No description available.

The design of alpine touring ski bindings has remained relatively static for the past fifteen years. During this period, the lack of innovative breakthroughs has become obvious through the number of customers who are currently unsatisfied by the products available on the market. This observation has presented a significant commercial opportunity to satisfy these users, plus many more non-consumers, with an innovative binding design. The objective of this project was to design a low profile alpine touring binding with the aim of satisfying the needs of these users. The resulting design followed a full year of research and development in the field of alpine touring bindings. Not only were concepts formed from completely untethered and open minded thinking, but they were also formed from reviewing various designs that already existed. These designs ranged from previous alpine touring bindings that either failed or succeeded in the market for various reasons, to completely unrelated mechanisms and designs forms. Through this process, several well formed and feasible design concepts were obtained which potentially met the design specification requirements of both high performing alpine touring bindings and downhill bindings. Detailed design and analysis followed, along with the manufacture of a fully functional prototype. This was then tested and evaluated to determine the project as a success. This project can be grouped only with a small amount of research ever conducted on the topic of alpine touring bindings. The findings, discussion and results of this work can therefore be used as a benchmark for future study into this field. Through the meticulous research conducted on skiing and ski bindings and the thorough design work carried out towards producing a prototype, this thesis presents the complete process of designing a new and innovative ski binding.

Nine Australian male cross country ski team members (19.8±2.5 years, (X±SD),76.6±6.4kg, 184.8±4.9cm) completed both an incremental maximal exercise test and a 45 minute time trial performance test using a dryland ski striding technique with poles on a treadmill. Testing occurred at 610m in a chamber that was supplied with either an 02 enriched (p02 = 152mmHg) or an N2 enriched (p02 = 132mmHg) gas mixture to simulate sea level (SL) or 1800m (A) conditions respectively. A 48 hour rest interval was provided between tests and the testing conditions were randomised, counterbalanced and double blind. At maximum effort there were significant differences in V02 max (70.2±4.0 v 61.7±2.9 ml.kg-1.min-1), PaO2 (97.2±12.7 v 77.1±11.2 mmHg) and SaO2 (90.6±4.9 v 77.8±3.9%); but not in HR (194.1±8.1 v 191.7±7.4 bpm), VE (133.1±12.8 v 132.6±11.3 L.min-1 STPD) or [La] (14.2±2.3 v 13.7±3.3 mM) at SL v A. There was a decrease of 7.6% in overall time trial performance between the conditions (4005±378 v 3702±301 m, p = 0.08), although performance was significantly lower at A during the latter period of the test, >25 minutes. During the steady state stage of the time trial performance test, (=75% SL VO2 max) there were no significant differences between SL and A in any of VO2 (52.9±5.9 v 52.1±4.9 ml.kg-'.min-' at 15 minutes for SL and A respectively); HR (173.1±12.8 v 176.1+10.1 bpm); or [La] (3.0±1.0 v 4.8±2.2 mM). However, there was a significant reduction in PaO2 between SL (111.2±25.5 mmHg at 15 minutes) and A (72.6±24.3 mmHg at 15 minutes), resulting in a significant reduction in SaO2 (96.6±1.1 v 84.6±6.8% at 15 minutes) between the conditions. At the end of each lap of the variable workload stage of the time trial performance test there were significant reductions in VO2 (65.3±6.9, 64.2±6.3 and 66.4±5.9 v 54.6±5.6, 56.0±4.6 and 57.9±3.2 ml.kg-'.min-1 at 25, 35 and 45 minutes at SL v A); and HR (190.1 ±9.2, 192.4±8.6 and 195.9±7.6 v 181.8±12.4, 186±8.1 and 189.6±9.2 bpm) under A conditions. There were no significant differences in [La] at the end of each lap of the time trial performance test between SL and A, although [La] did increase over time during the test at both SL and A (6.2±2.0, 8.9±2.8 and 10.6±4.1 v 7.6±2.0, 8.4±2.2 and 9.9± 1.8 mM). At the end of each lap of the time trial performance test, there was a significant reduction in PaO2 (120.9±24.4, 108.8±25.9 and 103.0±23.0 v 86.0±31.4, 94.9±22.3 and 71.1±3.2 mmHg); and SaO2 (94.6±2.4, 94.3±2.4 and 92.3±3.4 v 85.9±5.8, 84.3±6.4 and 81.7±6.1%) and both PaO, and SaO2 decreased over time during the test at both SL and A. This study has indicated that as well as the extent of hypoxia induced by altitude, both exercise intensity and duration may impact on the magnitude of the response to sustained exercise at altitude, such as in cross country ski racing.

Graduation date: 2003

No description available.

A four second eccentric squat test (EST) specific to the sport of alpine skiing was developed and standardized. Eighteen men aged 21-30 with one year resistance training experience participated in this study. The reliability of the EST and various jump tests was calculated and the relationship between EST and SSC performance was examined through the correlation of jump test variables and EST performance. The EST was observed to be highly reliable (ICC 0.99). The kinematic characteristics of the EST were closely related to those of alpine skiing. The reliability of the jump test performance variables ranged from low to high (ICC 0. 10-0.90). Investigators should be aware that the reliability of force and power measures can be confounded by changes in jump strategy between jump test trials. The relationship between slow eccentric strength and SSC performance was dependent on whether the jump was performed for maximal height or minimum contact time. / School of Physical Education

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Uppsala, 1984. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-33).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Ottawa, 2004. / Leaf 129 is upside-down. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 329-351).

Goal of the thesis has been deep analysis of winter ski resorts in the Czech republic and France and finding an optimal ski resort for a week holiday. Set of criterias important for average czech skier for selection of a resort was designed accordingly to the results of a survey made on sample of czech population. Supplementary goal is to prove a hypothesis that rather than the size of a resort, the quality and scope of services (not only ski-related) really matters.

A model of constrained utility maximizing behaviour is developed to explain how a representative individual allocates his ski days amongst alternative sites. The physical characteristics of the ski areas and the individual's skiing ability are explicit arguments in the utility function; the budget allocation is given along with the parametric costs to ski (including travel costs, entrance fees, equipment costs and the opportunity cost of his time). Shares (a site's share being the proportion of ski days that the individual spends at that site) are derived and assumed multinomially distributed, a stochastic specification which maintains the inherent properties of the shares. Maximum likelihood estimation confirms the basic hypothesis that costs, ability and characteristics all are important determinants of the sites' shares. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate