PROGRESS OF SKI-ING

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21236, 7 August 1934, Page 14

PROGRESS OF SKI-ING

ENGLISH PROFESSIONAL'S VIEWS SCOPE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN NEW ZEALAND Mr Barry Caulfeild, the English skiing professional now stationed at the Hermitage, Mount Cook, is enthusiastic about the possibilities for the sport of ski-ing in New Zealand. He believes that with improved facilities and better access to suitable ski-ing grounds the sport could be made the highly popular winter pastime for all types of people which it has become in Switzerland.

Mr Caulfeild has. had a busy time recently giving tuition to many of the hundreds of ski-ers who have visited the Hermitage. This has given him an excellent opportunity to form an opinion of ski-ing as it is done in New Zealand. There are good ski-ers here who would really be noticed in a crowd of experienced exponents of the sport abroad; he told a representative of "The Press" in an interview at the Tasman Chalet. The good ski-ers were few, but were well worth being called good. New Zealanders seemed to have reached the highest standard of performance in downhill running, but so far had achieved very little in the interesting and attractive part of the sport known as *ski-jumping. Jumping could very well be encouraged in New Zealand, Mr Caulfeild said, particularly where the snow conditions did not give enough scope for extended exercise on skis. A jump could be built up on one slope, in comparatively little space, and besides giving sport for the jumpers would also serve as an attraction for those not actively engaged. Ski Touring Cross-country touring is another branch of ski-ing which Mr Caulfeild thinks could be developed successfully in New Zealand. But in his opinion the prime need at the moment is more access to the snowfields, more accommodation, and better facilities for reaching the high country. In New Zealand there was a great deal of more suitable snow country, as distinct from glacier, than was made use of by ski-ers, said Mr Caulfeild, but New Zealanders had not done as much as possible to make those areas more accessible. In that respect ski-ing in Switzerland was highly organised. On the fine grassland ski-ing slopes of Switzerland it was possible to be taken by rail to an altitude of 9000 feet, and then run downhill through excellent snow to 3000 feet. • On the other hand one could remain well up and spend at least a fortnight, touring far across country on skis. "For the Monntalneer" "At the present time in New Zealand, because of the difficulty of access, ski-ing is almost the exclusive sport of the strong man and the ski-moun-taineer," said Mr Caulfeild. "Ski-ing here will not be as popular as it could be until ski-running is made a sport distinct from ski-mountaineermg. I really think that the interested authorities here, should engage.the vices of someone who understands the organisation of the sport on extensive lines.'if it is to be made widely popular and attractive, especially in respect of ski-touring. The provision of adequate accommodation at frequent intervals along - routes, for instance, necessitates special knowledge." Mr Caulfeild has the opinion that in New Zealand there must be many good ski-ing grounds, a distance of 30 or 40 miles from rail routes, which could be developed as popular resorts along the lines of those in Switzerland and other countries—resorts erected solely as dkiring bases, with easy access to the snow. . An inexpensive mountain- railway of some sort, such as the funicular lines in Europe, or some type of cable-car, built to haul ski-ers up into good snow would, in his opinion, "make! a fortune." Such *n itjnovstiqa would improve ski-ing

tremendously and advance the progress of the sport in New Zealand by 10 years, he said. At present its unattractiveness to the average prospective ski-er, who was not a mountaineer, was holding it back. Grace in Style The development of individual style rather than the reduction of all style to a definite set of rules is the aim of Mr Caulfeild's tuition, and he warned New Zealand ski-ers against listening to any too hard and fast doctrine of ski-ing Styles had changed rapidly in the last few years, generally for the better, and certainly with a considerable access of grace and ease in ski-ing, he said. "To be graceful is the leading principle of the new style. I try myself and try to teach others to ski in the most effortless way possible, using body-swing instead of sharp physical effort, long turns in the place of sharp turns, and generally all those points which help to smooth the roughness from ski-ing. Above all, ski-ers should beware of settling in a groove, for it is bound to become out-of-date." "Three-Star" Tests Mr Caulfeild has worked out a system of tests which ski-ers undergo at Mount Cook, and which is intended to set a permanent standard for skiing. He had been criticised for making the tests too difficult, he said, but it was obvious that if they were to last at all as permanent standards they ought to be difficult at the outset. This would allow for the improvement which was bound to come in ski-ing in New Zealand. This "threerstar" system, Mr Caulfeild believes, will in time probably become just as popular as the second and first-class tests in Great Britain. Mr Caulfield, who is the son of one of the most famous ski-ers in the world, and who himself holds an enviable international record in the sport, will remain at the Hermitage until September. Expert ski-ers who attended the recent grand national meeting there, basing their judgment on the form shown in the races, are already satisfied that his tuition will give New Zealand ski-ing a much-needed] advance. It seems certain that his style will be adopted generally by South Island ski-ers, the majority of whom have now practised under his guidance a good deal. j