A San Francisco freeski/freeride competition and Ski Dubai’s first birthday evoke wonderment and elicit some wonder.
People will go to a lot of strange places to ski. Or snowboard, for that matter.
Need evidence? Watch any of the ski/ride videos that flood the market annually. In those, people snowslide in remote Asia, in exotic Europe, in unlikely Canadian spots and, heck, even in popular places in Colorado.
Or, as evidenced on two recent press releases, people snowslide in San Francisco and Dubai.
Esurance Icer Air, an inner-city skiing and snowboarding jam session, will return to San Francisco on November 4,"announced the first release.
Event organizers caused a ruckus last year by bringing 200 tons of snow to the San Francisco's Fillmore Street. This year, organizers have moved the event to AT&T Park, home to the San Francisco Giants, on November Esurance Icer Air is the first stadium big air ski and snowboard competition to be held in the United States.
Dubai Celebrates a Year of Skiing, heralded the other.
It continued,A year has now passed since the first indoor skiing facility in the Middle East opened in Dubai. If you want to spend the morning on a beach and afternoon on the slopes, Ski Dubai.
The Ski Dubai complex is a part of the huge Mall of the Emirates, presently the largest shopping mall in the region, and is overlooked by the restaurants linked to the Kempinski Hotel adjacent to the mall.
Every day is a good snow day in Ski Dubai. Indoor snowmaking provides a dusting of fresh, fine new snow over a firm base for the best turns possible in an indoor venue. If you want lessons, Ski Dubai also has instructors and courses for all levels of ability.
Beginners tend to stick to the gentle lower slope from the mid-station cafe downwards, while more advanced skiers head for the upper levels. Snowboarders are also welcome with terrain park hits to practice their moves.
If you are a skier visiting Dubai, or bored with the beach, head for Ski Dubai for a very unusual Middle Eastern desert experience.
Now, I’m not going to dwell on the Dubai politics, or on the economic equanimity of its oil-based economy. Nor am I going to ruminate on the issue of whether a baseball stadium is a sensible venue for wintersport.
I am going to marvel at the fact that people will go to such lengths to slide on snow.
Did you know that in skiing’s early American incarnations, department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s and Bamberger’s not only sold ski clothes and gear, but they also had indoor ski decks where novices could learn the sport? Pro and ski-stunt demos were also commonplace in those stores.
Indeed, tiny Mt. Peter Ski Area in southern New York state was originally owned by Macy’s, which hoped it would provide a venue to encourage clothing and gear sales.
My colleague John Fry, master ski writer and skiing historian, notes in his new book The Story of Modern Skiing, writes:That same year [1936], Saks Fifth Avenue store had an indoor slide covered with Borax on which customers could practice how to ski. John Allen, in his book From Skisport to Skiing, tells of an encounter between two women at a resort in Quebec’s Laurentians. "Where did you learn to ski?" asked one. "At Saks Fifth Avenue, my dear," her companion replied.
And, these days, it’s apparently not enough that the metro New York area is in the process of getting two new baseball stadia and a football emporium, but indoor skiing, as well.
Yes, the often questioned, frequently stalled, rather beleaguered, and probably unnecessary Xanadu mega-mall project going up in New Jersey adjacent to Giants Stadium will reportedly have an indoor ski hill of its own.
I’m not here to question the economic and/or social wisdom of such snowsliding emporia. But you’ve got to admit that it’s all a bit odd.
People will ski/ride in many strange places.
Related Article: Ski and Snowboard San Francisco
