A skwal is the main piece of equipment used for skwalling, a form of Skiing. It is similar to a snowboard or monoski in that both feet attached to the same board. On a skwal the feet are one in front of the other, in line with the direction the skwal is pointing in. This differs from snowboards (in which the feet are side-on to the direction of the board) and moniskis (in which the feet point in the direction of the board, but are side-by-side). Skiing is the activity of gliding over snow using skis (originally wooden planks, now usually made from fiberglass or related composites) strapped to the feet with ski bindings. ... A snowboard with boot bindings A snowboard is the main piece of equipment used in snowboarding. ... A monoski is the main piece of equipment used in monoskiing, a form of skiing. ...

History

The skwal was invented by two French ski-school instructors Patric Balmain and Manuel Jammes, with the first prototype appearing in 1992. They envisaged it as a way to offer different sensations to what skiing and snowboarding could offer, at a time when 'carver' skis were only just starting to take off. A French company called Lacroix took an interest, recruited Patric Balmain, and started producing skwals. A few years later, Patric left Lacroix and started his own skwal-making company. There are now several other makers of skwals, though the sport has never gained the widespread popularity its creators predicted - possilbly due to the perceived difficulty of the sport. Skwal Board Template:FairUse File links The following pages link to this file: Skwal ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Snowboarder in the halfpipe Snowboarder trail entry Snowboarding is a boardsport on snow similar to skiing, but came about as an idea for a combination of surfing and skateboarding. ...

External link

• Skwalzone (http://aes.skwalzone.org)