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Dave Petersen

Graphic Designer/Social Media Manager
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All Things Jet Stix

High-Back Boot Accessory

Petersen Jet Stix.jpg

From my collection (gift from @TimD59)

Petersen Jet Stix 2.jpg


SKIING Nov 1970 - Jet Stix - Pugski.jpg
 

pchewn

Skiing the powder
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Apr 24, 2017
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Beaverton OR USA
1971 (or so) – The WORST ski equipment ever invented was thrust on the market and we bought into it. The “Jet Stix” was a plastic rear support that attached to your boots and allowed you to do the “Jet Turn” – just like Jean Claude Killy! Unfortunately the ski magazines and manufacturers did not seem to tell us that the “jet turn” was a very subtle release of energy from the rear of the ski to accelerate out of a turn. It is supposed to be a very minor and short-lived rear flex. But all of the photos and cool pictures in the magazines showed people sitting back on their skis, tips flying in the air and “jetting” down the mountain! In reality, this set skiing back about 5 years and ruined many knees as skiers would “Jet Turn”, fall backwards twisting, and tear knee ligaments. Yes, I bought some Jet Stix. No, I never skied like Jean Claude Killy and I never had a date with any of the Lange Girls either. Pull your eyes away from her open ski suit and just look at that AWFUL ski technique – sitting way back and one arm completely behind her. The next photo in the series is sure to be one of her laying in a ski patrol toboggan with her left knee ligaments torn to shreds.


Tips-Up.jpg
 

Big J

Getting off the lift
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Sep 10, 2017
Posts
589
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Fredericksburg Virginia
1971 (or so) – The WORST ski equipment ever invented was thrust on the market and we bought into it. The “Jet Stix” was a plastic rear support that attached to your boots and allowed you to do the “Jet Turn” – just like Jean Claude Killy! Unfortunately the ski magazines and manufacturers did not seem to tell us that the “jet turn” was a very subtle release of energy from the rear of the ski to accelerate out of a turn. It is supposed to be a very minor and short-lived rear flex. But all of the photos and cool pictures in the magazines showed people sitting back on their skis, tips flying in the air and “jetting” down the mountain! In reality, this set skiing back about 5 years and ruined many knees as skiers would “Jet Turn”, fall backwards twisting, and tear knee ligaments. Yes, I bought some Jet Stix. No, I never skied like Jean Claude Killy and I never had a date with any of the Lange Girls either. Pull your eyes away from her open ski suit and just look at that AWFUL ski technique – sitting way back and one arm completely behind her. The next photo in the series is sure to be one of her laying in a ski patrol toboggan with her left knee ligaments torn to shreds.


View attachment 53508
I actually had these and did ski them and liked them. I agree with you. What a way to totally ruin good technique.
 

Bill Talbot

Vintage Gear Curator
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Nov 9, 2015
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3,166
Location
New England
For me, what I remember most about skiing them was that you had leverage to recover from certain types of falls that would be impossible with the low boots of the day. Especially in the bumps. So that was a big plus in my book. Yes the sit-back thing was mostly useless but it could be fun from time to time. I know some of the skis from that era also had rear biased waists and did respond to some heel weighting.
 

Sethmasia

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Nov 6, 2018
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Paonia, Colorado
It was a transitional product, marketed for just one year by Jack Nagel, former US Ski Team racer, shop owner at Crystal Mountain (WA) and father of the spectacular Nagel sisters. Jetstix inspired Lange to create a similar product that could be bolted to the back of the original Lange Comp, and Rosemount had something similar. The real solution was to build up both the back and the front of the boot (hugely increasing leverage in loading the shovel), which was how the Nordica Sapporo (and then the Astral Slalom) came to be in 1972-73. By 1971 it was obvious to me that a spoiler in back was only half the solution, and I created this for my own use -- as you can see the built-up Rosemount is about the same height as the Lange I use today.
rosemountlangecropped.jpg
 

