It’s an overcast Thursday in Revelstoke and all of my bosses are out of office for one reason or another. Congrats Peter, good luck Dave and Twig enjoy whatever the fuck it is you’re doing in Europe. I’ve sent my emails and posted a throwback clip and decided to finally put metaphorical pen to paper for the first time in what feels like forever in terms of a real, opinionated piece of ski journalism.
As I begin to write this I don’t know if this is going to be a rant, a state of the union or something that never makes it out of my drafts. It is spawned from some loose conversations with our head wordsmith, Twig, in between real day-to-day operations at Newschoolers - believe it or not, that’s a thing - and general thoughts I have when I’ve got nothing better to do.
In short, skiing, are we totally fucked?
This isn’t going to be me reeling off climate change statistics, an analysis of the insane wildfire season in Canada or even my own communist manifesto where I try and recruit as many NSers as I can to buy one of the ski hills Unofficial Networks are always saying are for sale in order to start a self-sufficient ski cult… although that doesn’t sound half bad.
This is more a question of where we are at, taking stock of what skiing is, what we have and what we’ve lost. For context, my obsession with skiing beyond the idea of an annual family trip and as something greater than the sum of its parts was when I was shown Seven Sunny Days at the age of about 12. This was a damescene moment and I realised that skiing was a community, a lifestyle and could quite frankly blow your mind.
The years that precede the release of Seven Sunny Days are generally considered the ‘golden era’ of skiing. Our humble little site was a buzz of activity, Level 1 was firing on all cylinders and best of all Instagram didn’t even exist. Hell, YouTube is only 3 years old (and Facebook, 4) at this point. Freestyle skiing had, for some years, founds its style, it had borrowed just enough from skating, snowboarding and hip hop and added its own ridiculous flavour - my closet is still full of obscenely long Ts and I hope yours is too - to be it’s own unique thing, this pretty special counter-culture movement that had money pouring in from energy drinks and eyewear companies. It even did just enough to hide much of the privilege that is, sadly, near-on essential to skiing.
Skiing would never be skateboarding, climbing or even surfing. The barriers to entry are too high for it to really have this core, dirtbag lifestyle, we just try to have one. And we do, sort of, skiing just does it backwards. Pretending to be this roughed-up rogue when once being put through expensive race camps - I can’t deny I am in a glass house of my own here. Yet the likes of surf, skate and climbing culture have always been on the fringe and have fought to make themselves mainstream, to earn that paycheque and that recognition. Whereas skiing was the pasttime of the upper-middle classes and fought to have this counter-culture image - we even stole that from snowboarding. Skiing, and more importantly skiers, envy that and we’re about to face that identity crisis head-on.
There’s been the advent of social media, the Olympic and airbag effect and it seems like everywhere you look there’s a dub 14, or some mad rail combos. It feels like everyone is doing it and few are doing it with soul or their own genuine direction.
We are trying, with NS Originals but frankly, it's not enough. It’s not the ideas we are lacking but we have shareholders and budgets and our hands get tied - although there is some cool shit in the pipeline and I endeavour to share every idea I have no matter how stupid or expensive. This is also not to diminish the awesomeness of the ski community and the content that is out there and being produced - this is not a hit piece on those in skiing making it happen. We love you guys! Newschool skiing has most definitely had a resurgence of late, Ian Greenwood’s piece “We’re In Another Ski Movie ‘Golden Age’” from last season resonated hard with me, and dare I say it, everyone?
It is clear to see that the ease of access to filming technology and the ability to share such content has given the community as a whole more opportunities to shine than ever before. It’s easier than ever to get your name and steeze out there but for what?
I don’t know if I am just jaded from hours sat at my desk absorbing content in an almost Clockwork Orange-esque frenzy each winter and as such my opinions don’t mean shit. Likely. And, even worse, I’m not even sure what I am trying to say. It feels like we have all the component parts of ski culture but we’re too dispersed in our direction to really make a difference. Yet, undeniably, we are pulled back together by community movements, events, and premieres.
The Level 1 Rail Jam Tour may have been the sickest shit out from last season, their 20th anniversary of Superunknown harked back to supersession days of old and smaller invitationals are popping up everywhere. Come Fall you’ll have no shortage of content to watch. There’s is a spark in skiing still, I just look for how it can be turned into a flame.
The big bucks still pour into skiing but to the likes of The Nines and a Red Bull world record attempt. While I’ve done my best to keep the word “core” out of this piece it seems that street skiing is now synonymous with being core and everything else is sidelined. Is there a future for skiing if what’s core is only street skiing? Almost certainly not but it feels like that’s the path we’re heading down, TGR and MSP burn tonnes of fuel to make movies that are epic yet unrealatable and appeal to the mainstream audience of skiing. Small crews put blood, sweat and tears into street spots for recognition amongst their peers and a small circle of die-hards and those with sleds make their backcountry flicks and endeavour to look different.
There are a few that break the mold and all hope is not lost. BLDZ seem to give no fucks about anything and somehow the stoned Sleepy Grill has found himself on Salomon. Bracket Creep made Twig like skiing again. Jib League is the competition format we never knew we needed. Rosina Friedels Bucket Clips brought a fresh lens to female film projects. Many more are doing incredible, wonderful things in skiing. I want to reiterate that this is not a hit piece, more so a question posed to the community.
Maybe I’m jaded, I know I’m scared - I said I wouldn’t ramble about climate change but that shit fucking terrifies me. Skiing needs to find what makes it stand out again. We’ve borrowed too much and given too little. We can’t steal culture and make it our own, yet everywhere you look there’s our own culture to be nurtured. Newschoolers will never be Thrasher and we will have always been born from moguls and race skiers one way or another, we merely adopted the counter-culture. We’re at a crossroads and we need to find a direction before we have no skiing left to rant about at all.
