Coffee Table Book of: Freestyle Skiing (Hardcover)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Freestyle Skiing is a large format book of freestyle skiing, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: twin tip skis and hard boots, mogul runs and aerial kickers, halfpipes, rails and terrain parks, the skis being made and cared for, and a few skiers seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain on the snow: a pair of twin tips seen from above and another pair standing in a snowbank at sunset, a buckled boot, a binding with its brake, a helmet, goggles and gloves, short poles, a back protector, narrow mogul skis, trousers with patches on the knees and a pack with skis strapped on.

The making follows the ski from ash and poplar planks to a core of glued strips, fibreglass cloth and a base cut from tough plastic, then the care that keeps it fast: a fine pattern ground into the base, wax ironed on, a cork block and scraper, and a file along the steel edge. The past runs from long wooden skis with leather straps, bamboo poles and laced leather boots to steel edge pieces, a T bar and a rope tow, leather mittens and a wool cap, and short white skis once used for ski ballet.

Then the places, empty at every hour and in every season: mogul runs at first light, in spring sun and in a blizzard, aerial jump sites under floodlights and at sunset, halfpipes in fog, in spring and under a full moon, rails in falling snow, a big air ramp at dusk, summer water ramps, air bags and dry slopes, a glacier park in summer and a snow capped rock after a storm, with a few small skiers far off, on the bumps, in the pipe, on a rail, off a ledge and high in the air.

Short notes run through the book, on the skis and kit and how they are made and cared for, the courses and how they are judged, and the history of the sport: many skis are built round a core of thin wooden strips, often poplar or ash, glued side by side, ski boots are stiff plastic shells, buckled tight, so each move of the leg goes straight to the ski, rails come straight, kinked or curved, and boxes have wide flat tops that are easier to slide, and mogul suits often carry knee patches of a different colour, so judges can follow the knees.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.