Until this last season, there was only ever one competition stop in our country per season where you could gain points to qualify for the Tour. Then this season the only stop at Castle Mountain AB was cancelled, supposedly for avy conditions. Considering the massive amounts of major big mountain skiers who are Canadian, (both Pettit's, Mcintosh, Flahr, Petersen, Abma, Bushy, etc. etc.) why have Canadian ski areas dropped the ball so badly on hosting these comps? It seems like every resort imaginable can host a slope style and a few rail jams every season, why is our side of free skiing not as important?
Canada needs more FWQ stops
- Thread starter W.Fadeeff
- Start date
-SnowSnoli-
Member
I think with the tour in the current state it is in, Resorts in Canada can't justify holding events. Freeride World Tour seems to be becoming the European Tour. Which majorly sucks... Seems like its all going backwards with the split of the FWT and FSWT
Pipe_Munky
Active member
Insurance is a big thing...unfortunately no one cares enough about big mountain slaying. Big gnarly lines don't appeal to non-skiers with very little knowledge of what it takes to ski them. Park and pipe gets more attention because it brings out the "wow factor" and appeals to a much greater audience.
You're right about Canadians killing it but before you rattle off names of guys getting video segs, you need to look at how few of them came up through the FWT ranks.
Pettits - both came up as young guns in the park
Abma - park
Bushy - park
Petersen - park and family history
Flahr - FWT
Mcintosh - IFSA/FWT
Just browsing through the ranking from last year, for the men only 2 in the top 37 are Canadian and for the women I only found the top 10 and none of them are Canadian.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see way more big mountain comps in Canada but I highly doubt we'll ever see it get anywhere near the attention that park skiing is getting. In the meantime, we'll have to settle for the Monster Enemy Lines comp
You're right about Canadians killing it but before you rattle off names of guys getting video segs, you need to look at how few of them came up through the FWT ranks.
Pettits - both came up as young guns in the park
Abma - park
Bushy - park
Petersen - park and family history
Flahr - FWT
Mcintosh - IFSA/FWT
Just browsing through the ranking from last year, for the men only 2 in the top 37 are Canadian and for the women I only found the top 10 and none of them are Canadian.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see way more big mountain comps in Canada but I highly doubt we'll ever see it get anywhere near the attention that park skiing is getting. In the meantime, we'll have to settle for the Monster Enemy Lines comp
Drail
Active member
Reds comp was never officially part if the tour, the last few years though, the winner got a spot on the tour.
They had problems with not enough people signing up for it though and they decided to scrap it. Probably didn't help that it was far more expensive than any other comp in the country. I hope one day it will come back, but as of right now it doesn't look good.
They had problems with not enough people signing up for it though and they decided to scrap it. Probably didn't help that it was far more expensive than any other comp in the country. I hope one day it will come back, but as of right now it doesn't look good.
13083761:Pipe_Munky said:
Fair enough that these athletes didn't come up through the ranks of FWT. But thats also an immensely good reason for more stops and tour involvement in Canada.
If you want to try to make the jump from amateur to pro skier in america, you have a plethora of good options to make as your home base, where you can make friends who are also into the comp/film scene. numerous cities in Colorado, Utah, and Washington are skiing hubs where its easy to meet other up-and-comers/pros and establish exposure for yourself. In Canada there is really only one option for the up-and-comer, and that is Whistler, which is often too expensive and far away for most ski bums. More FWQ stops will help establish places like Kicking Horse, Revy and Whitewater as permanent places for the comp skiers too, not just as places for film companies to spend 10 or 12 days in once a year.