A blast from the past - Sports Illustrated 1969 article on how Killy skis.

That is cool, WVSkier! Where did you find it?

 

"It is important to ski off the piste, and in every kind of snow, to feel the snow, like a swimmer feels himself carried by the water. Powder is a marvelous school for balance and for position." --Jean-Claude Killy

 

Some things don't change, do they?

 

"If my weight was behind my skis, and it often is, and if my legs were wide apart, and they almost always are, and if I seemed to be flailing my arms, it was all a part of a a way to ski faster that I had developed and which was natural for me. It worked."

 

...could just as easily have been written by Bode Miller, today.

 

---

 

Wow--they must have drunk a lot of whiskey back then--must be fifteen different full color ads for it in that issue! 

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Best regards,

Bob

great reading WVSkier!  Thanks for sharing.  Still solid advice today.

 That was great ... plus, the ads were awesome, and there was a big photo of OJ Simpson at USC and article about the draft class of 1968. I think I have a new time-wasting activity..

following the adds

 

If I drive a Chevy , I will ski like Killy, and get the girl

 

Or is it   If I ski like Killy, I drive a Chevy ?

 

what about all that bourbon?

 

 

Where are my Heart Javelins?

Smiles and memories here, great post!

 

Skis were sold with a Good Housekeeping seal of approval? 

 

Funny how the football players look about the same as today.

Thanks for the ride in the time machine. 

 

Great article with timeless comments.  Everything he said is as applicable today.

 

Interesting that he was working for Head and still skiing on Dynamics.  The whole layout was kind of like a big Head clothing ad. Had forgotten about their front seam stretch pants, the cleaners hated them.

For those of us of a certain age (boomers) Killy will always by synonomous with an explosion of world interest in skiing.  The best way to put it is that he was the Tiger Woods of skiing in his day.  Even modern media coverage has not raised US superstars like Vonn and Miller to Killy's level as a "household word" across much of America back in the late 1960s..

Great link!  Also liked the ad for Northland Skis on page 46...endorsed by Stein and the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval!

Gotta get me some of those "radical pants". haha :)

 

Killy did things his way and won.  He also stood up to Avery Brundage, something no one else had the guts to do.  When he was photographed with "his" Dynamics (actually they belonged to Michel Arpin), the entire issue of "amateurism" and "commercialism" started to change.  He remains a great ambassador of the sport.n,

That is great.

The amazing thing is seeing how much buzz there used to be about skiing, compared to now.

That magazine is full of ads about skis and skiing, with skiing used as a prop just because it was cool.

My guess is that a typical copy of SI now might not have any pictures of skiing.

 

Skiing was magic then and we were the bomb.  The "dare devils" and life was  total magic.

 

The Killy I was on were not the VR Dynamic shown but the Head SL's in a 203 ... wow long for an SL but a fantastic GS they were so skinny.

 

Best year of my life.  Just hired at Timber Hill, cheerleader sweetie, "bitchin" (American Pie), car (race Thomas Corvair),

 

But the draft Seg ... the draft of 1968 ... hey, I was in that and my number was 024.

 

Then they gave me a longer number that as they said "you will never forget", everything had a number

 

Notice the Sears skis .. Ted Williams made in Austria and "leave the wax home", those years it was P-Tex or Kofix for base material.

 

Leather baskets ..

 

Still have the skis and they have Look Nevada heels with Marker toes.  I locked my finger in the heel a few years ago, one would have thought they were frozen shut.  They were certainly not.

Yuki,  This past weekend I found a old Look Nevada tool in my Dad's shed.  You had the right set-up at the time Look Nevada with the Marker toe.

A lot of fun flipping the pages of SI.  I will need to pass it on to my fellow staff member at the Cat.

Hank
 

 

It seems like Killy skied in a sweater alot. Great flashback for me too. I had a pair of Killy 800's in 1971. Can still recall their serial # 198 SL 80523!  I wonder where they are now. Sold them to get something else. Head HRP Comps!

 

40 years later back on Heads and Head boots.

Just think: today's skiers get "coverage" more because everyone has a facebook account, a twitter account, and a mobile phone that lets them play with those things as well as texting friends or blogging. People share information thousands of times faster (if less accurately) today than 45 years ago. In fact, existence for a great many Americans I encounter is focused on externalizing and then sharing every single detail about what they encounter -- which ramps up the information spread even faster.

Athletes were not really show-people back then. Today, they are at least 50% entertainer in many cases, especially in the big-stadium ball sports.

I love the premise that skiing is unique to everyone and finding the most natural stance for you is so important. I've used that idea and the "if you walked down the street that way" line for years and never knew I was quoting Killy.

That was awesome! I probably had more fun looking at the ads for 8-tracks and color TVs. Memory lane.

 

Page 101 - awesome ad for Camaro SS featuring Killy and a ski rack on the trunk! What a great ski car that would make.

 

They show a $200 one-piece suit. That would be $1200 in today's dollars! And so many ski ads in SI. Won't see that today.

Edited by Sinecure - 2/16/12 at 1:28pm

"Why OJ rates as the best runner of them all".  Humm, Mezzaluna to Rockingham in 5 minutes flat!

Sears Skis baby. Pages 80-81. Hey Rossi Smash, got the full Sears Quiver??

Anyone reading this would probably really enjoy reading this...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Temptations_of_Jean-Claude_Killy

 

And maybe this...

 

http://afistfulofculture.com/2011/10/21/read-correspondence-from-hunter-s-thompson-toplayboy-editors-1967-1973/

 

Probably, but under a different label. They were Fisher ALUs' as I recall.