The Powder

The Powder is a new book curated and written by Jocko Weyland about a time when "skiing" was more than just a reference to cocaine or a dual handjob. The time was the 1970s and early 80s, when skiing was a popular sport and even nerdy skiers had the balls and reckless abandon to go down the K-12 on one ski.__

Thanks to this book skiing's heyday will live on. Below are a few photos and an excerpt from The Powder kindly sent to us by Jocko.

As hard as it might be to believe skiing was actually quite radical during the 1970s and early 1980s, the time period featured in The Powder. And a lot cooler, for lack of a better word, than it is now after years of decline stemming from a number of factors. Skiing got more corporate, expensive, marketed as a “family” recreation, and the innovation and breakthroughs of the previous era were corrupted into an X-Games-style morass of hype, inanity and lameness. Oh well. Imagining how different things were takes a leap of faith, though a perusal of these now-historical pictures should help. It wasn’t “radical” in a bogus Johnny Extreme sense but really new. Revolutionary, even. The way it looked, what was being done, how it was being done, and where it was being done made for an unprecedented, untested, and not yet codified phenomena. A semi-outlaw bohemian essence provided an outlet for aggro hippies who shared an outlook with the proto-skate and surf punks of the same time. Empty backyard pools, big waves, and jumping off cliffs and searching out as much untracked snow as possible. They might have had long hair and listened to Zeppelin, used copious amounts of drugs (naturally, it was the 1970s) but that didn’t mean they were laid-back at all. Mostly it wasn’t about fame, or turning it into a career – nothing to be paid for. Just skiing really, really well and partaking in a wild, free, and expansive mystical-ethical pursuit that also had an original and eye-popping aesthetic.

Stoners, racers, mountaineers, and freestylers mixed it up on all terrains, be it in the trees, gates, and of course, powder.  And they had style, un-self-consciously demonstrating that by looking awesome in their commitment to genuine fun. These photographs with their evocative mix of physicality and landscape are from an invigorating, constantly changing phase of rapid development full of experimentation. A leap forward from the leather ankle-high boots and cable bindings of the 1960s meant warmer, more comfortable boots, better bindings, more complicated and lighter ski construction, better eye wear, novel textiles, and the skis themselves had restrained, clean graphics a world away from the awfulness adorning the stumpy and ugly abominations of today. Scott Brooksbank, Bill O'Leary, "Airborne" Eddie Ferguson, Wayne Wong.  Patrick Vallencant, Steve McKinney – those are some notables who should be mentioned. More often than not though, these are anonymous low-key thrill-seekers, people who battled the ski patrol, climbed into backcountry bowls, and using borrowed shovels built their own jumps for doing double back flips, daffys, and backscratchers. All that, and going hell-bent for leather through the fluffy white stuff, is what The Powder is all about.

To purchase The Powder, visit Dashwood Books.