The first monoskis came to be in the late 1950's. Look made an elevated platform to mount on a single ski that was made to mount a set of ski bindings to. By the
mid 1960's, two skis were fixed together side by side with brackets which still used the elevated platform. Under no influence from these first monoskis, Mike Doyle,
professional surfer and legendary waterman came up with the single ski idea in a recuring dream he had on a ski trip in 1969.
Surfing on the snow became something that he had to do, but how would he make this surfboard for the snow? He thought that poles would be needed for balance
and that conventional ski equipment would have to be used to make his idea work.
Though he had experience making surfboards it would be a challenge to make a good durable singleski. Using materials at hand, Mike made his first single ski out of fibreglass and resin.
He realized that the flex wouldn't work properly as it was so he added a piece of hard wood under the feet ant tapered foam towards the tip and tail.
His first experience skiing his new single ski was a problem, he pulled the
bindings right out of the board. Luckily a quality technician was near by and saw the misshap. Mikes' single was fixed to try again the following day. He had problem skiing it at first but after figuring it out he could ski places that he could only dream about skiing with two skiis.
Problems and controvercy were aroused when Mike went out on his new
single ski with some of the patrollers from Jackson Hole. He didn't impress
them, but intimidate them he did. The patrollers who had gave their life to
learning how to master the art of skiing were being out skiid by a surfer
who had only been skiing for a couple of years. They didn't want that thing being skiid on the mountain by anybody because they were a bunch of mamby pamby winning wimps that couldn't bear to see a monoskier get as good as they were on their two skis in a fraction of the time. The ski industry seemed to be far more excited about this new snow sliding toy than the patrollers with their bruised egos were. He had it patentedin 1973.
Word of the new invention had spread through out the ski industry,
so Mike found himself traveling with surf industry friend Bill Bahne to
discuss the monoski with the Hexcel Corporation.
Hexcel offered Mike a
job, a van to promote the new single ski, a lump some of cash and
depreciating royalties over the next few years. After they had left the
meeting Bill convinced Mike to manufacture the single ski on their own
without the help from Hexcel. Mike agreed and Bill ordered the machines
that would be used to make the new single ski. Now that the ball was
rollin' it was time to get out there and sell and promote the best new
snow sliding invention ever.
Dick Barrymore included the monoski in his film "Mountain High", this
would be the monoskis movie premier. Mike was getting some excellent
publicity for his single ski, but Bahne seemed to be having some production problems and couldn't fulfill the orders that Mike had for the singles.
Dennis Thorne of South Lake Tahoe had been turned on to the single in
1974 by Joel Kaplin and became one of the first distributors. The South
Shore of Lake Tahoe became the home for the monoski in North America.
Even with distributors helping out, a product must be available to sell,
and Bahne was having serious production problems.
In 1976, Mike would see the first Winterstick and for the first time
realized that chances of his singleski making its mark on the ski industry
were diminishing. Production at the Bahne facility was plagued with
problems so shortly there after Bill Bahne dissolved their partnership. Mike
moved to Sun Valley Idaho and Bahne started to do more testing on the
Bahne Single Ski.
The research and development took place in Lake Tahoe,with Dave
and Don Bruce becoming the main testers for Bahne and with Dennis
selling them the mono had a good chance to make it's way into the ski
market. They got the Bahnes into a few local shops and did some
direct sales while skiing Palisades and the Gunbarrel. Exposing the
critters in the trees (and whatever else could make it through the
"Sierra Cement") to the monoski was their main marketing objective. A
small cult following was developed, but the monoski never got much
exposure outside of the small group that skiid them.
During the Spring
of 1978, Yves Bessas and Maritxu imported the first two Bahne Doyle
monoskis from the U.S. to France.
A few Chamoniards (Pierre Poncet, Alain Revel, and Phillip Lecadre)
would experiment with the monoski and later become the gurus of the
movement known as "La Glisse", or The Glide. Later on that season a
small manufacturer located in the Jura began producing Bahne Doyle
replicas called the "Petite Jennette". This ski (made from three skis
instead of two) was skiid down the north face of Mt. Blanc by
Jean-Paul Frechin in April, 1979. In the early development stages the
monoski was helped tremendously by the UHAINA film festival who
helped promote this new snow sliding sport.
