Appreciation for rails

Brayblade

Brayblade

Member
I grew up ski racing and could never understand why people would wreck their skis hitting rails. I thought perfect edges and carves were the "right" way to ski. After quitting racing, I began to get more adventurous and wanted to explore new kinds of skiing. I then became the stereotypical big mountain kid that was "too busy hitting cliffs" to go to the park. I eventually started to crave something new that I could challenge myself with. I bought a pair of twin tips as rock skis, but one day I attempted to hit a rail and realized that shit is super fun. Rails opened up a completely new part of skiing that I was missing out on before. I did my first 2 on the other day and at this point, I can tell you that busted edges are way more fun than perfect ones.
 
Lapping through a rail line is extremely fun though there is nothing like watching someone go Mach 10 through a rail line while doing difficult ass smooth tricks. I'll never forget the first Time I saw Adam Delorme skiing while at Breck and Gawd damn that shit was something else. So smooth, while going crazy fast into every feature; everyone on the lift was mesmerized.
 
Ngl I’m now starting to reach the point where the prospect of lapping rails and getting tricks on lock is getting less appealing than just going and charging some trees / side country. But 100% agree that hitting a rail line with minimal speed checks and just greasing the line is satisfying af
 
Rails > jumps.

No matter the weather or conditions, you can always find a rail and have an extremely fun day. Can't say the same about jumps on a bad day.
 
My appreciation for rails only really began when I started skiing with friends outside of resorts. Obviously love a good powder day on some steep terrain, but there is nothing like setting up a shitty pvc rail and hiking it all day while drinking a few with the boys. This opened me up to actual park skiing as I could finally hit any feature instead of skiing around it feeling dead inside
 
Don't be fooled. Edges are great for everything except rails and ripping (aka actually carving) around with round edges kinda sucks.
 
14204017:DrZoidberg said:
Don't be fooled. Edges are great for everything except rails and ripping (aka actually carving) around with round edges kinda sucks.
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Specially if u live on the east coast. I pretty much grew up skiing on ice and u need sharp edges for that
 
topic:Brayblade said:
I grew up ski racing and could never understand why people would wreck their skis hitting rails. I thought perfect edges and carves were the "right" way to ski. After quitting racing, I began to get more adventurous and wanted to explore new kinds of skiing. I then became the stereotypical big mountain kid that was "too busy hitting cliffs" to go to the park. I eventually started to crave something new that I could challenge myself with. I bought a pair of twin tips as rock skis, but one day I attempted to hit a rail and realized that shit is super fun. Rails opened up a completely new part of skiing that I was missing out on before. I did my first 2 on the other day and at this point, I can tell you that busted edges are way more fun than perfect ones.
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Bring it down to Bachelor and do a Real Lap!
 
14203904:wyld_stallyns said:
My appreciation for rails only really began when I started skiing with friends outside of resorts. Obviously love a good powder day on some steep terrain, but there is nothing like setting up a shitty pvc rail and hiking it all day while drinking a few with the boys. This opened me up to actual park skiing as I could finally hit any feature instead of skiing around it feeling dead inside
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Shitty pvc rails are my go to. For some reason I can land shit on pvc that I could never do on metal
 
14204043:DominatorJacques said:
Bring it down to Bachelor and do a Real Lap!
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I'm hoping to make a trip out this season but I'm not sure if covid will allow it. What's the best time of year to go?
 
14204058:Brayblade said:
I'm hoping to make a trip out this season but I'm not sure if covid will allow it. What's the best time of year to go?
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IDK, but March is always pretty good. Still too soon for the spring pass crowd.

I used to feel the same as you.

Then the parks took over my favorite carving runs.

I said to myself, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"

I always like jumping, but could do no tricks.

Anyway, as I watched more and more I got an appreciation for the athleticism involved. Respect.

I'm way too young now to get involved riding rails, but enjoy the view. Ski destruction is just part of the deal.
 
love the hype brotha its a helluva feeling nailing a new trick especially relatively early on in your park career (where I'm still at as well). can we get Eheath in here for some cynicism sprinkled in with all this stoke?
 
I straight up hated rail way back. They were difficult, painful and scary as fuck. But, a fews friends and I decided it was a good idea to spend a day learning it without help. By the end of the day we were hitting rails.

Then jumps got banned. So all parks and contests were rails only. I had no choice but to get good at them. Spinning on and off were warm up tricks. Now that I live in a location without a decent park, I do miss good rail setups and that weird feeling of balance and dancing on a rail
 
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