Countdown to Sochi

Pipe_Munky

Pipe_Munky

Active member
As of today (July 2) there are 219 days to the opening ceremonies in Sochi Russia. This is the time to shine for a sport that was born out of rebellion from the regimented training schedules of mogul and racing programs mostly in North America with a few Europeans joining early on.

With World Cup stops in New Zealand, Canada, USA and Switzerland it's going to be interesting who foregoes which events in order to be in Sochi.

I know this has always been a touchy subject on here but it seems like attitudes are changing. What's it going to be for the sports top players? FIS World Cup events to get used to the FIS bureaucrats they will be dealing with in Sochi (even though AFP is looking after the judging for HP and SS events) or sticking to the "pro circuit"?

I'm posting this thread to get some legit discussion going on the subject so it would be nice to see some actually thought out responses.
 
I think we'll get some banger footage & the sport will gain some hype, but all of us know that the olympics aren't freeskiing's way forward. The true freeskiers will remain free.
 
I'm interested in how the media will portray things. NBC kind of has a history of being douches with the olympics.

Whose dick will be sucked the most?

How much Ski vs. Snowboard shit will be brought up?

How many gapers will be in the park the next day?

These are all important questions
 
I have a feeling the usual top 5 guys from both disciplines are going to head down the Olympic road which will open up the other pro events to a new crowd of hungry exciting riders. I think the X games, Dew Tour, Etc will be really exciting with some newer talent this year. If thats how things play out of course.

Then again who knows. Those top 5 guys might just do everything. They are machines after all.
 
The best thing about the Olympics I think, is that after this, basically everyone will finally have a general idea of what freeskiing (more like slopestyle skiing) is. Lots of people that don't ski or board still have no idea why someone would, for example, slide down a rail on skis. Right now, too many people (that don't ski or board) think of "freestyle" in skiing or boarding as like Shaun White and snowboarding halfpipe because that is what has been in the olympics for years. You might view this as either a positive or a negative, but I think it's good that more people will at the very least have a general understanding of what freeskiing is.

Oh, and more money in skiing will be good. Maybe it won't be put where NS's want that money to go, but money in freeskiing is still money in freeskiing.
 
The final split in a long fissure that has been growing for a decade.

You now will have your Olympic skier that follows the EXACT opposite of why our type of skiing was created.

Nothing will trickle down and it will only be harder for non Olympic skiers make it in skiing.

People who win the gold wont help sell ski company's sell skis but mobile phones and credit cards.

This will then all fall part when more people (already organizations) make skier qualify tricks.

 
ill probably have to turn it off after the announcers obvious lack of trick names drives me to the edge of insanity.
 
home-the-end-is-near.jpg
 
I really want to go to Sochi and witness everything unfold. Regardless of all the FIS and other organization being put into a "free"skiing sport, I think it will be awesome to see what actually happens on and off the slopes there. Skiers can be a rowdy bunch and you have a large gathering of hot european figure skaters...
 
That'd be ghetto, hilarious, and totally something that WOULD happen in russia
 
I would like to see someone naked crash the slope course. The IOC would probably arrest him or some shit but it would be amazing.
 
This is not true.

People needs to realize that Olympics happen every 4 years, and a LOT still happens in between. Just try to remember how much the scene has changed over the last 4 years.

Many Olympics sports get a bit more exposure during the Olympics but remain far away from the mainstream media and public during every 4 years gap, and this is likely to happen to freeskiing.

Let's be honest, freeskiing will be under the lights for a few days, maybe a few weeks, in the countries where some athletes will podium or do well (Canada, USA, France and 2 or 3 others EU countries), that's it.

I feel like the only people from the skiing scene complaining on the Olympics are just scared to lose their income and to be put aside by their current sponsors, but there is not any marketing manager or TM of a company that is likely to tell you "we are putting all our budget and efforts into athletes going to the Olympics and cut the rest", because it won't make any sense.

The main audience, the community is not at the Olympics. The fans are at IF3, watching XGames, Dew Tour, on NS, watching edits and webseries throughout the season etc. So be sure companies will keep pushing AMs, backcountry skiers, non-Olympics athletes, movie featured riders etc.

Obviously, companies such as Atomic, Rossignol, Salomon, Volkl will probably add some cash for their athletes doing the Olympics, but you cannot compare them to Line, Armada, Faction or APO. Also, yes, some phone carriers, insurance companies or car manufacturers might jump on the freeskiing train and give some more cash to the one who will podium, but it is really that bad ?

I just think we all should relax on this big Olympics thing, it didn't went bad for snowboarding, and there is not any reason yet to freak out.
 
Im pretty sure ski filming is bigger then ever. and that you are a jealous baby bitch.

Sorry redbull doesn't want to pay you 6 figures to spin on boxes.
 
Also, I would really like some info on the course design , and the qualifications to compete.
 
I think it would be interesting if at the olympics noone wore the designated outerwear and made it into another orage masters.
 
I just hope the course will allow a minimum of creativity. Not a boring 3 jumps 2 rails format. Where the riders wont be able to showcase what our sport is (or was) about.

