The origins of rail skiing

oldworld_newlife

oldworld_newlife

Active member
Pardon me if I'm just retarded and should know this already, but How did grinding rails on skis start. Like, who was the first person to think "hey I should go sideways on that metal rail" and also who invented tech stuff like switch ups k Feds and 270s In/out? I think snowboarding probably did it first and definitely it started from skateboarding, but who was the first to do it on skis?
 
Jlev hit a handrail on skiboards in the late 90s, which is the first recorded time

part of me wishes some OG 50 50'd one way before that but it's probably just another thing we stole from snowboarding
 
^that jlev shot was the first published urban rail on skis actually, i think

i really doubt there's any good claim on what skier first hit a rail period.. there were "snowboard parks" and skiers obviously started hitting them here and there

first switchup i personally saw was jf cusson, iannick b, or steele spence but again who knows, that's just what i saw in a movie first

first 2 on pfft who knows but the first 2 onto an urban i saw was tanner i think

first 2 pretzel 2 i saw was corey vanular
 
I remember some random member spat some real knowledge in a thread that I saw a few years ago talking about how he was bending the tails of his skis and sliding rails back in like 94 or 95 or something like that.

Shit got me fired up, but now I have no idea of how I would ever find that.
 
It all comes from skateboarding, blading, and snowboarding. A lot of young skiers took their inspirations from other sports like skateboarding and blading. Snowboarding was the dogs balls back in the day and big mountains didn't like the new trend so they made a section of the mountains specifically for the snowboarders, it was the very first terrain parks, known as snowboard parks back in the day. Snowboarders started shredding like their wheeled counterparts and that eventually moved to the freeskiing world that had already been doing tricks and hotdog stuff, but hadn't seen jib setups like the boarders were doing in the parks. The trend eventually caught on with skiers and thus begins the world of rails and what we call modern freeskiing.

Hope this answers your question
 
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