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Show SPORTS Skiing: More Fun Than Acting! The star of the acclaimed film "Downhill Racer" and an expert skier himself describes how he got hooked on this fascinating sport A - I. mil- -m- tf" -- By ROBERT REDFORD 12 when I put on my I was first pair of skis and hated it. Some friends from my junior high school in Los Angeles were talking about going skiing the following Sunday. "Come along," they suggested. "I dcn't know how to ski," I said. "I've never even seen snow." "C'mon, Redf ord,"they said,"there's nothin to it." They neglected to mention that all the other guys who were going had skied before and not just once. I didn't know how to even put skis on or stand up or turn around. I rented a pair of heavy, wooden skis that looked more like driftwood. The rented boots were and cracking at the seams. Standing up was, I found, a major achievement. Walking around on skis was something else, too. I can't remember how I got on the chair lift, but it took a lift operator to get me off. My friends were waiting, poised for take-of"If you want to stop, snowplow," one said. "You just point your tips inward." I started to inquire about the second step involved, but they were gone. I was alone. I had two choices. Get back on the lift and go down and be crumbled with embarrasment or ski down and have a go" at it. ng f. the world. I listened to the natives talk with glowing reverence about the area and the sport. This was without pressure or salesmanship. I finally became interested in skiing on my own terms. Once I had been taught how to ski, instead of pointing the skis downhill and yelling a lot, it became wholly different. I had always loved speed. Here was a scene that, to me, was using speed in the purest form ; nature's own gravity very little between you and the mountain, just two boards and some straps. You weren't bound to the dependence of a mechanic or a piece of machinery or an asphalt strip. I began to go after it. It was raw fun. Everybody began to take a hand in seeing that I learned the sport friends and strangers. The motivation was simple. They wanted to see someone else enjoy the sport. Also, everybody loves a good crash. At first, I went too fast. I was anxious to attain a supersonic boom. But there was no technique to support the desire. I fell a lot. I swore a lot. I raged against everybody from lift operators to lift towers. But things eventually came (though I still swear a lot) . of go's at it while attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. I liked mountain climbing, and skiing would have been a natural progression except for one thing: just about every student did it. It was the "in" thing. That put me off. In 1963 I finally got hooked. I had built a house in Utah, near Alta, one areas in of the foremost powder-snow M Family Weekly, February 1,1970 ski-race- d, non-skii- ski-tea- Not knowing any better, and loaded with the confidence that some magic "snow god" would take care of it all, I took off. I don't know how many times I fell and how many trees and other skiers I missed by the time I hit bottom : I just know it was like being on Telegraph Hill in a runaway truck. I was glad I was down, didn't know how I got there, didn't want to go again. Nevertheless, I had another couple It has now become, for me. a high personal experience. One in which, while doing it, nothing eLe matters no personal problems, no career decisions, no newspapers, tv, or phones to disturb me. A relaxing form of physical freedom. Skiers seem to be a breed of their own, with a common interest that transcends political or racial beliefs, spans income gaps and social boundaries, and makes a community of good fellowship instead of the friction that is hanging up our society these days. In a way, it was inevitable that I became interested in competition. I had been in competitive sports most of my life as a kid, and while I had never I was convinced that the drama of racing was worthy of a film. Unfortunately, it was an uphill fight for "Downhill Racer." In spite of the four million skiers in the U.S. alone, none of the studios shared my enthusiasm. The argument that a film about skiing could also make a comment above sport, and would intrigue audiences as well, also fell on a lot of deaf ears. Thus, the project, filmed eventually for Paramount Pictures, became an obsession with me. There were key figures along the way. Bob Beattie, the U.S. coach, was helpful in allowing myself and the writer, James Salter, to travel with the team up to and during the Olympics and making available his technical knowledge of the sport. I also was fortunate in having a partner, Richard Gregson, who shared my enthusiasm and volunteered to produce it. But to get it financed, I wouldn't get a salary. While we were shooting the film all over the place in Austria, Switzerland, and France, there was only one man at Paramount who had any faith in us Oi' the project. Luckily, this was Charles Bluhdorn, chairman of Gulf and Western, of which the studio is a subsidiary. We were hampered by the additional misfortune of my having crashed on a snowmobile in Utah 10 days before shooting was to start in Europe. It was a dumb move: I had thought I could maneuver the vehicle off a small cliff. Instead, I maneuv- - 11 Robert Bedford and Camilla Sparv star in "Downhill Racer" a film about skiers and one man's obsessive fight for a coveted Olympic award. m ered my knee into the motor. It was bad seven stitches and a lot of pain. The doctor did a good job on sewing me up, but I walked with a limp through the first part of the film. A All the cheap way to get close-upwhile, of course, was the hovering suspicion that the gods were trying to tell us something. The filming itself was not without hazards. Because the effort was made to capture the feeling of d races, with expert filming downhill runs at breakneck speeds, a number of them got hurt. There were some broken bones, cases of frostbite with some crew members, and "a lot of discomfort. We worked, at one point, for seven weeks straight, without a day off. A lot of mumbling and remarks like, "I didn't know there was snow on Devil's Island?" And so it went. And so it goes. I don't have any interest in makinr jnother ski film, but because of the total experience, my life will, no doubt, continue to be involved with the sport. It seems to me Americans are finally getting iki fever that has become a way of life in so many European countries. I'm sure that before loig, psychologists will be Jigging out of the sport all kinds of meaningful behavior patterns. There aren't any. I just know that when you move down through the snow at high speed, your mind is clear, there are no complications, you're free, and it's fun ! s. high-spee- skier-cameram- en "Let'j Go Skiing" Want Herbert Schneider's expert advice on all phases of skiing, from buying equipment to tackling the hardest skpest For this 172-paillustrated book, mail 75c to "Let's Go Skiing" SSS05, S0S9 Greenland Bldg., Miami, Fla., S3QSI. |