I'm really excited to see what will come out of this though!
 
Actually it did...The way the olympics handle snowboarding is pretty terrible and the general consensus in the core snowboarding and even most of the athletes is that the olympics are run terribly. Snowboarders have created organizations to try and work with the IOC and use the platforms and methods of competition judging and organization that they have perfected over the last few decades. The IOC has repeatedly shut down snowboarders and decided to do it all their own way.
 
It would be sick if the riders got together and put out the most stylish runs. No dubs but sick shit.

The announcers are going to get America stoked on how many flips someone does. The real question is will burton still be the official outerwear and if everybody gets to wear Shan white tight pants.
 
The worst part of the Olympics has nothing to do with the actual Olympics. Nothing is going to happen b/c freeskiers are on NBC/TV for 4 hours.(they already are w/ the dew tour/xgames)

The problem is organization. Trickle down. Every kid on twintips should be enrolled in a freeski program right? That's a lot of money and the USSA/FIS knows it. Everyone of those kids should have the olympic dream implanted into their brain! Dollar Signs!

I look at the East Coast Comp scene and it is lame as fuck compared to 5-10 years ago. Every kid is apart of some team/program and pays theirs due to the USSA so they can compete for plastic trophies. That is not freeskiing, that is little league. An industry is only has strong as its roots.

 
I'm kinda pissed about the FIS GS turn radius regulations. Does anybody know if these need apply in the Olympics?
 
he isnt saying the olympics arent bad, he is saying that snowboarding is still cool even with the olympics.

WHY DOES ANYONE GIVE A SINGLE SHIT THOUGH?! SKIING WILL NOT CHANGE IN THE SLIGHTEST FOR 99.9% OF SKIERS. After the olympics im going to ski the same park at the same mountain as always. Level 1, Stept, and Poor Boyz will all make another movie, and everyone can go on with their lives.
 
Dont these contradict each other?

A ski company wont support someone who sells skis. So they would continue supporting people who do sell skis such as yourself?

Line and Yoke arent going to drop you for Gus. Dont worry Andy.
 
My only wish is that the Olympics doesn't turn someone like Wallisch into a Shaun White figure. Before the 2010 Olympics Shaun White wasn't all that bad (likability wise). After the Olympics he gained a shit load of popularity and forever changed into the Shaun White we all hate with our motherfucking guts. I just really hope that the Sochi Olympics doesn't turn one of our sports guys into that.
 
This is a really good point, formatting the road to success and the tricks to win a slope style undermine the point of the sport. The one benefit I see though is more money being put into parks with the increased recognition of the sport. Maybe even some govt funding much like how baseball diamonds and hockey rinks are subsidized
 
I would say there's a few separate entities you have to look at concerning the impact of the Olympics on the industry, the athletes, the sponsors, and the retailers, both online and brick and mortar.

Like some have said, many Olympic sports stay relatively out of the mainstream spotlight during non-Olympic years, especially with winter sports. Summer games are a whole other animal. There are a few athletes that will become household names, and when I say a few, I mean like 1-3 athletes.

What it comes down to with the big sponsors you guys have mentioned, credit cards and phone companies, it really depends on the marketability of the athlete. They won't invest money in them if they feel there's no room for a return.

Some companies may see a surge in hype, GoPro is a prime example with their recent Xgames sponsorship.

As far as our kind of people go, the brick and mortar guys, the Olympics may help turn on the sport to people that otherwise would have no idea existed. And that's what gets us stoked. If people come in our store, stoked they saw somebody doing something they never have seen before, and they want to experience it too, there's nothing that gets us more amped!

All in all, if it turns people onto the sport, great! If not, it's not gonna stop any of us from gettin out there!
 
Let me take something out:

"Nothing will trickle down and it will only be harder for non Olympic skiers make it in skiing."

That was wild speculation, and shouldn't have stated that.

None of this is going to have any effect on me personally, and I'm talking about other people who want to be film skiers. More money might be pushed onto kids who do comps rather then filming. We also have lost TSP, Rage, and Meatheads over the years making it harder for up and comers to get a film part. Olympics aren't making new movie company's that are exposing talented non comp skiers.

And the guy who called me a bitch can fuck off. I'm more then lucky to be doing what I do, and know it.

Other then that everything I said is true.

Skiers will be in Visa commercials.

FIS will change something soon as some gets hurt (knock on wood nothing happens).

All of this is also 100% fundamentally against why this faction of skiing started. What is happening is a new faction of skiing is being created.

I understand that my comment was negative but I don't feel like that towards competitive skiing, the skiers, or even the Olympics. I dont like to see outside organizations with dozens of pages of rules, tests, and power to decide what how things will happen.

 
I kind of feel like the money thats gets pushed into our sport after the olympics will either be really good or really bad.
 
Sorry, I meant that Olympics did not affect in a negative way snowboarding and snowboarders in general.

The IOC indeed did such a terrible job with organization and judging !

I feel like the AFP and FIS are working together and that Olympics shouldn't be that bad for freeskiing.

