come on, where is the love for dumont. He is just as good as T-Hall in p[ark comps, and got screwed over lsat year in the biggest comp of them all, the x-games. With his ingenuity and his want to make the sport bigger and better, he has to be someones favorite other than mine.
1) 4 skiers per person? how much more arbitrary do you want to be?
2) Jon Olsson; he's consistent, he spins, he flips (on multiple axes in one jump), he's got style. New tricks, old tricks, halfpipe, park, rails, and, if you check his segment in Seven Sunny Days (I think that's the movie), up-and-coming backcountry. He has new tricks every year. The MOST important trait is that he reps a work ethic! Our sport NEEDS that image. This one replaces Antoine Gangier.
3) CR Johnson; if you're going to mention Josh and Marc, don't forget about the kid who's risking terminal brain damage with every fail he takes, and he's still bustin moves.
4) Sammy Carlson; he switch-ups rails like a stripper on the weekends, and holds his grabs until his fingers get nearly sliced on the landings. He can butter just about anything, and doesn't seem to have any preferred direction of spinning. He hasn't fully gone through puberty, and he's already reppin a mature work ethic, he mentioned the lifestyle change from kid to professional in Freeskier or an NS thread. This one replaces Josh Bibby.
5) Simon Dumont; I can't even believe I'm supporting this guy. He's cocky and his clothing company is bogus. But, he deserves so much of the credit for the attention skiing gets just from his 22 foot air in the X-Games halfpipe (and the Taco Bell sign on the measuring stick still looks good). It was a time when stars like CR, Tanner and Candide had set the bar for halfpipe, but people still saw snowboarding as the premier freestyle snow sport. Simon dropped in and boosted twice as much air as some of the boarders, he made Sports Illustrated and ESPN in the same week! For the FIRST TIME EVER, snowboarding took an acknowledged back seat to skiing.
6) Shane McConkey; spats and fat skis. I know this isn't a Teton thread, most kids on NS don't have wingsuits, and that he's pretty much out of the game except for filming, but if you're going to mention Eric Pollard's progression with ski design, at least footnote the man who tore up AK on water skis, produced the best big mountain ski to date, pushed fat skis, and pretty much put Volant underwater and in Atomic's hands just because he wanted his Spats in the shops. Again, I said footnote, so, please, don't start posting about how I think Shane should definitely be on the list.
Tanner's arguably the best skier right now, perhaps even ever. Charles deserves it. TJ deserves it. Andy deserves it. Bibby doesn't. Antoine doesn't. I don't know how you guys came up with those last two, so weak.
Eric doesn't need to be up there three times, and many NS members would love to say not at all. Line rides his dick enough. His skis are sweet, but that's not enough. His art doesn't matter, we're talking about skiers. Yeah, he's got style, but I'd honestly rather watch a whole host of skiers in slow motion than Eric, and slow motion brings out the flaws in anyone's style. I like style, but I also like rotation, amplitude and balls-to-the-wall tricks that have serious consequence just as well. I can't remember the last time I saw Eric spin a 1080. If you watch Idea, you'll notice how much sicker Pep is than Eric. Pep's got a ridiculous 9 in gray sky conditions, butters, flawless pillows, the same stylee zero-spins and 180s that Eric does, and waaay sicker grabs. You can keep Eric up there, just keep it to once.
^^Hey I'm all for Pep... but I wanted to pick 3 diverse skiers and I limited myself to 3. Pep falls under the "Idea crew" and Pollard will always be my favorite out of those guys. The idea crew is amazing...
Now instead of trashing our pics, why doesn't everyone chime in and throw up their top 3 pics too?