Fed Up With Skiing

man.. im gonna come back and spill some shit when i get back.
but i feel yeah.

the one thing i know is that. i will never EVER not be completely overwhelmed by watching it snow. just stopping being quiet and watching it snow... i brought a girl to the mtn and she was not a big time shredder and i made her stop with me and just be quiet and watch it snow. watching it snow. my god is so fucking amazing the way it covers everything. THE SMELL of snow(there is a fucking smell) watching ski tracks get filled in.. realizing that we are lucky to enjoy life. that all that bull shit. means fuck all, in japan they close of powder runs because its art. no snow storm covers up the same way. i used to be like .. FUCK IT SHRED THAT POW.. now i respect the japs idea.. i get it.. i feel it.
i live in a place that snows once or twice a year(Portland ore) so when it does... and every one is freaking the fuck out and lighting bbq's in there house and dying.... im sitting outside with a cup of tea. doing nothing.. thinking.. being in my peace.

just a start.. i got to go to the chiropractor. but i wll come back and drop some shit.
 
I definitely enjoyed the read. Also proud to say after 16 years of skiing, it is my number one passion in life and I hope it never dies.
To me there really is nothing like getting out to the hill/mountain/back yard/what ever it is you can ski on, meet up with your buddies and just ride. I just turn my cell phone off and enjoy the time.
 
awww shit, NS oldtimers are growing up.

Skiing hasn't grown old for me yet because it's a new adventure every season.

I started skiing regularly when I was about 13.

When I was 14-17 I was in the park, learning, jumping around, having a blast.

Couple years ago I got my drivers license. Suddenly I could go to any hill I wanted.

Last season I packed up my shit and moved to BC for the winter, Ontario was at risk of becoming stale.

This season I spent the winter in Whistler. I spent a lot more time out of bounds hitting up side country exploring.

I've realized that if I want to make the most of skiing I have to keep that spirit of "new" every time I go out. Like Mark said, I make a point to push myself everytime I go skiing. Because, for me; every day is a new opportunity to do something I couldn't do before and won't be able to do in the future.

Next season I'm moving back to the interior, armed with touring gear for the first time.

It's going to be a good year.
 
Holy shit you just summed up this season for me. I went up 3 times total compared to the 45+ times 3 years ago and 20+ times last year. All of which due to what you said above "you hit the point where real life takes priority"
 
Man I can totally relate to this. Last year I had 40 days, totally digging it, spending the night up in the pass with my friends. Then this year, living at home (cheaper), freshman in college, in the marching band, friends moved away, and whole bunch of other stuff. I lost the spark, and I no longer wanted to go skiing for fear of hurting myself and not being able to perform. Or even just wrecking myself and being really achy for a week. Its just not worth it for me. I've been up 6 times this year, Most of which have been pow days. They have been fun, but they definitely lack that vibe they had last year when I was with my buds. Even when I ski with other people its just not the same. The lines and places they want to ski are different then where we would ski, and the lift lines seem even longer then usual. I really cant wait for summer. My friends will be back, I'm going on a big bike trip, and I'm teaching a local parade drumline.
 
me too man. first time in 12 years that I didn't step on a pair of skis. it actually kind of scares me. skiing got me through so much stuff. it what's I turned to when my father died and what I did when life got too tough. this year when I would normally be chasing storms I was in bed preparing for work. I'm determined to not be one of those people who just stops. I love it but for the first time in my life skiing has to take a back seat to other things.
 
this has actualy been one thread i will remember. you sir are a great writer.untill i was 13 i was skiing 55+ days a year since the age i started racing which was about age 3-4 but when i was 14 i broke my ankle for that season i didnt ski and by that time i was getting fed up with the sport but when i came back age 15 i said fuck racing fuck skiing for some one else i wanna do somthing i have never done ski for my self.since then on winter break and spring break i take a huge back country trip every weekend in between i ski park.give it time once yo cant ski for a period of time you will love it even more.-my take on thingsAlex
 
I cant believe so many people on here relate to this thread. I am aging myself but I feel like i get better and better and are more addicted. I have given up a lot though. travel year round to ski, so havent spent much time with family over the last few years, also working jobs that have no where near income of what i could be making, but somehow i feel compelled to continue. I fuckin love it. It is truly a lifestyle and even as I travel less in the next few years I plan to stay really involved. dont ever want to feel that way. ever
 
this was a great thread, i kind of feel this way but im only 17 and there is literally no other priority that gets in the way of skiing. I love it but the spark has not returned since like midway through this season

it mainly is focused around me being scared of/not liking progressing in the park
 
This is what's happening to me next year. College is coming up and it's time to get ready for the big bad real world, and where I'm going there's really no skiing.

