Ahmet Dadali Interview About Progression And The Current State Of The Sport Of Freeskiing

Great read, Ahmet definitely has a good outlook on life and the future of skiing. I also can't wait for the footage to come out of him touring the world in an RV.

Also you misspelled Jesper Tjäder's name. Also if you put hyperlinks on Flip Da Script and Unrailistic when they were first mentioned in the article it will give the rider's more exposure not everyone is gonna know the videos are at the bottom of the page and they may have also lost interest by then.
 
13699263:kami said:
Great read, Ahmet definitely has a good outlook on life and the future of skiing. I also can't wait for the footage to come out of him touring the world in an RV.

Also you misspelled Jesper Tjäder's name. Also if you put hyperlinks on Flip Da Script and Unrailistic when they were first mentioned in the article it will give the rider's more exposure not everyone is gonna know the videos are at the bottom of the page and they may have also lost interest by then.

I will add the hyperlinks now and change home boys name. Thanks I love Ahmet he's such a nice guy in person , fun to ski with and he calls it like he sees it. Skiing needs more people like this..
 
Great interview, I really like amhet saying that style is timeless and style progression will never stop, really cool outlook.
 
"help out your small brands"-Ahmet.

Meanwhile he skis for Volkl and skied for UA... Seems a little contradictory if you ask me.
 
13699371:S.J.W said:
"help out your small brands"-Ahmet.

Meanwhile he skis for Volkl and skied for UA... Seems a little contradictory if you ask me.

While this might seem contradictory at first, you can't make a living skiing for the smaller brands. I'm sure most pros would back up Ahmet's suggestion to help out the smaller brands, but they also have to make a living, ya know?
 
13699387:hot.pocket said:
While this might seem contradictory at first, you can't make a living skiing for the smaller brands. I'm sure most pros would back up Ahmet's suggestion to help out the smaller brands, but they also have to make a living, ya know?

if a pro is hired because they influence the sales of skis then maybe they should ride for the small company so more people buy the small company. Or you could collect a paycheque from one big one and promote all the other small ones...
 
13699387:hot.pocket said:
While this might seem contradictory at first, you can't make a living skiing for the smaller brands. I'm sure most pros would back up Ahmet's suggestion to help out the smaller brands, but they also have to make a living, ya know?

You can't make a living being a film skier period. Unless you're the 1%. Nearly every pro skier is struggling. Some more than others. But practice what you preach. If you want us to support smaller brands give us a reason to. Don't just say one thing then do another.
 
13699395:hemlockjibber8 said:
if a pro is hired because they influence the sales of skis then maybe they should ride for the small company so more people buy the small company. Or you could collect a paycheque from one big one and promote all the other small ones...

13699402:S.J.W said:
You can't make a living being a film skier period. Unless you're the 1%. Nearly every pro skier is struggling. Some more than others. But practice what you preach. If you want us to support smaller brands give us a reason to. Don't just say one thing then do another.

I get where you're both coming from, and it sucks that you can't make a living while supporting a smaller brand, but that's the nature of there not being a whole lot of money in the ski industry.

Plenty of pros leave smaller brands for bigger brands not because they want to, but because it's going to help them continue to do what they love, ski, without having to worry as much about where the next paycheck is coming from.

The amount of people that would go out and buy Small Brand X because Ahmet started riding for them wouldn't nearly be enough for it to be worth it to Small Brand X or Ahmet. Having a big name pro rider isn't going to launch your ski brand from small to sustainable, and although it helps, it takes a lot more than just having a Small Brand X Ahmet Pro Model.

Overall, it's up to the community to do some research and find the skis that work best for them. Gear Talk is usually flooded with threads asking about smaller brands and what other members think of them, along with multiple members suggesting smaller brand's models in feeler threads. It is important to practice what you preach, but you can't leave it up to the pros to ensure that smaller brands make it, as nice as that would be.
 
Is he seriously praising Che? Che was a racist, homophobic totalitarian responsible for mass murder and the enslavement of thousands. Come on Ahmet.
 
13699528:hot.pocket said:
I get where you're both coming from, and it sucks that you can't make a living while supporting a smaller brand, but that's the nature of there not being a whole lot of money in the ski industry.

Plenty of pros leave smaller brands for bigger brands not because they want to, but because it's going to help them continue to do what they love, ski, without having to worry as much about where the next paycheck is coming from.