Or do you think I have no idea what I’m on about? Fuck it. Let’s start an argument in the comments like the “good old days!”
As I begin to write this I don’t know if this is going to be a rant, a state of the union or something that never makes it out of my drafts. It is spawned from some loose conversations with our head wordsmith, Twig, in between real day-to-day operations at Newschoolers - believe it or not, that’s a thing - and general thoughts I have when I’ve got nothing better to do.
In short, skiing, are we totally fucked?
_
This isn’t going to be me reeling off climate change statistics, an analysis of the insane wildfire season in Canada or even my own communist manifesto where I try and recruit as many NSers as I can to buy one of the ski hills Unofficial Networks are always saying are for sale in order to start a self-sufficient ski cult… although that doesn’t sound half bad.
This is more a question of where we are at, taking stock of what skiing is, what we have and what we’ve lost. For context, my obsession with skiing beyond the idea of an annual family trip and as something greater than the sum of its parts was when I was shown Seven Sunny Days at the age of about 12. This was a damescene moment and I realised that skiing was a community, a lifestyle and could quite frankly blow your mind.
The years that precede the release of Seven Sunny Days are generally considered the ‘golden era’ of skiing. Our humble little site was a buzz of activity, Level 1 was firing on all cylinders and best of all Instagram didn’t even exist. Hell, YouTube is only 3 years old (and Facebook, 4) at this point. Freestyle skiing had, for some years, founds its style, it had borrowed just enough from skating, snowboarding and hip hop and added its own ridiculous flavour - my closet is still full of obscenely long Ts and I hope yours is too - to be it’s own unique thing, this pretty special counter-culture movement that had money pouring in from energy drinks and eyewear companies. It even did just enough to hide much of the privilege that is, sadly, near-on essential to skiing.
_
Skiing would never be skateboarding, climbing or even surfing. The barriers to entry are too high for it to really have this core, dirtbag lifestyle, we just try to have one. And we do, sort of, skiing just does it backwards. Pretending to be this roughed-up rogue when once being put through expensive race camps - I can’t deny I am in a glass house of my own here. Yet the likes of surf, skate and climbing culture have always been on the fringe and have fought to make themselves mainstream, to earn that paycheque and that recognition. Whereas skiing was the pasttime of the upper-middle classes and fought to have this counter-culture image - we even stole that from snowboarding. Skiing, and more importantly skiers, envy that and we’re about to face that identity crisis head-on.
There’s been the advent of social media, the Olympic and airbag effect and it seems like everywhere you look there’s a dub 14, or some mad rail combos. It feels like everyone is doing it and few are doing it with soul or their own genuine direction.
We are trying, with NS Originals but frankly, it's not enough. It’s not the ideas we are lacking but we have shareholders and budgets and our hands get tied - although there is some cool shit in the pipeline and I endeavour to share every idea I have no matter how stupid or expensive. This is also not to diminish the awesomeness of the ski community and the content that is out there and being produced - this is not a hit piece on those in skiing making it happen. We love you guys! Newschool skiing has most definitely had a resurgence of late, Ian Greenwood’s piece “We’re In Another Ski Movie ‘Golden Age’” from last season resonated hard with me, and dare I say it, everyone?
It is clear to see that the ease of access to filming technology and the ability to share such content has given the community as a whole more opportunities to shine than ever before. It’s easier than ever to get your name and steeze out there but for what?
I don’t know if I am just jaded from hours sat at my desk absorbing content in an almost Clockwork Orange-esque frenzy each winter and as such my opinions don’t mean shit. Likely. And, even worse, I’m not even sure what I am trying to say. It feels like we have all the component parts of ski culture but we’re too dispersed in our direction to really make a difference. Yet, undeniably, we are pulled back together by community movements, events, and premieres.
_
Believe it or not, this is how I watch skiing these days.
_
The Level 1 Rail Jam Tour may have been the sickest shit out from last season, their 20th anniversary of Superunknown harked back to supersession days of old and smaller invitationals are popping up everywhere. Come Fall you’ll have no shortage of content to watch. There’s is a spark in skiing still, I just look for how it can be turned into a flame.
The big bucks still pour into skiing but to the likes of The Nines and a Red Bull world record attempt. While I’ve done my best to keep the word “core” out of this piece it seems that street skiing is now synonymous with being core and everything else is sidelined. Is there a future for skiing if what’s core is only street skiing? Almost certainly not but it feels like that’s the path we’re heading down, TGR and MSP burn tonnes of fuel to make movies that are epic yet unrealatable and appeal to the mainstream audience of skiing. Small crews put blood, sweat and tears into street spots for recognition amongst their peers and a small circle of die-hards and those with sleds make their backcountry flicks and endeavour to look different.
_
There are a few that break the mold and all hope is not lost. BLDZ seem to give no fucks about anything and somehow the stoned Sleepy Grill has found himself on Salomon. Bracket Creep made Twig like skiing again. Jib League is the competition format we never knew we needed. Rosina Friedels Bucket Clips brought a fresh lens to female film projects. Many more are doing incredible, wonderful things in skiing. I want to reiterate that this is not a hit piece, more so a question posed to the community.
Maybe I’m jaded, I know I’m scared - I said I wouldn’t ramble about climate change but that shit fucking terrifies me. Skiing needs to find what makes it stand out again. We’ve borrowed too much and given too little. We can’t steal culture and make it our own, yet everywhere you look there’s our own culture to be nurtured. Newschoolers will never be Thrasher and we will have always been born from moguls and race skiers one way or another, we merely adopted the counter-culture. We’re at a crossroads and we need to find a direction before we have no skiing left to rant about at all.
Or do you think I have no idea what I’m on about? Fuck it. Let’s start an argument in the comments like the “good old days!”
