This weekend’s national championships at Sugarloaf are a reminder of Maine’s tradition in national and international ski competition.

Sugarloaf was started because Maine skiers wanted a place to build a trail capable of hosting big races. The Chisolm Ski Club has hosted national and international championships at Black Mountain. The NCAA championships have been held at both Sunday River and Black Mountain.

Maine has been represented in every winter Olympics since 1948. Wuth the addition of snowboarding and freestyle, we can expect that string to continue indefinitely.

This history of Maine skiing is well documented in every discipline. But one group is left out of the records.

The U.S. Ski Team has sponsored a national freestyle team since the early 1980s, but how many remember or even know Maine’s contribution to the very origins of that sport? Or that a bunch of Maine skiers won national freestyle titles in the 1970s?

Last weekend, I talked with a skier who was part of those beginnings and he set me on a quest.

I wanted to chat with Bruce Cole about his own experience and get some information about some of the skiers he had competed with when freestyle got its start.

Some of it I knew, because I followed it at the time. There are some interesting stories, some well known and others obscure. I also wanted to learn more, because of my involvement in the Ski Museum of Maine and the Maine Ski Hall of Fame. There are some people who need to be recognized, and the history of the sport in Maine needs to be documented.

While we were both active in skiing in the ’70s, our paths never crossed until the 70th anniversary celebration at Shawnee Peak on Feb. 2. He had returned to alpine skiing after a number of years in cross country, returning to his roots at Shawnee Peak, where he now skis every day.

Bruce taught skiing at Pleasant Mountain (Shawnee Peak to you young folks) under the late Rudi Wyrsch, who, along with Art Fuhrer, pioneered freestyle moves in ski films. In one memorable Warren Miller sequence, Wysch, called the clown prince of skiing, jumped near the old double chair at Pleasant and landed in the top of a fir tree.

This spawned what was called a masters program. There were three disciplines – moguls, aerials and ballet (now discontinued.) Similar programs were also under way at Sugarloaf, Saddleback, Squaw and Waterville Valley, and it wasn’t long before competitions began. That’s an altogether too brief description of the origins of freestyle, but you get the idea.

Cole earned his PSIA certification in 1972 and went on to teach at Sugarloaf, as well as Pleasant Mountain, working with some of the top freestylers of the era.

At 61, Bruce is still skiing moguls, while many of us find ways to stick to the groomed cruising runs. As he told me, “I can’t ski bumps going fast anymore, but I can let the skis go where they want to go and ride.”

“I began to let gravity do more work than muscles,” he added.

We covered a lot of territory in our conversation, but the significant part for skiers over 40 is how the new skis have made things so easy. We both agreed that if we were still pushing 210 cm skis around, we would not have maintained our enthusiasm. Bruce is skiing on a pair of 162 Rossignol Mutix. That model has interchangeable arms extending fore and aft from the bindings that allow the skier to adjust the flex. He uses longer arms for a softer flex.

He takes pleasure in working with older skiers, getting them to carve instead of skiing the way many of us learned years ago.

“My fascination right now is to spend time on green trails, to get the ski on edge and get the feel,” Cole said.

That lesson is for everyone who is still working hard on older skis. Try out some of the newer models in shorter lengths and softer flex, and think soft in boots, as well. The skis I currently use range from a 165 cm slalom to a 175 cm GS. They take almost no effort to turn, and like Bruce, I can let them flow down the mountain.

Finally, it takes a good night’s sleep to ski well, and that requires a good mattress. Shawnee Peak is offering a chance to win a new one in next weekend’s America’s Mattress Race. A course will be set up on the main slope Saturday at 11 a.m., and the big prize will go to the best, most uniquely decorated mattress. It does have to make it down the course to win. Details at www.shawneepeak.com.

Dave Irons is a freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.