Ski Riders

Three years ago U. S. citizens spent $417,000 for skis and snowshoes. Last year they spent $3,000,000 for skis, $6,000,000 for ski clothes, $15,000,000 for transportation and lodging at ski spots.

Most ski addicts can trace their initial interest in the sport to the spellbinding ski jumps seen in the newsreels. But they soon learned that ski jumping could not be mastered in "ten easy lessons." Last week, when the national ski-jumping champion ships were held at St. Paul, only a few natives were good enough to enter the Class A competition.

Last year Norway's Birger Ruud won the U. S. title. The year before, his brother Sigmund won it. This year the Ruud Brothers remained at home but another Norwegian, 2 -year-old Reidar Andersen, from the same little silver-mining town of Kongsberg, crossed the Atlantic to take part in the U. S. championship.

Ski "riders" (jumpers) are judged on form and distance (in two jumps). At last week's championships the 20,000 spectators who gathered in St. Paul's Battle Creek Park held their breaths when it was Reidar Andersen's turn. He is credited with one of the longest leaps on record (340 ft.) and his form is said to be the world's most magnificent.

What they witnessed was perhaps the most beautiful performance of ski jumping ever seen in the U. S. Slanting through the air, bending forward obliquely from his ankles, Reidar Andersen outjumped all his rivals (193 ft., 197 ft.), so impressed the judges that he was awarded 234.45 points, just 5.55 short of the highest score possible in a tournament.

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