The first true French monoski was developed by Duret in 1980. The
"Pierre Poncet" edition Duret was to be the premier commercialized
monoski in Europe. Michel Duret was the most active promoter of the
monoski driving from resort to resort with a couple of dozen monos to
let people try. He would sell a few a day and before long almost every
shop would adopt the monoski into their inventory.
The only competition for the Duret ski was the Rossignol "Soleil", or Sun.
These were the only choices in France until 1982, when Tua released the
"Tueur", or Killer. There isn't much distinguishable between any of
these monos except for the heaviness of the Tua, but even the lengths
were uniform at 185cm. This is also the year monoski competitions were
organized, sponsored by Cartier, the first of these compititions were held
in Italy, and the second in Arcs (France).
Back in the U.S. Mike Doyle started to make singles again and had
tried to convince others to make them. Research Dynamics made
some boards too but neither the new Doyle Single nor the RD "Solid Gold"
would have a very big impact on the U.S market. Another company in the
U.S. called Ski Tech Research, started to produce a copy of the original
Bahne/Doyle single also with poor results. Bahne was in full production
making honeycomb core monoskis but not getting alot of product into the
hands of retailers.
In 1983, Monoski and Co.(a small manufacturer in Maurienne) would
develop the first mono with any significant changes to the original
design of the Bahne Doyle. The Swallowtail skiid extremely well
compared to its counterparts, but its wood composite construction
would make it too costly for most consumers to afford
(about $1000 U.S.). The popularity of monoskiing was growing out
of control so the manufacturers needed to develop an entry level ski
for the novices that wanted to try this new snow sliding sport.
In 1984 Rossignol organized a press meeting to introduce to the market
a new style of monoski with easier skiing characteristics that even the
novices could ski on easily. It is undetermined whether or not it was
Rossignol or Duret that developed this new style of monoski first. The
taper from tip to tail is obvious when viewing this new mono so it's
easy to understand why turns are initiated easily and finished smoothly.
The "Pintail is an immediate success so the other manufacturers follow
suit with thier own "Pintail" models.
The Duret Pan Am was the most
popular of these new pintail shaped monoskis, but the Duret product
would have no part in the Rossignol sponsored Apocolypse Snow
series.
Apocolypse Snow was made into three mini movies which were
deffinately the strangest videos ever made. Two teams the red
and the yellow have a fierce competition and only the team who
possessed the master of the glide could win. Early Wintersticks and
Rossi Snowboards make their appearance on the feet of the master
of the glide. The evil red team sends monoski troops after the glide
master and eventually catch him and force him to compete on their
team. This monoski production helped the movement, it was getting
organized and stronger with production levels increasing and more
events being organized.
The first public monoski competitions got started at the Vars competition
held in the Southern Alps during 1985.This event consisted of a
mogul competition and derby format race where everybody
raced down an open field of ungroomed terrain simultaneously. The
next event to follow in Chamonix would become the most popular of
all events on the mono circuit. In 1986 the circuit joined the FFS and the
first championships took place in France.
In this same year another small company set the standard for
the competition circuit and for the other companies.The Be bop
Subterfuge had an extremely narrow waist, a little tip and a very
aggressive feel. The demand for the Bop was overwhelming and the
little company had a hard time keeping up with the consumers need
for their product. Rossignol was manufacturing 10,000 units and Duret
11,000 units this year, Duret had to supplement production with
Johnathan because of increased orders for their product as well as
outsourcing about 2000 units for Head and Look.
Most of the sales
during this period were from France but the monoski was starting to
become a more desirable way to slide in other parts of Europe as well.
The French companies decided they could do double the production
they were at if they could convince the US to adopt the monoski.
Philou Azais undertook the task of organizing a promotional tour of
all the major North American ski resorts in 86 & 87 (Some of you
probably remember this).
