Are pro (park) skiers good at skiing?

S

steveys

Member
Like if you took them heli skiing and they had to jump off a 50 foot cliff onto a 60 degree run are their some park pro's who would wuss out? Same goes for snowboarders. Are all park pro's also able to actually ski double diamonds?
 
That is false. And yes most park skiers would crap their pants, not double black but big mountain stuff just like big mountain guy would at the park.
 
That's a good question. But I would assume they would be. They can't have only been in the park their entire lives. and park skiers will always shred some pow if there is some around. I don't know about couloirs and stuff like that, but they could for sure get down a double black.
 
You can't really compare this... it's two different disciplines within skiing. That's like comparing Michael Phelps, who just swims laps, to a platform diver doing 2 and half flip dives of a 10 meter. Yeah, they are both swimming, but completely different.
 
I'm talking about comparing a park jump line vs. a big mountain line. Yes, some may be able to do it, but some may not.
 
i've skied a 62 degree slope...it had snow on it...claim

and i see soo many jibbers who have a hard time skiing down a groomer. they hold both poles in one hand and slash their tails and try to jump off shit on the sides but fail. HOWEVER, most pro park skiers are such good skiers that i assume they wouldn't have too much trouble taking their shit to the bc. i dont see them charging but i think the could do it

racer kids on the other hand....
 
double blacks are quite difficult. at least 60 degree slopes. if not more. park rats have no chance.
 
stomping a 50ft. cliff into 60 degree slopes? shit dude, thats some fucking high standard to see if someone can ski well outside the park.
 
most pro's have gone on bc trips already or ventured around other areas. some in older movies, some in newer, but who are the "pro" park rats that you are thinking of?

 
If you have any wherewithall in the park, chances are you know how to ski outside the park too. I think your comparison is backwards though. Drop someone who is used to skiing alaska into the park and they will SHRED
 
I think he means mainly just the super newschooler kid riders, I know of lots that do all rails and some jumps. Lots of the east coast skiers, and mid, which seem to be the majority on this sit have never looked down like a 60 degree couple thousand foot face. Just no opportunity. Theres stuff at our local resorts the would give those kids a heart attack.
 
When you have enough talent to be a pro skier, it usually means that you have a solid base as a skier or that you learn new things pretty damn fast. Let's say Sammy who was a real park rat a the beginning of his career, it didn't take too long for him to do sick things in the BC. And also, usually big mtn rippers(those who focuse on doing the craziest lines) are older than16-22 like pro park skiers. With experience, I'd say that most park skier would be considered expert BC skiers and those who put the energy in it have lots of chances of becoming pro at it too.
 
I've been competing long enough to consider myself a decent big mountain skier, and the few times I've skied with low-level pros that most people would consider park rats, I've been pretty impressed. They haven't been as fast or gone quite as big as the average big mountain am skier, but when you have spent enough time on skis to become a pro, you tend to have skiing fundamentals locked down regardless of the terrain you usually ski on. A professional park rat in the BC is still going to have vastly better balance and strength and air sense than virtually any weekend warrior.
 
depends where you are from, if you grew up in bozeman MT skiing big sky you had the huge peak and the sick park so you got good at both. If you grew up on the east coast where your choice was between park or icy groomers you probably cannot. because you made the choice all of us would make park > shitty groomers. So i think like tanner hall used to be a park rat but growing up in montana and skiing moguls before freeride made him a good skier not just a good park skier. Many people bash moguls and racing but it is super important to actually learn how to ski, edging, turning etc. But all depends on your options and where you grew up skiing
 
i think that all the pros right now (their generation) are all solid all around skiers. Since newschool skiing is still relatively recent alot of park skiers have other skiing influences and backgrounds. But now when i go to my hill all kids want to do is do jumps before they even learn the basics of skiing. Idk how some of them do it but there able to ski and jib themselves through the park but are out of control and have terrible technique skiing on the rest of the mountain
 
There are tons. All those kids that grew up on landfill ski hills, finish high school, go where there are bigger mountiains, and eventually ski outside the park more and more and get better.
 
