A ROUGH WAY TO RIDE BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY, - Memoir of ski jumper Casper Oimoen, By Sonja Oimoen Stalions

A ROUGH WAY TO RIDE BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY

Memoir of ski jumper Casper Oimoen
By Sonja Oimoen Stalions
179 pages
6” x 9”
Softbound
$14.95
ISBN 0-942323-36-X

“Casper’s record had never been equaled” Harold A. Grinden, secretary, National Ski Association stated in his official 1931 Olympic selection report: “Casper Oimoen…is the best skier in the United States and because of his outstanding performances this season has been ranked number one on the team and the honor of being captain.” Grinden also featured Casper in his book, History of the National Ski Association and the Ski Sport, 1849-1931, stating that Casper’s record had never been equaled in skiing in America.

“has won more titles…than any other skier”

Casper was the featured jumper at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair tournament. A story carried in The Chicago Herald and Examiner prior to the event reads: “The desire to dethrone Casper Oimoen, whose reign as champion of Chicago tournaments is becoming too despotic to suit his rivals, will make for some daring jumps for distance in the central championship duel. Oimoen, who has won six consecutive championships here, will find the entire field arrayed against him. But this daring fellow has won more titles throughout the country than any other skier and should be well able to defend his laurels.”

“he won 95 percent of all meets he entered.” In 1963, he was inducted into the United States Skiing Hall of Fame, credited for initiating the forward lean to ski jumping in America. Eric D. Hohman, archivist of early-day United States ski jumping, writes: “Over the course of Oimoen’s career, which spanned from the late 1920s through the 1930s, he won 95 percent of all of the meets he entered.… When he jumped 255 feet at the Western U.S. Ski Jumping Championships at Big Pines, Calif., in 1935, he shattered the American distance record by 15 feet.”

“”Somewhere high above these frozen peaks and pines, Uller – god of winter – must have chuckled in silent satisfaction as he looked down on the master ski hill here today. For winging his way as if from the very clouds floating lazily by above, Casper Oimoen… sailed out 255 feet to establish a new American amateur record and to win the western American ski-jumping championship before 20,000 frost-bitten fans…” – Jack Singer Los Angeles Times