A fair amount of interest was shown while touring these resorts, but
he thought this marketing attempt was of little success. The Duret
crew was seeing moderate success with their marketing attempt also
but the U.S. consumer was much more difficult to persuade to try
new things than in the European countries. Eric Darsonvol was the
crusader that hung around in Summit County Colorado, parking his
van at the base of many popular mountains he'd demo his pintail
monoskis to all the locals and would develop a small but dedicated
following of hard corps monoheads in the Central Rockies. Philippe
Russman tried to market the concept in the Southern hemisphere in
1987 with less luck than Philou had in the North, but still managed
to get the monoski into the market. The Japanese market would
also be open to the influence of monoskis, but again it would never
be adopted as it was in France.
By 1988 speed had been added to the circuit with Vincent Guinchard
establishing himself as the worlds fastest man on a single ski, attaining
a top speed of 180/km or 112 mph. The monoski circuit struggled
to find a consistent format finally deciding on mogul and super G
competitions by 1989. The Japanese also held their first competitions
this same year. Also, this year saw Bebop go out of business and
the biggest monoski party ever to celebrate the end of the cult
manufacturers short time in business. In Colorado, Eric Darsonvol
decides to move back to France, and Kent Hunter would try marketing
his new super sidecut monoboard (The World Board, based off of
Dimitri's original Winterstick) to the inexperienced skier. The ferver
behind "Le Glisse" started to die into the 90's, and the companies that
made monos would become fewer and fewer.
Many years of poor snow conditions in the Alps didn't help the situation
much nor did the lack of carvability of the traditional monoskis. The
snowboards were developing more symetric sidecuts so they carved better
on hard snow than the monos could.
The snowboard movement was really getting under way in the U.S. and
the rest of the world market . Look stops making monos, Blizzard,Tua
and others follow suit, then Dynamic stops making boards.The snowboards would begin to rule the market and the monoski would start to drown in the industries wake. By 93 Dynastars would disappear, Duret would make cut backs on their models available, and by 95 Rossignol would see the last season of the "Extreme" being exported to the US. In the Fall of 96, Duret would only be making 3 monos instead of the
17 styles and lengths that were available just a few years before. World
Board never took off partly because of its strange shape and never
changing graphics, and few of the old school monoskiers had any interest
in trying the monoboard.
Now with snowboarding ruling the snow
sliding sports industry and buying into the ski manufacturers worldwide very few monoskis are left.
Duret monoskis remain available in the world marketplace thanks
to Jean Phillip, (designer of the "World Cup", and in charge of the
monoski production at Duret) and Michel Duret without there efforts
the traditional monoski would no longer be available to us here in the
U.S. There are a few small companies making monoskis but the
only other major European manufacturer still making them is Elan. They
don't export to the U.S., only Japan and Europe have access to their
monoskis. Now after the 96/97 season comes to pass we see our favorite
way to slide on the snow being near death.
With the near death of the monoski, we're now seeing a rebirth this
ski season. A few small quality manufacturers have come out of
the woodwork in the U.S. and in Europe to introduce some of the
best monoskis ever made. The U.S. has some events planned for
the 97/98 season and the monoski seems to be getting more support
in Japan. Rossignol still distibutes the Extreme in Europe (tell 'em to
make something new!), and other manufacturers have been bothered
by enough of us to realize that maybe there is still a market for monoskis.
Without the support of the ski industry, it's very difficult to get products
out there for the general public to see. How else could the shape ski
revolution have taken place? This whole marketing effort was the last
ditch attempt of the flailing ski industry to catch up with snowboarding.
So if everybody in advertising and the media didn't get behind this new
shape ski revolution, (the shape ski was patented back in the 50's and
S Ski out of Aspen had made them for many years before the big
manufacturers decided that this was a good idea) the ski market could
have been hurt so badly, they might of had to resort to the monoski
to save them.
Vive La Glisse !
Scott Gordon,
President White Knuckle Inc.
Information from The Glenat publication Monoski and Mike Doyles Autobiography Morning Glass were used to create this story along with what could be learned from all of you that I have spoken with over the years.
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