1992, I left for Lillehammer, Norway, to witness the 1992 Olympics. The idea started with a buddy of mine
who was stationed in Kuwait. He purchased the events tickets, the hotel room, the train tickets and the plane tickets from
a satellite phone in the desert. My job was to show up with as much booze as duty free would allow.
The bizarre events that unfolded on an hourly basis that week were mind boggling. I partied hard with a
mime (while he was dressed as a mime). I sat half-naked, painted and drunk next to Nancy Kerrigan. I drank Aquavit from wineskins
locals passed to me every morning on the train to Lillehammer
starting at 6 am. It goes on and on, but this is a column about skiing, so you?ll have to wait for the book.
That was the first year the moguls event in freestyle skiing was a medal sport. The aerials were still a
demonstration sport, and we had never seen or heard of them. But we had four tickets and a couple hours to kill. On the way
into the venue, people were selling little square Styrofoam mats for like a billion kroners, which is about five bucks. We
asked what they were for. ?You stand on them so your feet don?t get cold.? Right, I?m paying five bucks to stand on your carpet
sample. I?m from Minnesota, Olav. I think I can handle
it. We stood outside a rope at the base of the hill with a couple of thousand other people, all of whom
were standing on little squares of Styrofoam on the snow. Except us. We had no idea what to expect, nor could we understand
the P.A. guy.
Then, with no warning, we looked up and saw a man with skis on, about a hundred yards above us, in the air,
twisting and flipping like Patrick Duffy swimming in ?The Man from Atlantis.? It was beautiful, like mid-air ballet. He performed
with a bright blue-sky backdrop, the sunglow illuminating him like a ski prophet coming to tell us the truth. ?I will write
about this,? I thought. ?There will be a ski bible, and my book will be called ?The Book of Webby.??
He began his descent down toward the 90-degree-angle cement, cleverly disguised as snow. His skies touched,
and he exploded. Just when you thought it couldn?t get any better, his head snapped and hit the hill. The yard sale was spectacular;
skis and poles and clothing were everywhere. He must have rolled nine times before coming to a stop at the fence, laid out
like Charlie Brown after a comeback pitch. My friend Jamie uttered the words that encapsulated the moment perfectly. ?Right
on.?
We spent the whole afternoon watching this: extraordinary feats of mid-air gymnastics followed by the greatest
wipeouts ever. I couldn?t believe this was a sport. About six times an ambulance had to come on and take away a competitor.
These men were killing themselves for my amusement. God bless
them. Only a handful actually landed on their skis, and I believe we booed them.
We had no idea that day how popular the sport of freestyle skiing would become. As I was remembering my
trip to Lillehammer I wondered if Minnesota might have become some kind of hotbed for freestyle skiing, considering you
don?t really need a mountain and we have a lack them.
So I contacted Craig Weiler, a 20 year old freestyle skier from Hudson WI. This winter he will be working
Park Crew Services for Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls Minnesota. His job will be the grooming and upkeep of Wild?s new state
of the art Terrain Park. That and according to Craig, ?keeping little kids in line.?
First, a clarification of what Freestyle skiing is. In all forms of ski competitions, you are required to
accomplish a set of compulsory moves and then based on subjective judging and sometimes time, you either win or lose.
The origins of freestyle skiing are based on the loose idea of ?I bet you Can?t do this.? It really never
was intended to be turned into a sport, or a competition or an event. It was intended to be an activity by which REALLY good
skiers and snowboarders would pass the day away impressing their friends or hurting themselves. Most freestyle skiers have
a mogul background, and grew tired of banging their knees of there chin, working there legs like pistons over the moguls,
and instead found great thrill in catching big air, making moves in mid-air, hopefuly landing, and then continuing on.
?At first it was experimentation? says Weiler, ?but now it?s an artfrom. Making it look as effortless as
possible. Being creative as possible. Being different than someone else. Basically most people think were just hucking our
meat but we are trying to make it look effortless and smooth.?
Hucking your meat by the way is not what Sam the butcher on the Brady Bunch does for a living. It?s ski
slang for throwing your body over a cliff or a jump without fear.
?A lot of us saw Johnny Mosely in the 1998 olympics when he pulled the 360 Mute grab during his mogul run?
said Weiler, ?after that we were all trying to do it.? Wieler is quick to point out however that Mosely didn?t invent freestyle,
he merely was on national T.V.
You would think that freestyle skiing and snowboarding, one of the most popular activites with the 25 and
younger demograghic in the country, a sport that?s only requirement is oddly shaped objects covered in snow or ice, would
flourish in a state without any mountains and lot?s of cold and snow. You would think. But it really hasn?t
been taking off, and it?s not because of lack of demand. Most ski areas in Minnesota have terrain parks. But they are generally
nothing more than a series of poorly built jumps out of piles of hardpacked snow. In fact, freestyle skiing is discouraged
because of the danger to the freestyle skier/snowboarder and to others. Not to mention insurance costs and other headaches
that come with it. But the freestylers are out there, and they want big air.
?They (the ski hill operators) may think it?s trendy? said Weiler ?but ironically there inaction may cause
the youth to lose interest because of lack of good terrain parks and a lack of ability to participate.?
Seems like a no-brainer gold mine to me. It did to Wild Mountain as well. This year they have opened their
brand-new terrain park, complete with a very well built and maintained half pipe. Some, like Weiler, claim it to be the best
terrain park in the state. ?Wild has fed more into an expert type terrain park for skiers. No one is stepping up more than
Wild Mountain to try to expand the sport.?
So even though freestyle skiing was born out of the idea that it was a competition for the competitors by
the competitors, without any judges or trophies, it has become just that. Big business and big air means big bucks. Weiler
will be wearing the logos of Smith eyewear, DaKine and skiershop.com
when he heads up to Spirit Mountain in Duluth this February for the MS03 competition. Weiler took second
at MS02 in big air.
But even though the original intent of freestyle seems a little blurry, it Doesn?t seem to bother Weiler.
?We do it because the courses are set up so well and there?s an opportunity to ski a well manfucatured course and meet a
lot of people. But it?s still more fun to go out with your buddies and a camera and make ski videos.?
Meanwhile back in 1992 in Lillehammer, our feet were freezing. I would gladly have paid 3 billion Kroners
for a Styrofoam square at that point, but Olav was gone, turning profits into Aquavit. Plus, fate had a certain mime it wanted
me to meet.