Roundturns

Getting off the lift
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Nov 29, 2017
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395
Had a pair of Jetsticks worn with Raichle Redhots . Anyway on the other forum years back a guy was looking for a pair to be used with his Rosemounts. I mailed him mine for nothing and said just send me a pic.
Of course he never did!.
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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NJ
It was a transitional product, marketed for just one year by Jack Nagel, former US Ski Team racer, shop owner at Crystal Mountain (WA) and father of the spectacular Nagel sisters. Jetstix inspired Lange to create a similar product that could be bolted to the back of the original Lange Comp, and Rosemount had something similar. The real solution was to build up both the back and the front of the boot (hugely increasing leverage in loading the shovel), which was how the Nordica Sapporo (and then the Astral Slalom) came to be in 1972-73. By 1971 it was obvious to me that a spoiler in back was only half the solution, and I created this for my own use -- as you can see the built-up Rosemount is about the same height as the Lange I use today.
rosemountlangecropped.jpg
Transitional is a good term for the product. It was for the skiers that purchased their boots just before the manufacturers started to build high back boots. It was made to add hight to the back of the older low top boots. We sold them in the shop I worked but probably only two seasons. Shop owners would rather sell the customers new boot rather than cheap work arounds.
 

Tony Warren

Me on the left, The Padre on the right
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Jul 25, 2016
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I travel a lot.
I bolted them to my Lange Pro's and bolted the hinge on the boots to stiffen them up. Grade 11 shop was more than just finding ways to use machines to cut off your fingers.
 

Tony Warren

Me on the left, The Padre on the right
Skier
Joined
Jul 25, 2016
Posts
194
Location
I travel a lot.
1971 (or so) – The WORST ski equipment ever invented was thrust on the market and we bought into it. The “Jet Stix” was a plastic rear support that attached to your boots and allowed you to do the “Jet Turn” – just like Jean Claude Killy! Unfortunately the ski magazines and manufacturers did not seem to tell us that the “jet turn” was a very subtle release of energy from the rear of the ski to accelerate out of a turn. It is supposed to be a very minor and short-lived rear flex. But all of the photos and cool pictures in the magazines showed people sitting back on their skis, tips flying in the air and “jetting” down the mountain! In reality, this set skiing back about 5 years and ruined many knees as skiers would “Jet Turn”, fall backwards twisting, and tear knee ligaments. Yes, I bought some Jet Stix. No, I never skied like Jean Claude Killy and I never had a date with any of the Lange Girls either. Pull your eyes away from her open ski suit and just look at that AWFUL ski technique – sitting way back and one arm completely behind her. The next photo in the series is sure to be one of her laying in a ski patrol toboggan with her left knee ligaments torn to shreds.


View attachment 53508
You are entirely correct, although her 'turn' is a lot like the Wayne Wong poster. Patrick Russel of the French national team was the best at accelerating his skis with this technique, wasn't it called Avelment or something? To catch him in the back of tails position one needed a motor drive on a camera that could shoot 5 frames a second. The guy must have had quads of steel.
 

skiJ

Getting off the lift
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Joined
Jan 17, 2021
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201
Location
Lake Superior
Jet turn -

as above, 'avalment' was absorbing terrain.

I give the Lange "girl" a pass -
it is a legendary photo. !

: D skiJ
 

Joal

Out on the slopes
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Jul 10, 2016
Posts
632
Same difference but avalement means "swallowing".

https://www.skiinghistory.org/lives/georges-joubert

Aluminum skis, followed by fiberglass skis and then plastic boots, made it possible for skiers to hold progressively tighter turns, and skiers had to deal with greater and greater forces. The need to unweight the skis when initiating a turn was reduced, and the focus shifted toward keeping the skis in contact with the snow. These trends led the best competitors to develop maneuvers Joubert named the serpent turn, jet turn, reploiment and avalement. In the United States, the movements were often misrepresented as exotic, flamboyant techniques with more emphasis on style than function. While many people think those techniques faded away with end of the Jet-Stix era, they are still alive, well and, if anything, more widely used today than they were then.

Although you don’t often hear the name of Georges Joubert mentioned these days, everywhere you look on the hill you see his imprint: from a skier turning his skis with his legs underneath a quiet, stable upper body (dubbed braquage by Joubert, a term still used today by instructors, and that literally means turning), to an expert mogul skier actively flexing and extending as he skis through large bumps (using avalement, which translates to “swallowing”), to someone flashing by in a racing tuck (a position Joubert developed with Vuarnet, and named l’ouef—“the egg”—that helped Vuarnet win the 1960 Olympic downhill).
 

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