Dog Days
I remember those old hot doggin days, first as a kid reading about it in the magazines in the early 70's, than competing in it in the later part of the 70's. The circuit in the early part of the decade was called IFSA (international freestyle skiers association). Eddie Ferguson, Wayne Wong, Scott Brooksbank, Bob Theobald, Bob Salerno, Mike Shea and Eddie Lincoln were amongst some of the guys at the time. Genia Fuller, the Post sisters and Karen Huntoon were some of the women.
The mid 70's saw the emergence of a more lucrative tour called PFA (Professional Freestyle Associates) created by a guy called Curtis Oberhansly. This is where Midas became the big sponsor of the mens tour (remember the Midas Muffler scarves, and Colgate became the sponsor of the women's tour. The big events were given big air time on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Guys like Bob Salerno, Frank Bare, John Eaves, Bruce Bolesy, Alan Schoenberger and Mark Stigemeyer were doing lots of the winning then. That's also where Alan Schoenberger introduced The Puppet character on the stunt/ballet slopes. I saw one of these PFA events at Stowe, highlighted by Schoenberger's Puppet routine, John Eaves double front flip and Eddie Lincoln's HiHo (maybe the first twisting double flip).
Another tour started to emerge called the "Chevy Circuit". It was underwritten by Cheverolet and featured skiers the likes of Greg Athens, the Bowie brothers and Mike Brooks.
Both these circuits died out between 1996 and 1997.
The new circuit started the idea of a World Cup circuit. This came to life thanks to a huge push from Scott Brooksbank and his wife (at that time), Mary. That continued on through the later part of the 70's and into the early 80's. Skiers like Nano Portier, Jeff Chumas, Peter Judge, Frank Beddor, Stephanie Sloan and Renee Lee Smith were part of that era.
In the early 80's the sport started transitioning from a pro sport to an amatuer sport. This was done with the intention of making it to an Olympic status. Pretty soon, the Olympics allowed pros anyway and Freestyle skiing became a demonstration event in Calgary (I think).
Throughout most of it's existence, the sport had been 3 events; aerials, moguls and stunt/ballet. Aerials and moguls got admitted to the Olympics and stunt/ballet suffered a slow death from that point on.
Prior to the 3 event format, there were a number of cool, uniquely formatted events. One that comes to mind is the Aspen Friday contests. Although I never saw one first hand, I did have friends describe to me what it was like to compete in them. It was a on one run event, with a flat, smooth section on top, where the skiers did their tricks like tip rolls, pole flips, outriggers and ruels. They then moved into a steeper, moguled section which flattened out into a big jump at the bottom, where they did what ever they could in the air. One run, one winner. I think Eddie Lincoln might have one a rotted out old Jag at one of those events.
I wish someone would make a documentary on the hot dog and early freestyle years. There's tons of old movies that I'd like to see again, like Salomon's "Between Chaos and Beauty" and K2's "The Performers". If anyone knows where any of that old stuff might exist, I'd love to know.
