The cause is everything that makes something to be. The ‘why’ of skiing change is explained by means of Aristotelian causes of how things are understood, and these are the following.
We regard the efficient cause as the creative cause. In our sphere it results in that which sets us in motion to slide, that is, gravity as the triggering engine, but also the inclination of the terrain and the sliding property of both the snow and our skis. These stimuli are complementary.
The efficient cause of something is the entity that has produced that something which determines the existence of a new being, altering its form to constitute a new ‘something’.
The efficient cause of the beginner is the teaching method used to turn him into a skier, it is the ‘art’, insofar as skill in the use of that method by the instructor as agent, that is, the moving cause of the development of the beginner who will later be transformed into a skier as final cause.
This efficient cause, considered as the agent or motor that ‘causes’ a change or movement, is always transitory, since nothing is permanent except change itself. The efficient cause of the snowflake is water, however, the snowflake does not become a snowflake per se, but by an external cause, such as temperature and humidity.
The material cause points to the fact that, as skiers, we are shaped by our own body on skis. The term “material cause” refers to the substance that gives something its form, such as snow being the material cause of the activity of skiing.
The formal cause is to ask about the meaning of something: what is it? It defines the form of something in a utilitarian sense, such as skis that serve as a means of transport. The form is the formal cause because it is the form of something. The form of a ski is the formal cause of that ski, insofar as it determines it and makes it what it is. In this case, a ski and not a snowboard, just as the form of a snowflake is formal cause of that snowflake.
Formal cause refers to the specific form of the object in question; it is the specific form of the thing (object or person). For example, the form that a person takes when skiing is the formal cause of a “skier”.
The final cause is oriented to what it serves for, that is, it defines its purpose: our tendency to seek the glide or the skis that facilitate our mobility.
The purpose of any change is the final cause, what it seeks to achieve, that is, an end. In the case of a beginner, what he seeks is to become a skier, and he seeks it precisely because it represents something good. By tending to perfection, it is considered a final cause which operates as a development, as a transformation.
Through the Aristotelian scheme of the four causes we aim to comprehend the essence of things, of all that is. In relation to this, we can conceive that, in skiing, the causes of change are the material (the skis we use); the formal (the appearance); the efficient (the technique we use); and the final (our purpose in skiing). This final cause would be the reason for the good, given that in skiing we seek eudaimonia, that is, the state of well-being, of happiness, of being well that good skiing produces in us.
In relation to snow, the formal cause lies in the form of the flake, and several flakes falling by gravity form a blanket of snow. The reason for the material cause is due to the microdroplets of water that come together and form the flake. In the efficient cause, the cold temperature freezes the water drops and man, by means of machines, transforms these flakes into a compact substance. The final cause is to allow for sliding by turning the snowpack into skiing slopes.
Regarding skis, their formal cause lies in their very shape, i.e., we identify a ski based on its shape. The material cause results from the material of which it is composed, such as plastic, metal, carbon fiber, etc. The efficient cause results from the skier because he de-forms it using its geometry, flexibility, elasticity, and torsion for his own benefit. Finally, the final cause is to allow sliding, changing directions, gripping on the ice, or braking.
With respect to skiing itself, a starting point for the existence of skiing is the experience of the sensible world. That experience is a movement (sliding) that, being considered an effect, as such, requires a cause because “from nothing, nothing results”. Therefore, what is moved presupposes a motor, that is, a first cause, since every effect depends on an efficient cause. The first cause of sensible skiing is gravity, as the senses show us that in sliding there are things that change. We define skiing as sensible because without friction there is no sensation of displacement.
As previously stated, gravity, as the primary cause, is responsible for generating movement, that is, the experience of change. However, it should be noted that not all changes can be experienced, but only some things that change
As a last example, we can cite snowboarding as the origin of carving skiing, which began the postmodern era of skiing. It is thanks to snowboard that skis became shorter and more radical in terms of side cuts. Traditional skiing is the cause of snowboarding, which in turn is the formal cause of carving skiing.