Given, I'll have winter break to ski but we'll see how much skiing I actually do. I did get the privilege to spend my last 4 days of the season in Park City, 3 of which involved ripping powder at Park City on what some of the locals were calling the best days they've had all year. Couldn't have asked for a better last few days.

It makes me sad but then again skiing and I had a good run. Hopefully it's not over forever for me. I know I'll definitely get back on my skis at some point, but who knows if it will be the same.

Edit from my last day from my last full season at my home hill:

PFC INm8 from Evan Schurr on Vimeo.

:( I'm gonna miss everyone.
 
First point - yes, skiing has ALWAYS been a fashion show. Always has, and more than likely always will. The styles and fashions change, that is all.

Skiing is the one thing that I can definitively state that it shaped my life. I owe almost entirely, my present existence to skiing. Despite being away from the park scene due to injury and getting to the point where the risk is no longer greater than the reward, I do not regret it one bit.

I still long for winter, and while crappy condition days are no longer as fun without park, I look forward to powder days like nothing else. I have made my best friendships through the sport and experienced things I never would've without it. I can also say with utmost confidence that I cannot wait for the day when I can pass on my skiing knowledge to my children and teach them to rip.
 
Mike-O,
The indie hipster BS you have just posted is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul. No, Really skiing is still the same fun that it always has been, it will never change no matter how many tall t's kids wear or how many double corks a 12 year old throws.
Yours truly,General_ripper
 
this.

although op sometimes when i don't go for like 2 weeks i lose it a little but as soon as i know i'm going again i get it back
 
brought a tear to my eye, mostly because the second dream i have ever remembered in my life i had last night (the first was about the apes from planet of the apes killing me and my family when i was 9) and it was about skiing neck deep powder with some of my best friends. Thank you I enjoyed that very much.
 
Sad to say the time for skiing and I has come and gone for now. I still do thoroughly enjoy it, but not 90+ day seasons enjoy it. I just can't seem to find the time these days. Other things have caught my attention, and I'm growing up too. School, work, travelling etc. is taking priority. Skiings taking the backseat for now, but I'm sure things will come around in a year or two.
Riveting read btw.
 
I Ski and Board, and both sports are pretty much similar it's a great joy to just grab a board out of a cat and go for it for in the hardpack half the day then go hiking in the afternoon with a per of powsticks and give it all you got. That said Skiing is just one of the most enjoyable memorable things that you can't find anywhere else.
 
Wow, glad to hear that. Feels really good if something you write evokes an emotional response.
 
Wow truly excellent writing. Your voice is profound and it hits me on an emotional level like not very many pieces can. I really was interested in how you and all the veterans to our sport were feeling. I personally have skied since i was around 5 and its been great. I thought i knew what i was doing last year the season of my fourteenth year and ninth year skiing. But i didn't but that didn't mater i had no idea there was a word called steeze or any of the other things associated with our culture. But that didnt matter rocking my gaper gear, i discovered the, passion/ addiction that skiing is. And this season was my tenth. I found a great group of people to ski with a and at this point had learned the culture. I wasn't very good and i still am not, this was my first season park skiing and i got down lots of things and pushed myself hard. For the life of me i could not learn 360s and eventually one night i left my team and went to the jib-park, with the one small kicker and i hiked that jump the whole night until eventually i got it and it was the greatest feeling ever my addiction had just found a new face. I have always loved skiing backcountry and whatever little powder i can find, unfortunately Mt. Hood does not offer to much fresh stuff so I have to go else where for that . The same week i learned threes and was getting better i took it to actual big jumps. I was fine and then the fluke happened, the same trick i had been stomping all day ended my season. I went home that day with a broken collarbone and still my drive for skiing was their, the first thing i asked the doctor in the mountain hospital, was "How long till i can ski again?" I get the whole addiction thing. This summer i am going to NZ and i am getting to heliski. I cant wait for this great opportunity and to be able to experience a new style for my skiing. I sincerely hope that i will never quit skiing. I know that one day i wont go up insane amounts of days or in the 55 mph winds and pelting rain. But i Hope that i never quit, even though i imagine going cold turkey with skiing would be very hard. I want to one day show my kids the joy of skiing and be one of the old guys, rocking the latest fashion from years bakc, that goes straight down the ridiculous blacks. Even though i got injured the reward still outweighs the risk. Not to say im crazy enough to ski while im broken, even though i did hike up to a park to watch a comp. I really cant wait till the doc says im good to go and im up nightskiing that night.
 
