Wow, what an excellent timepiece of American Telemark skiing history this is! I was one of the early 1980s Telemark skiers too. To put it into perspective, none of us really knew what we were doing. We looked at a couple of old photos and read books about the telemark turn, but there were very few instructors for telemark skiing in the 1980s. It was all new and a few people were just trying to do what they had seen or heard. The boots were ankle cut leather lace-ups. The bindings were three-pin. The skis were more skinny than they needed to be and with a stiff arched camber for waxing and touring. In short, the equipment was exceedingly challenging and the techniques were mostly self-taught. Compared with the Telemark equipment of the 1980's, today's Telemark equipment very nearly skis all by itself.
Wow, what an excellent timepiece of American Telemark skiing history this is! I was one of the early 1980s Telemark skiers too. To put it into perspective, none of us really knew what we were doing. We looked at a couple of old photos and read books about the telemark turn, but there were very few instructors for telemark skiing in the 1980s. It was all new and a few people were just trying to do what they had seen or heard. The boots were ankle cut leather lace-ups. The bindings were three-pin. The skis were more skinny than they needed to be and with a stiff arched camber for waxing and touring. In short, the equipment was exceedingly challenging and the techniques were mostly self-taught. Compared with the Telemark equipment of the 1980's, today's Telemark equipment very nearly skis all by itself.
Hey there groovy telemarkers