good energy we get during The Arc that comes from popping the telemark or parallel turn. Short, fat, funny-shaped skis that emerged in the 1990s stole The Arc and our precious feel-good energy. Skiing has become a pedestrian and pointless activity that we enjoy as much as "a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."

Do not despair. Long, straight, skinny skis are in the pipeline. The feel-good energy will be back soon. What do we do until they return? OldSchool recommends buying and holding funny-shaped skis as collectibles before they disappear from skiing forever. The Edsel:

"Ugly, overpriced, overhyped, poorly made and poorly timed, the Edsel was made for only two years. In the end, the failed program cost Ford $250 million [source: Carlson]. The "car of the future" is now a cautionary tale in business classrooms, though there were actually a few winners in the case of the Edsel. That flop of a car is now a rare collector's item. Relatively few cars were built between 1958 and 1960 (when production ended), and Edsel convertible models can fetch as much as $47,000 [source: Jedlicka]."

Source: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/why-the- ... failed.htm