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A skwal is the main piece of equipment used for skwalling, a form of Skiing. It is similar to a snowboard or monoski in that both feet attached to the same board. On a skwal the feet are one in front of the other, in line with the direction the skwal is pointing in. This differs from snowboards (in which the feet are side-on to the direction of the board) and moniskis (in which the feet point in the direction of the board, but are side-by-side).
History
Skwal_board.jpg
Skwal board
The skwal was invented by two French ski-school instructors Patric Balain and Manuel Jammes, with the first prototype appearing in 1992. They envisaged it as a way to offer different sensations to what skiing and snowboarding could offer, at a time when 'carver' skis were only just starting to take off. A French company called Lacroix took an interest, recruited Patric Balain, and started producing skwals. A few years later, Patric left Lacroix and started his own skwal-making company. There are now several other makers of skwals, though the sport has never gained the widespread popularity its creators predicted - possilbly due to the perceived difficulty of the sport.
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