The amount of people that would go out and buy Small Brand X because Ahmet started riding for them wouldn't nearly be enough for it to be worth it to Small Brand X or Ahmet. Having a big name pro rider isn't going to launch your ski brand from small to sustainable, and although it helps, it takes a lot more than just having a Small Brand X Ahmet Pro Model.

Overall, it's up to the community to do some research and find the skis that work best for them. Gear Talk is usually flooded with threads asking about smaller brands and what other members think of them, along with multiple members suggesting smaller brand's models in feeler threads. It is important to practice what you preach, but you can't leave it up to the pros to ensure that smaller brands make it, as nice as that would be.

this
 
13699572:Park_Ranger said:
Is he seriously praising Che? Che was a racist, homophobic totalitarian responsible for mass murder and the enslavement of thousands. Come on Ahmet.

Che definitely wasn't a racist - he may have had a few racist tendencies in his youth growing up in Argentina, but as a revolutionary, he fought for rights for all skin colors.

There's no evidence to support him being a homophobe, though he didn't speak out either way for or against gay rights.

Murderer? Most likely, he was certainly responsible for executions and many deaths in the revolutions and wars he fought in. I'm not sure what numbers would qualify for "mass murder" though.
 
great read wishing there were more riders like this in my opinion they're more fun to watch... they actually look like they're having fun. which is the only reason i strap on shred sticks as often as i can it makes me happy

summer time sadness haha
 
13699528:hot.pocket said:
I get where you're both coming from, and it sucks that you can't make a living while supporting a smaller brand, but that's the nature of there not being a whole lot of money in the ski industry.

Plenty of pros leave smaller brands for bigger brands not because they want to, but because it's going to help them continue to do what they love, ski, without having to worry as much about where the next paycheck is coming from.

The amount of people that would go out and buy Small Brand X because Ahmet started riding for them wouldn't nearly be enough for it to be worth it to Small Brand X or Ahmet. Having a big name pro rider isn't going to launch your ski brand from small to sustainable, and although it helps, it takes a lot more than just having a Small Brand X Ahmet Pro Model.

Overall, it's up to the community to do some research and find the skis that work best for them. Gear Talk is usually flooded with threads asking about smaller brands and what other members think of them, along with multiple members suggesting smaller brand's models in feeler threads. It is important to practice what you preach, but you can't leave it up to the pros to ensure that smaller brands make it, as nice as that would be.

There was once a time when Armada was just a small idea in the heads of a few pros. Then Tanner started riding sacrificed the paycheck and now it's one of the biggest freeskiing brands out there. Ahmet could be that person. Sure he's not as big as Tanner was but this year look at how many kids are going to buy the revolt. That's all Ahmet.

I have no problem with skiers trying to make bank. All to them, in the Jonah to atomic thread I defended Jonah's actions to chase the bread and join atomic (lols he didn't actually join atomic) but I would have had a problem if he then decided to tell me to support a smaller brand. Every brand once started through small beginnings and there is no reason why RMU, ON3P, Vishnu, etc can't all become big brands. And if you want US to buy your skis give us a reason to. Everyone on this site will say they don't care about who rides what but in reality they do. Look at how butthurt everyone got when Full Tilt took away the Wallisch pro model even though it was just the first chair boot with Wallisch's name on it.
 
13699876:S.J.W said:
There was once a time when Armada was just a small idea in the heads of a few pros. Then Tanner started riding sacrificed the paycheck and now it's one of the biggest freeskiing brands out there. Ahmet could be that person. Sure he's not as big as Tanner was but this year look at how many kids are going to buy the revolt. That's all Ahmet.

I have no problem with skiers trying to make bank. All to them, in the Jonah to atomic thread I defended Jonah's actions to chase the bread and join atomic (lols he didn't actually join atomic) but I would have had a problem if he then decided to tell me to support a smaller brand. Every brand once started through small beginnings and there is no reason why RMU, ON3P, Vishnu, etc can't all become big brands. And if you want US to buy your skis give us a reason to. Everyone on this site will say they don't care about who rides what but in reality they do. Look at how butthurt everyone got when Full Tilt took away the Wallisch pro model even though it was just the first chair boot with Wallisch's name on it.

so what exactly are you unhappy with?
 
