{"id":1018,"date":"2011-10-08T08:12:31","date_gmt":"2011-10-08T12:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/?p=1018"},"modified":"2011-10-08T08:12:31","modified_gmt":"2011-10-08T12:12:31","slug":"exercise-6-image-and-video-w-narration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/2011\/10\/08\/exercise-6-image-and-video-w-narration\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise 6 Image and Video w\/ Narration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane\u2019s impact on ski culture first became evident in the early \u201890\u2019s when his daredevil style went above and beyond his peers on the slopes. Prior to\u00a0Shane, free skiers were content to simply take air off a cliff or carve big Super G turns into fields of powder. When\u00a0Shanearrived on the scene, he took the free skiing world by storm. He performed acrobatic maneuvers off of massive cliffs. He championed the switch back flip. He invented ski BASE-jumping (skiing off of cliffs several thousand feet high and throwing a parachute). Innovation was the theme of all\u00a0Shane\u2019s skiing endeavors. As\u00a0Shane\u00a0continued to pioneer new ways of ripping lines, skiers around the world started to follow in his footsteps. As professional skier CR Johnson put it, “Shane’s influence had me doing flips off cliffs.” With the increased popularity of aggressive free skiing,\u00a0Shane\u00a0conceived the International Free Skiers Association (IFSA), an organization dedicated to organizing big mountain skiing competitions, events that put\u00a0Shane\u2019s style of skiing on display. These competitions have gained popularity over the last fifteen years and are now spoken in the same breath as racing, mogul, and terrain park events.<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/a><\/p>\n

“Shane McConkey Retallack Pow” by Jake Kirshner.<\/p>\n

Never settling,\u00a0Shane\u00a0was always looking to improve aspects of his skiing, and his skis were no exception. In addition to founding the IFSA,\u00a0Shane\u00a0altered the ski world by popularizing fat skis and later inventing a new type of powder ski. Both innovations have made powder skiing easier, faster, and more fun. Up until the early 90\u2019s, skiers unanimously used skinny skis. Fat skis existed, but ski culture held a stigmatism against them since they alleviated a skier\u2019s workload in powder, causing them to be seen as an easy way out. In his typical fashion of going against the grain,\u00a0Shane\u00a0saw the advantages of fat skis, and started skiing on them exclusively. To all those who condemned their use,\u00a0Shane\u00a0would simply say \u201csee you at the bottom!\u201d\u00a0Shane\u2019s switch to fat skis in his movies instigated the dominant trend of ski technology for the next two decades. Though fat skis were a major step forward,\u00a0Shane\u00a0continued to look to improve ski technology. Around the turn of the century he convinced his ski sponsor at the time, Volant, to manufacture a reverse camber, reverse sidecut ski, or Rocker. This invention allowed skiers to rip powder even more easily and tackle lines that were previously thought to be impassible.\u00a0Shane\u2019s innovation immediately caught on and become the powder skiing norm. This year, over five major ski manufacturers released their version of the Rocker. Professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones described the magnitude of\u00a0Shane\u2019s feat, \u201cHaving a groundbreaking idea is one thing but getting a company to invest large sums of money into unproven technology that goes against 100 years of technology is his biggest accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below is a tribute segment of the Matchstick Productions ski film, In Deep<\/em>, made by one of Shane’s best friends, Scott Gaffney. The video really captures the impact and awesomeness of McConkey.<\/p>\n