My thoughts exactly hahahaha.
But yeah, to be able to ski park at a professional level you basically need to be a ridiculously good skier. I would bet you that all pro park skiers shred outside of the park.
Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true for all park skiers. Be well rounded people.
 
yeah if you get a tad too much speed you're gonna land at the bottom of the hill...you will rarely see that even in a ski movie

60 degrees is FUCKING STEEP, like when you're stopped, standing straight up your shoulder is basically in the snow
 
Just like 'Everyday is Saturday" tried to stress...

with park going so huge these days, we'd all hate to forget where skiing started, and where it all began... with a face full of fresh pow. :)
 
Exactly

It's a bit like that snowboard film (cant remember the name) where they take shaun white and pretty much just chuck him off the top of an alaska line with no real experience and he absolutely kills it. The point being that general skiing/park ability, in the case of pros, can be transferred petty quick into big mountain with a bit of time. Or in shaun white's case, no time at all. . .
 
Do you think like if sage went to the olympics doing cross country he would place lulz? Probably not :)
Watch the Olenick brothers in the tangerine dream and you will witness the answer to these questions.
 
The real question; are pro park skiers good enough at skiing to put down a decent time in GS?i'm fairly sure 99% of the park skiers wouldn't even come close to the times of the professional GS skiers... (except JO ofcourse...)
 
I completely agree. Most park skiers can hit jumps and rails fine but when theyre put to race they suddenly cant hold a turn around a gate. I would think a well rounded skier could carve turns on a groomer like they would in GS, as well as ski park. Unfortunately thats often not true.

However back to pros...im sure they can rip it anywhere
 
I'd say fear is the biggest limiting factor for development.

Great article in the January Powder magazine.

"Colby James West will hit a huge booter and throw three rotations before landing on firm snow-backward-in front of a nationally televised audience, but then have doubts when looking at a 20-foot cliff in the backcountry. 'It took me a week to get used to it,' Colby says."

Any pro skier certainly has the ability and physical talent to be good at both disciplines. It's a matter of the gaining the experience and mitigating the fear that comes along with the new environment.
 
....

diving is not swimming, they are two totally diffrent sports, they are only similar in the idea of water, thats like saying that ice skateing is also skiing because its on frozen water. i would say most park skiers could ski terrain like that since most skiers roots are in regular skiing and big moutnain
 
Ya, but it's like tanner once said... Put him on a GS course and he will make it down, he may not be as fast as Bode but he will make it. Put a GS racer in a pipe and they wont even go.

I paraphrased but that was the general message.
 
Being a pro park skier doesn't necessarily mean that one is a good skier.

I don't enjoy saying this, but I hate to see some of these new pros skiing pow, not knowing how to ski (usage of poles etc.)

There are tons of freeskiers who outski many of these park pros any day. You don't learn to ski steep if you only stay in park.
 
It doesn't really matter... you get the idea that something similar is involved (water), but you still can't compare them. May have not been the best comparison, but it gets the point across.
 
most park rats don't really have the right tool to ski and carve perfectly, try doing serious carving on a center mounted invader with dull edges and see how far you get
 
^ you can't compare Dane Tudor with the average park pro!

Dane is extremely good in every discipline of skiing, although i dont know how good his pipe skills are!
 
So when did park skiing stop being skiing? If your a good park skier, you are by definition good at an aspect of skiing? The freeskiers probably wouldn't outski the pro's in the park, ergo are they not necessarily better skiers, it depends on what terrain you judge them!
 
Right, I need to be more explicit. I would assume that a park skier learned to ski, can ski the black, can ski the trees, bumps, jump off of a 10 foot cornice until a advanced run (look at mammoth, they have double diamond that are about %40).

BUT, a park skier could theoretically just ski in the park his whole life and not even be able to get down a %40 runn with deep pow. Are their any like this?
 
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= Helivac

Some parkrats can ski, but no where near a a pro bigmtn level.
 
well, considering that a HUGE factor of park skiing is having balls to attempt tricks, I think that pro park skiiers are alot better than normal everyday skiiers, but they don't even compare to pro downhillers.
 
I don't think even a lot of big mt pros would hit a 50 footer onto a 60 degree slope, unless it was like a perfect hit. Right now basically all the pros are ex freestylers/racers, so yes they probably can shred outside of the park. Now that we have generations of kids learning to ski in the park, one day I think some of the pros will only be average skiers once they leave the park.
 
Dane didnt start out skiing park, he spent winters in Rossland BC and if you ski at Red u dont usually ski in the park .

not saying that Red has no park, but its small to say the least
 
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