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Yeah but have you ever read about his son? Yuichiro Miura. Absolutely bananas. He was the first guy to ski down the South face of Everest. Only thing is, he thought he`d try it at top speed. He reached speeds in access of 100mph. He used a parachute to help slow him down. Parachutes don`t work at 8000metres. He ended up falling down a 60-70degree slope with no way of stopping. He eventually came to a halt about 5 metres away from a massive crevasse. Do a search with his name. You`ll be amazed. Bananas I tell you.

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Yesterday, they had Sherm Poppen(?), inventor of the snowboard precursor, the Snurfer, on one of those Transworld Sports filler programs you get on inflight entertainment and on NHK when the baseball finishes early. He has taken up boarding and was shown giving some beginners their first lesson. It said he was 73.

 

They also had some mad Snurfer home movies from way back and some adverts for them with guys in what looked like drainpipe jeans. Most shots just had guys pointing it downhill with seemingly little control. In what may have been the world's first freestyle snowboard maneuver, one guy was shown pulling a mini-method (no grab) off a small drop. Another guy was shown sneaking onto the lifts on skis and then snurfing down the resort. Some of it was really funny.

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At the Echo Valley mini-museum in the ski-rental place, I saw one of the original Burton wooden boards. It really looked like a heavy piece of crap. (Actually it looked a lot like the Fish but without the refinements). The bindings were some kind of floppy plastic and foam and were right at the back of the board, the board itself was 2cm plywood with no camber to it, and the edges looked like mini angle iron.

 

Things have indeed come a long way. Hurrah!

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 Quote:
Originally posted by kamoshika:
The Max Dercum of Japan (A prize for anyone of you who can tell me who he is)
what is the prize K-man?

Max Dercum, a 1934 Cornell Gradate and forestry professor at Penn State, organized ski teams, built ski facilities and coached the sport there. In 1945, he and wife, Edna, moved to Colorado, bought an 1860s stagecoach way station on land down valley from Arapahoe Basin, and developed it into Ski Tip Ranch. Max became one of the early directors of Arapahoe, helped supervise run clearing, and was head ski instructor there until 1969. He was one of the originals to form Professional Ski Instructors of America in 1961.

He authored the book, The Official American Ski Technique. Max eyed the mountain in his backyard, and received a ski area permit as president of Ski Valley USA, which later became Keystone International, Inc. From 1969 to 1975, Max directed the development of the ski area, locating lifts and ski trails on Keystone. He directed the Keystone Ski School from 1970 - 1975. Max is a multi-medalist on the Masters ski race circuit. He and Edna have a retirement home near Montezuma.

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