Monoskiing
Monoskiing is a snow sport that uses monoski. There are three types of monoskiing, one is used for waterskiing one for snow skiing and the final is a new experimental design that is equivalent to mountain boarding. On a snow monoskiing, the feet are side-by-side and pointing in the direction of the board, and standard ski bindings are used as well as non-releasing bindings like on snowboards and skwals. Unlike in snowboarding, ski poles are generally used when monoskiing. On a water monoskiing, the feet are one in front of the other and pointing in the direction of the ski. A standard waterski binding is located for the front foot, while a small slipper type binding is located behind for the back foot. A type of waterskiing on a monoskiing is called slalom water skiing.
Brief history
Monoskiing was invented in the late 1950's by Dennis Phillips at Hyak, Washington using a single water ski and bear trap bindings[1]. Surfer Mike Doyle promoted the monoski in the early 1970s, after which monoskiing's relative popularity slowly increased, but the interest eventually waned in favor of snowboarding. Monoskiing is still practiced by a reasonably large enthusiast community, especially in powder, where the wider waist of the monoski, compared to traditional skis, provides greater flotation.
Monoboard
A monoboard is derived from a boarder cross snowboard and looks very similar to a snowboard. The monoboard's most distinctive features are:
- Adequate width
- Leaf spring system (Dynastar)
- Wavy edges (Libtech)
- Quad-flex (WMO)
- 5-interactive suspension (WMO)
The width makes lay down turns possible, the leaf spring system give a great pop and an amazingly consistent flex, the magne-traction makes the shifts of power from the tip and tail to under the center of the feet possible, the quad-flex makes the adjustments to any angle of the slope possible using the 4 edges, and the interactive suspension makes the creation of variable dampening response possible (i.e. a shock absorber).