 
I feel like the soon to be injection of cash into this aspect of skiing will be very welcomed. lots of the bigger small-time ski companies will see marked increases in sales. and it wouldn't surprise me if the larger production companies like Level 1, PB, and Matchstick saw an easy 25-50% increase in sales for Olympic year movies since going out and buying a movie is the obvious thing for most of the people who only just see the sport but are super stoked on it to do.

sure there will be a few more people in the park, but that also means many resorts will put more money and effort into the park.

I can only see this as a good thing. and if you don't like all the attention, no one's stopping you from going out into the middle of nowhere and skiing some sick lines and making a booter and shredding all day long miles from the nearest gaper.
 
i think it's more about safety than money. having kids in programs helps them develop their bag of tricks safely in a controlled environment via tramp, water ramp and air bag before putting them to snow instead of just having them huck their meat on some park kicker. yes, athletes need to pay dues to their governing bodies but a lot of that money goes towards insurance, putting on sanctioned comps, etc... it's shitty that we need to have everyone insured but that's a price we pay in 2013 with everyone looking to blame someone else for their problems.

in Ontario, the best park skiers on any given day are the ones that i've seen developed through the programs and now i see two athletes from these programs named to the national team with one guaranteed to be going to Sochi.

kids in the comp scene aren't just competing for "plastic trophies", they're accumulating points to eventually get the invite to join their respected regional teams where they'll get better coaching to eventually get to where they want to be in the sport. organization is what sport has become now. national associations are more focused on developing their atheltes now and maybe i'm biased because i am involved in FIS/AFP comps but it's a much better system than just saying "go out and learn shit on your own then we'll have a tryout, take the best, and we'll take all the credit".

you say "an industry is only is as strong as its roots" but i think having hoards of freeski athletes making meeting up in the morning next to racers shows an industry's strength. it shows possible corporate sponsors that freeskiing is a sport worth investing some dollars in. let's face it, good parks don't build themselves. there's reasons the big parks in North America have a title sponsor.

i know it's cool to have a "fuck the man" kind of attitude (believe me, i used to have the "fuck FIS" stickers and shirt) but if kids want to progress and go to the olympics and national champs this is the route they need to go.
 
Ok, I understand what you're saying now. You are right the Olympics don't really affect snowboarding every year but in the year leading up to the olympic year they affect the competition circuit and thin out the field. The problem with this is there isn't a way to determine a snowboarding season champion if you can't get all the best people at one event. I think that is one of my biggest problems with the olympics and snow sports. If they just adopted the competition circuits already in place it would work out much better for the athletes.
 
Whether or not it's about money, money still becomes an issue. What happens when these programs become standard, and you have to shell out a ton of money to go to a water ramp, get judged by someone, then go to snow and also get judged by someone just to do a backflip?

Oh, that already happened to Moguls.

I don't want to see the terrain park become another race arena. How long until you need USSA membership to hit jumps or a halfpipe?
 
that's what it already is in the competitive side of the sport. if you don't want to compete in sanctioned events that will further you in rankings, don't. if you want to compete for money and stand on a podium, go for it.

it already costs money to go to a water ramp, use an air bag, get into a tramp facility so that part of your argument is invalid.

the programs are also there to give parents piece of mind regarding their child's safety. most parents i know want their kids learning in a safe environment where they are taught park etiquette and shown how to progress instead of them blindly sending a 60ft stepdown to flat and knocking themselves out or trying a rail for the first time and knocking out their teeth. if you want to go inverted in a sanctioned comp you need to be certified. this prevents kids from hucking themselves and dying.

programs will never become a "standard" but the top skiers i've seen in the regional and national levels have come from grassroots freestyle/freeski programs. they progress faster because they have coaches working with them.

the athletes i'm mainly referring to here will be the comp skiers of the world like Bobby Brown, Russ Henshaw, Goepper, etc... there will always be a place for the "soul" skiers like the Travelling Circus guys and the majority of the Level 1 athletes to name a few.
 
if the whole idea of a problem is that money will be directed towards them from large retailers outside of skiing, then there wont be a problem.

Film companies will still sell films sponsored by ski companies, because those movies sell skis. More money will be directed towards comp heavy hitters by companies like Verizon, Target, Polo, and others, which is already happening. Ski companies will probably throw good chunks of change at these athletes, but nothing like the international retailers will.

If the people who buy skis pay more attention to the film stars and edit makers, then none of this will matter. the core of the industry will stay intact.

For example, the Nordica AM team. Shits fucking awesome, and thats happening as we move into this era.
 
THIS

Things change and I believe it is possible that in five to ten years halfpipes and large jumps will be restricted to private training areas. The same way Aerial jumps, mogul fields, and race courses are.

 
Didn't read the thread, but i think a prime example of a legend who gets his respect is Candide. He doesn't throw trip's in comps, but i don't think anyone would hate on him. Mainly because he doesn't choose to talk and act like a 10 year old. Same with JP and Eric Pollard. Because they don't present themselves as "the official leader's of Jah's skier army", 99% of the ski community still look to them as leaders in the sport.
 
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