Do you think the academy made getting somewhere with skiing easier for you by building up your skiing abilities, or did it hinder you because it made it that much more difficult to differentiate your style and in the end, seperate yourself from it?
to answer this question, well yes it deffinatly helped me do something with skiing. lets face it, it's really hard to progress your skiing skiing at a place like holiday valley. going to a ski academy at the time was kinda the only way i could do it. im thankfull my parents forked out that kinda money for me. there was a time where our family pretty much went broke because of it. it really took a toll on our family at the time. they knew skiing was something i wanted to do, and it's impossible to follow when you come from a place with no hills at all. even blue mountain was too far away. cva had some really good coaches, and they taught me the mental game of being a pro rider, and they really taught me how to succeed in this sport....i could only handle it till i was a junior in school. im currently still working on my grade 12....
for me i dont feel it hurt my style in any way, i mean i skied with phillipi, marion, silas miller, pretty much the best kids on the east coast at that time.. we just fed off eachother and progressed. mad people are kinda bitter against academy kids. i understand that because before i went, i hated those kids too. but in reality i just wanted what they had. it was more jealousy. so thats why when kids, hate on it...i know what the real reason is. I think it's not necessary if you live by a mountain, but if you dont, it makes it really hard...