13699880:TallxT said:
so what exactly are you unhappy with?

the hypocrisy of telling us to support small brands whilst he skis for Volkl and skied for UA. Practice what you preach.
 
13699898:S.J.W said:
the hypocrisy of telling us to support small brands whilst he skis for Volkl and skied for UA. Practice what you preach.

Isn't it worse to not say anything? As you said, you understand these people gotta eat RE: Jonah thread. So Ahmet is out here trying to eat, but at the same time he understands his influence and chooses to mention the importance of supporting small brands.

Plus I would say there is a slight distinction between riding for small companies and supporting them/spending money on them. I've been working on a new mitten brand since last fall with Tobias, and we gave Ahmet a pair to test out for us. He tried to pay us for them which was very flattering but we declined. That'd be my defense for Ahmet.
 
I get where you guys may see the hypocrisy in what I'm saying about supporting smaller brands but its true that in order for myself to keep being able to ski I have to have some money. We are not making bank I can assure you that.

UA was a very hard decision for me in the beginning to join with, however with that decision I was able to ski everyday, film segments, and put out flip the script for everybody to be able to watch FOR FREE. However when you shake ya hands with a huge company like that you never know what they will do next and no matter how loyal you become to them they could care less about you in the end, and possibly not at all about free skiing.

Volkl has been supporting me for years, going on 10 to be exact, They have allowed me to create a new ski with them and also funded my Flip the script project, so couldn't be happier to be with them.

But this doesn't make my opinion any less valid. I do think we should support smaller brands, who doesn't think that?! I have taken over and am running my own small brand for that matter. So maybe it qualifies me to be able to speak up about it, maybe it doesn't, you guys can read into it however you want. I'm simply telling you to be aware of the smaller brands in skiing and how important it is to have support for these companies for the sustainability of our sport
 
13699572:Park_Ranger said:
Is he seriously praising Che? Che was a racist, homophobic totalitarian responsible for mass murder and the enslavement of thousands. Come on Ahmet.

anti imperialist is far different than a racist. He helped overthrow the totalitarian dictatorship in Cuba to help set up a peoples government. Its unfortunate that with time it didn't become that fully. But he continued his vision to help take central and south america back into the hands of the people and away for the "totalitarian dictatorships" that were fully backed by the US for imperialist value (Mining, Fruit companies, sugar). If you want read about mass executions look at what the US backed regimes were doing to the people in these regions to keep them from having peoples movements.

What Che was doing was completely the opposite of enslavement and as for homophobic, There is nothing in his writings that say a thing about his view either way, so I don't know where that came from.

Please read a little more about him before coming down with these conclusions I bet you would be very surprised by what you learn about him, opposite of what you may have been taught through a country who absolutely despised him, and ultimately funded his killing in bolivia.
 
13699876:S.J.W said:
Every brand once started through small beginnings and there is no reason why RMU, ON3P, Vishnu, etc can't all become big brands.

Just a side note, you need a much much larger following than the NS/park/freeskiing community can provide to jump from RMU/ON3P/Vishnu level to Atomic/Volkl/Armada level. Sure, you can start to make a larger dent in the park community by having pros ski for your brand, but you need a hell of a lot more than a pro rider to become a BIG brand. Tanner Hall helped a ton with building up Armada, but he's not the main reason they jumped up from small to big brand.

I get that you don't agree with Ahmet riding for big companies while saying support small companies, but not everyone wants to live the super ski bum life of working all night washing dishes and living out of your truck so you can ski every day. The guy puts out a ton of content FOR FREE, and it's all very good content. He wouldn't be able to do that while riding for Vishnu.

Ahmet supports the community through providing us with great videos and quality content instead of through riding a small brands product and making Park City videos with his iPhone.
 
Great read, real good to see skiers speaking up about a lot in that interview.

"The hardest part is truly getting it out there to be seen. “ Freeskier magazine” has never once asked me to talk about the series or included any photos that were taken as a part of this series. Why? Did I not pay for an ad with them? This is where skiing is falling apart. It becomes difficult for most of these skiers, who are trying to do similar things to be able to reach a broader audience"
 
13700004:hot.pocket said:
Just a side note, you need a much much larger following than the NS/park/freeskiing community can provide to jump from RMU/ON3P/Vishnu level to Atomic/Volkl/Armada level.

When did Armada reach the level of Atomic and Volkl?
 
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