There have been many different figures in the ski world who over the generations who have inspired countless people. The late skiing phenomenon Shane McConkey for example, forever changed the world of skiing. Shane McConkey was so revolutionary because he took skiing to the next extreme level, and by doing so it really took any unnecessary pressure out of the sport. This is incredibly impressive considering that you can usually cut the tension while the mountain with a knife when everyone is trying to out-ski each other. After saying that, I would like to talk about how Shane McConkey accomplished this. I will discuss how he changed the professional and recreational worlds of skiing by being a crazy, free-spirit, along with the creation of…show more content… He, along with many of his friends have been in many ski movies and they are known for being the biggest and most influential skiers in the California ski area. More specifically, Squaw Valley and doing the most insane lines they could find. One of the members of this group, Robb Gaffney wrote the book “Squallywood”. This book is mainly about the nuances of every line that you can do in Squaw, but more importantly it is about the game of G.N.A.R. This acronym stands for “Gaffney’s Numerical Assessment of Radness”. Although Robb Gaffney was a very famous extreme skier and the author of this book, the idea for the game of G.N.A.R is mainly credited to Shane McConkey. This is a game where skiers are trying to earn as many points as possible, but points are earned for making the most self-centred skiing related comments imaginable. The real purpose of this game is to take the mickey out of people that took the sport of extreme skiing too seriously. The entire game is based around sarcasm, which should make players’ look and feel stupid about themselves to outsiders. This should then reduce these players’ superfluous egos if they think they are hot stuff. For example, one thing you can do for points is the “Radness Yell”. The idea with this is to get everyone’s attention, making them believe you are about to do something awesome or “rad”. Just before you go down…show more content… At its base, the rocker is a completely different style of ski. Unlike previous ski shapes which are bent towards the ground so that it flexes into the snow when you’re standing on them, the rocker means that the ski is bent in the opposite direction. So when you’re standing on the ski, the back and front of the ski will actually be off of the snow. This invention revolutionized the ski world in the early 2000s. This style of ski is a little more extreme, which means skiers will now be able to ski in deeper snow more comfortably and in the end ski the raddest lines (which we all know is the most important thing). The importance of this ski is having the back and front tips off of the snow at all times. This means that when you get in deep powder and lean back to get your tips on the surface, there is an extra little bit of clearance so you can more easily float on top of the snow. Not to mention this style of ski is also quite a bit wider, lighter and less of a parabolic shape than previous skis. All that just means that Shane McConkey helped create the perfect ski for extreme zones. This invention has probably been his biggest achievement, when you consider he has actually changed the way people ski. At this point, this style of ski is probably more common among recreational skiers than the traditional racing style. It absolutely revolutionized the way people ski in