Mystery Glimpse: Name That Turn
Not Easy, Nor Healthy, This Was The Turn Of The Early 70s.
Thank goodness, this fad turn didn’t last long. This week’s Mystery Glimpse: What was it called? If you think you know, note in the COMMENTS below.
Last Week’s Glimpse
Okay, okay, it was Jean-Claude Killy, the famous French celebrity ski racer of the 60s and 70s. Many of you got it. We remember meeting JCK at the offices of SKIING Magazine on Park Avenue around 1971 or so. He was a compact, wiry, with angular, athletic features with a firm handshake.
Jean-Claude was a triple Olympic champion, winning the three alpine events at the 1968 Winter Olympics, becoming the most successful athlete there. He also won the first two World Cup titles, in 1967 and 1968. Later in the 70s, he became a race car driver, and a notable spokesperson for a sporty brand of Chevrolet. (“Camaro, eet iz my kind of car.”
Here’s the rest of his story on Wikipedia. Check it out to see who his very famous head of state friend is.
- How to Select Your Next Pair of Skis - November 9, 2022
- Mike Roth’s Take on Spring Rituals - April 14, 2022
- Test Your Skiing Knowledge - April 14, 2022
this is a Jet Turn
Avalement Oui Je Pense
Skier reminds me of Tom Leroy…….turn would be the “Jet Turn”…..I still have in my attic a pair of jet stiks which attached to the back of your ski boots……yikes
Wayne Wongs worm turn
I thought it was called the french availment turn – you leaned back and turned on the tails of your skis kind of like in powder.
jet turn or “avalement” (sp?) Loved this turn back in the day
Avalement is not a turn, and Killy despised it. It was a technique term invented by Georges Joubert, derived from the French “avaler” to swallow. The skier swallows bumps and irregularities in the terrain by collapsing and extending legs. At one point in the process, the skier looks like he or she is sitting back. It was more suited to hotdogging than to effective technique in slalom or gs. — John Fry. For more on Joubert and Killy, read my book, The Story of Modern Skiing.
Thanks John. On a similar note I just watched Tomba’s 1996 slalom race at Flachau, Austria and compared it to a current leader in slalom named Marcel Herscher (fantastic skier, by the way). It is SO very different from Tomba. Tomba’s movements look so difficult and overly athletic and that was on “hybrid” shaped skis!
I agree, it was the jet turn.
Jet turn: We used to cut a strip from the side of a plastic bucket to make “Jet Sticks” that we would slide in to our boots between the liner and chassis. The thicker the bucket material the better. Then they came out with store bought jet sticks. Purgatory, 1973.
Killy = Phantom Skier on the slalom course.
The Wongbanger?
Worm Turn or Slow Dog Noodle!!
The Jet turn! Good way to blow out an ACL. Talk about being in the back seat! How about “split rotation” and “reverse shoulder”?
Slow Dog Noodle/Wongbanger/Toilet Turn. Depending whose perspective it was from.
i think it was called something like a “slow dog noodle” or some such.
I started skiing in the early 80s at the age of 20 after “retiring” from being a hockey goaltender. The guy who taught me to ski (a college buddy) called that the slow dog noodle. As one person stated above, what an ACL killer. That is the exact backward slip that blew out my wif’e’s ACL.
It’s a Jet Turn. Super back seat and dangerous to ACL’s.
It was a jet turn and it is definitely Tom Leroy.
White gloves give it away.
Yup, that’s a jet turn.
It’s a jet turn.
Jet Turn yes
Availement …. if so….being demonstrated V E R Y incorrectly
Wayne Wong,slow dog noodle
“Jet turn”, also not healthy for the rotator cuff, but the action was made easier by riveting in a section of black plastic pipe onto the cuff of your boots to increase leverage….early 70’s! Yikes!