41
Colin is kitted out on a monoski by Thierry Crepeaux of Monoski France and is soon joining other skiers and boarders on the blue runs at Tignes
was taught ‘old school’ skiing — “keep your knees together like there’s a 50-franc note between them” — I assumed I would make a natural monoskier. So I persuaded Thierry to give me a few pointers. The first shock came as soon as I clicked my boots (ordinary ski boots are fine) on to the single ski. I felt that I had donned the concrete shoes of a mafia victim. More specifically I realised that I had little means of escape if I attracted the mockery and perhaps a few well-placed snowballs from critical bystanders. Bas and Rob assured me I needn’t worry — they had only ever received positive comments, often from skiers Photo: Tignes/Andy Parant
who had given monoskiing a go in its heyday. And while some of their contemporaries may consider monoskiers has-beens, a new generation of skiers has grown up never having seen these curious beasts before. So Bas and Rob’s children, in their early 20s, found them a new and exciting piece of gear to try out. Despite talk of a resurgence, most young monoskiers are the children of existing fans. Monoskis ceased to be rented out generally 20 years ago, though in France you can still hire them in Chamonix, Avoriaz and Les Sept Laux, near Grenoble. Alternatively you can try monoskiing by joining the French association, or one of its counterparts. Or you can go to an event attended by manufacturers, like the one I was at. Frankly, I was struggling with my monoski. For all that my knockkneed ‘A-frame’ stance might limit my scope to manoeuvre on a pair of conventional skis, nothing could prepare me for having just one edge to run on and so little independent control. I managed to link a few turns fairly gracefully on a blue slope, but on the next lift up, when we missed a turning on to the blue, I was thrown by a lightly mogulled red run. The bumps proved too much for me and I finally had to swap back to skis plural. My confidence dented, I shan’t be signing up to join the growing family of monoskiers. But I have gained a new respect for them. And it is worth considering the fickleness of history
Ski+board
OCTOBER 2015
skiclub.co.uk
in monoskiing’s decline. Thierry says that it was a simple trick of marketing that propelled snowboards into the ascendancy and plunged monoskis into decline when the two disciplines were neck-and-neck in popularity in the early 1980s. Both were invented in the US, but the American snowboard manufacturer Burton made the ingenious branding decision in 1984 of aligning snowboarding with the world of Hawaiian surf culture, launching an aggressive marketing campaign to give snowboarding a ‘surfer dude’ feel. The campaign was so successful that in time snowboards would come to eclipse monoskis totally. Now it is snowboard sales that are themselves declining — in one of the ebbs and flows of snowsports — and it is skis that are newly fashionable again. However, let us lend a little more respect to the also-rans of snowsports. Given that at one point it looked as though snowboards would overtake conventional skis in popularity too, we should not crow, lest we too find that fashion or fate makes us part of a declining minority. To learn more visit monoski-france.com or mono-ski.org. Colin travelled as a guest of Tignes (tignes.net) and Eurostar (eurostar. com; 08432 186 186), which runs direct trains to Moûtiers, Aime-la-Plagne and Bourg St Maurice from £149 return, including ski carriage. Ski Club members can get discounts on advertised Eurostar prices after the cheapest fares have gone.