What is the significance of the term “postmodern”? Does it constitute what we ski today, or is it simply a linguistic language?
Postmodernity, also known as late modernity, liquid modernity or second modernity, derives from the later stage of modernity. The term “post” refers to something that is no longer modern, therefore, post-modern is that which has ceased to be modern because it has been replaced by a new era. This new cycle is established in the manner in which we utilize the mountain and in the historical technical changes in the way we ski.
It is difficult to make an objective judgment about the relevance of an era, particularly our own. It seems to us that the era in which we find ourselves is the most important. Postmodern skiing interprets an era that has been diminished and that has ceased to be. It is about abandoning modern skiing that was no longer adequate to the times or that was obsolete and outdated.
When did postmodern skiing commence? I say in the early 1990s, with the appearance of carving skiing and the widespread expansion of technologies such as slope grooming machines, snowmaking systems, the use of materials such as graphite, carbon, acrylic and titanium, the use of breathable clothing, ski lifts with greater load capacity and speed, and new sliding equipment such as fat skis, double tips and rockers, among others.
The end of traditional skiing gave way to a new ‘carving’ direction, a true quantum leap. Carving helped save traditional skiing from obsolescence and establish authority to represent the reality of a way of skiing that modern skiing could not, or at least was more complex to interpret. Carving skiing is a symbol of postmodern skiing.
The aesthetic-decorative modernist skiing evolved into a functional and efficient form of skiing, offering a more appropriate alternative to maximizing the means (the radical cut skis). Carving skiing eliminated the aesthetic skiing, which favored the decorative but often unnatural and inefficient posture. In relation to the evaluation of aesthetic skiing, it is necessary to consider that the concepts of good and bad are both correct, since, as they are subjective, postmodernism tolerates both.
It is also important to recognize that the characteristic of today’s postmodern skiing is efficacy for many and efficiency only for some. This type of skiing does not feature structured movements such as the traditional “up-down” flexion-extension technique.
But how did an initially unpopular form of skiing become accepted as a universal technique? The legitimacy of skiing is an essential and critical aspect of postmodern skiing, however, who has the power to ‘legitimize’ the skiing of others in such an individualistic world as the right way to do it?
Today, our social environment is brimming with advice and technical ‘recipes’ for skiing, which can be found in on-line articles or books on the art of skiing. Everyone tries to explain how to be a ‘good‘ skier, and everyone pretends to have ‘the truth‘ of skiing. We are inclined to ski in accordance with the ‘rules‘ of good and ‘correct‘ skiing, and therefore we try to adapt.
Postmodern skiing is about moving away from one structure, known as traditional skiing, in order to find another that better suits us or better represents skiing. Postmodern skiing proposed to exit one structure in order to enter another. And what if today our passion for skiing is the search for de-structuring, for going beyond all the conditions that condition us as the skiers we are?
The postmodern concept of the ski technique tells us that the results we achieve are superior to the effort we invest in achieving those results, whereas in modernity, it was effort that was imposed.
As modern skiers, we needed to hold on to the effort to achieve the imposed technique, whereas in postmodern skiing, we lack any attachment or commitment to it. The traces of a turn are easily erased, lasting only an instant. But today, is everything we ski ‘postmodern technique’?
The postmodern ski technique is based on the idea that modernity ends; it was a model, but nevertheless has a past that still lingers. A part of the traditional that does not change, however, still conditions us, like shifting weight and edges but different. And how soon will we be skiing the ‘post-carving’ era?
