Snowless Skiing

When they first appeared in the U.S. almost a decade ago, no-snow slopes covered with slippery plastic were hailed as a ski buffs salvation during the long, hot summer. But most schussers were quickly turned off. The stiff, molded bristles that were supposed to substitute for snow ruined their skis, and falling on the stuff felt something like falling on a rake.

Outside the U.S., however, various kinds of synthetic ski surfaces have been more successful. A 400-meter nylon-covered ramp at Edinburgh's Hillend Ski Center is jammed with people during the winter months; so are the chloride-vinyl ski jumps and slalom courses of Tokyo's Yomuiriland. But it is in Brazil, where a tropical climate leaves no alternative, that plastic skiing has demonstrated its greatest appeal. In the past four years, 300,000 persons have driven the long dirt road that winds past lush palm, orange and banana trees to get to the President Medici Ski Station in the southern town of Garibaldi (pop. 8,000). There, on a steep hillside, are two plastic-covered ski runs, four chalets and a 40-chair lift.

Developer David Santini, 39, a wealthy soil engineer, claims that his plastic slope is the "best artificial track in the world." It is covered with white polyethylene molded into bristly triangles and slick circles. Before taking off, skiers coat their skis with oil from a spinning roller. Although runs down the 1,200-ft. competition course reach speeds of 60 m.p.h., the synthetic snow seems unquestionably safer than the natural variety; no one has yet broken so much as a finger.

Impressed with the Garibaldi resort's $5,000-a-month profit, the Brazilian government is lending Santini more than $2 million to build similar complexes near Rio, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Recife and Brasilia. Making money, though, was not on Santini's mind when he began his quixotic quest to put Brazilians on skis. "My real ambition," he says, "is to see a Brazilian ski team in the Olympics--even if they finish last."

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