Park ski has always been gnar, the early says of rando sends on big features are hard to rival. The features are sometimes bigger and the tricks are friggin massive but what happened to the barrier of entry, what happened to the blood oath.
As a person deeply immersed in terrain parks I'm constantly looking at the parks, the patrons, the trends. Where can we improve, what needs to be bigger or smaller.
I feel the industry grew with to an almost un obtainable hype during the rise of snowboarding as well as freestyle skiing. Parks became about bragging rights, advertising dollars, a good park really meant something.
The parks have mellowed, there been an increase in bridging the gap between new riders and the elite heavy hitters in the park. What get's people involved in park skiing? Will having a family cross instead of a medium park get that same level or people hooked? What draws us to park skiing, what hooked us in for the first time? For many people that first rail was fucking sketchy at best. Whether a resort build rail in the early days or some poorly thought our pvc it made a big difference.
Sometimes the best way to get hooked on a sport like skiing is landing than first huge side hit. Sometimes it's the opposite, the problems, the failures, that drive us to learn. Sometimes eating catostphic shit shit on that down tube is the best way to solidify our spot within the freeski community.
Sure a fail isn't as good as a make, but it takes a lot of courage, a lot of stupidity, maybe a lot of peer pressure to hit that first rail. The feeling of eating the absolute shit on that first rail can be immortal as the image of han solo in carbonite, or the moon landing. Something's don't go as smooth as they were planned, but god damn, that feeling of almost, that feeling of what could and may be, hits almost as hard as the feelings of success. In all honesty sometimes it hits harder. You not only got over that first try, but you ate as much shit as you possibly ever will on that trick. The only thing to do down is move forward.
How hyped were you when you rolled into the ground, jacket sliding to your ride side as you slid into the landings, ski bouncing off the rail as you spun around and finally stopped? What was your mindset after that incident? Did you want to lay there, pissed off, contemplate selling your skis? Or were you pissed off in the best way, motivated at fuck to land that shit. The last trick you got, did that come easy? Or did you fucking work for that shit. Did you taco that frail, shin it, slide it it 12 different ways that both hurt and were full of failure.
Sometimes blood is the barrier of entry. You might shin yourself, you might slash your elbow off the rail of knife edged spring snow. As a park skier you will fall. You will ragdoll in a savage satanic ballet. You will life there at the bottom of the landing trying to shake it off. How will you come back? Are you over it? Maybe park skiing just isn't your jam, maybe it's not your scene.
Maybe you're pissed, you're revved up and ready. You're angry. That fall struck a core in your sole. Get the fuck up. Scream, yell at that motherfucking rail Get angry, get hyped, you're landing that fucking trick right now. NOOOOO!!! You don't have time for anything, you're locked in, focused, you're ready to go. Almost running back up to the drop in point. You're riding out of this clean one way or another.
You drop in, your thoughts go blank, you fucking have it, you definitely have it, you launch, you feel the metal on your skis, locked as tight as your unwavering focus, You stomp it clean as fuck and ride away like you're going down as the 2000's most important person in hisotry.
I'm a big supporter of entry level parks, I'm not hating on the progression stuff but this sport sometimes requires a blood oath if you want to take it seriously Maybe it's not the first time, maybe you've never truly eatin shit, but you will. Are you the guy that runs from a challenge or do you get up and give it hell until you stop that shit until you got it?
If you're there, you know you have that trick, the only think holding you back is you. Get in the mothercfucking zone and stomp that shit. You've got it dude!NS backs you 100%
As a person deeply immersed in terrain parks I'm constantly looking at the parks, the patrons, the trends. Where can we improve, what needs to be bigger or smaller.
I feel the industry grew with to an almost un obtainable hype during the rise of snowboarding as well as freestyle skiing. Parks became about bragging rights, advertising dollars, a good park really meant something.
The parks have mellowed, there been an increase in bridging the gap between new riders and the elite heavy hitters in the park. What get's people involved in park skiing? Will having a family cross instead of a medium park get that same level or people hooked? What draws us to park skiing, what hooked us in for the first time? For many people that first rail was fucking sketchy at best. Whether a resort build rail in the early days or some poorly thought our pvc it made a big difference.
Sometimes the best way to get hooked on a sport like skiing is landing than first huge side hit. Sometimes it's the opposite, the problems, the failures, that drive us to learn. Sometimes eating catostphic shit shit on that down tube is the best way to solidify our spot within the freeski community.
Sure a fail isn't as good as a make, but it takes a lot of courage, a lot of stupidity, maybe a lot of peer pressure to hit that first rail. The feeling of eating the absolute shit on that first rail can be immortal as the image of han solo in carbonite, or the moon landing. Something's don't go as smooth as they were planned, but god damn, that feeling of almost, that feeling of what could and may be, hits almost as hard as the feelings of success. In all honesty sometimes it hits harder. You not only got over that first try, but you ate as much shit as you possibly ever will on that trick. The only thing to do down is move forward.
How hyped were you when you rolled into the ground, jacket sliding to your ride side as you slid into the landings, ski bouncing off the rail as you spun around and finally stopped? What was your mindset after that incident? Did you want to lay there, pissed off, contemplate selling your skis? Or were you pissed off in the best way, motivated at fuck to land that shit. The last trick you got, did that come easy? Or did you fucking work for that shit. Did you taco that frail, shin it, slide it it 12 different ways that both hurt and were full of failure.
Sometimes blood is the barrier of entry. You might shin yourself, you might slash your elbow off the rail of knife edged spring snow. As a park skier you will fall. You will ragdoll in a savage satanic ballet. You will life there at the bottom of the landing trying to shake it off. How will you come back? Are you over it? Maybe park skiing just isn't your jam, maybe it's not your scene.
Maybe you're pissed, you're revved up and ready. You're angry. That fall struck a core in your sole. Get the fuck up. Scream, yell at that motherfucking rail Get angry, get hyped, you're landing that fucking trick right now. NOOOOO!!! You don't have time for anything, you're locked in, focused, you're ready to go. Almost running back up to the drop in point. You're riding out of this clean one way or another.
You drop in, your thoughts go blank, you fucking have it, you definitely have it, you launch, you feel the metal on your skis, locked as tight as your unwavering focus, You stomp it clean as fuck and ride away like you're going down as the 2000's most important person in hisotry.
I'm a big supporter of entry level parks, I'm not hating on the progression stuff but this sport sometimes requires a blood oath if you want to take it seriously Maybe it's not the first time, maybe you've never truly eatin shit, but you will. Are you the guy that runs from a challenge or do you get up and give it hell until you stop that shit until you got it?
If you're there, you know you have that trick, the only think holding you back is you. Get in the mothercfucking zone and stomp that shit. You've got it dude!NS backs you 100%