Hit the nail on the head man. Damn. I still love skiing just forget how much I love it sometimes. Fuck having a stupid little thing such as your toenail stop you from skiing...it sucks.
 
once im out there. a semi organised ramble by Jim Noyes

you know.. skiing changes.. i remember being 3 years old and being put on a pair of Nordic skis by my father in Illinois ,man what a pain in the ass that was. im 25 today and skiing has shaped me in ways that i could never imagine. some of the best times of my life when i was a god forsaken snowblader from 13 -16 when i switched back from it. just riding up with my parents in our old van to mt hood. it seemed that the weather was harsher back then but i have hours of footage of my friends and i hucking our body's off of jumps n 90 cm planks. it was about having a fucking fun time and catching air and finding some random bump or cornice and making they tranny.. you know about making the tranny .. when you gleam the cube on some little thing on the side of a run and you make it so smooth that your skis barely move. i fucking love that shit. gleam the fucking cube.! those mornings when your were a kid and you slept the whole ride up there and once you got out there it was amazing.
and that is what is hard. we hold onto the ideals of what got us there, and brothers i must tell you all i am guilty as charged. when me and my snowblader friends got skis back on our feet. our mentality changed. i was about tricks... spin all 4 ways. that was our goal for every spin. i was all the fuck about my line skogan;s and all about my Line hat and stickers.. my fuck, stickers. it was about FUCK YOU I FUCKING SKI!!!. going to MSP and poor boyz premiers and fighting for swag. i mean shit i had a good time. but it seemed back then every one was just more stoked, and again,,, i started driving myself up with my friends and more money came out of my pocket and more hoops to jump in to get up there. but again once i got up there . it was worth it. every time.

so i graduate high-school, and move up to government camp at the tender age of 18. got a job as a park guy. and then lifts. now that winter was awful the term :JUNEuary was coined. the base never got about 100 in. it was my life but living in government camp is soul crushing. did a lot of drugs and drank, by the end of my time up there skiing became so boring.. i was stoned and just hanging out. and i stopped skiing in large for the last two months i lived there. but i made new friends up there and the fun was still there. but it was different.
now i move to Leadville Colorado. to attend that shit school know as CMC. i was like. cool bro i will work at a ski area the rest of my life.. now moving to Colorado made me ski less park and more epic steeps and cliffs and tech stuff. made some really good friends.. but i could tell at that time skiing had begun to change. i was in a shop in breck and was talking to a tech about some motherships and we talked about skiing, and he out of know where says " if you do not have all your 270's down you ain't shit at breck." i was taken back on that. i was like . fuck that i ski to have fun. fuck you asshole. left. so i went through all that and got a job in lift maintained at copper. with that i stopped skiing. the idea of coming to play where you just got off of work . killed me. killed my skiing love. so i moved back home to Oregon.
i come back to find that all my freinds have quit skiing and pretty much was on my own.
im sorry. im tired .. im leaving this empty ended cause yeah.the other day i was at ski bowl and i just slayed this epic pow line and then two guys in saga the fuck up tall =t short poles come behind me( they fallowed me to the good) and im like hey guys hella nice out there and put my pole out to do a skiers high five and they just look at me and laugh and pass by.. i yell.. FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!! i have long poles my goggles are on the out side of my helmet. my skis are not rockers.. but i know . those two fuckstains could not keep up with me any day of the week on the steeps.

but once im out there .. all the bull shit melts away.. my fucking life. my women that i hate, my fucked up heart. my old dad. the fact that i want to smoke pot but cant. its all gone. ive spent more money on skiing then any other drug. ive chosen skiing over much more pressing matters and have fucked my health up many a time. but once im out there.. its all gravy.
peace motherfucker. sorry about a ramble if you read it all.
 
That was a good read, would have enjoyed a bit more capitalization and such (hehe) but I digress. Still, I'm glad that in our skiing culture here yelling at or dismissing other random people completely is pretty rare. That would be damn irritating.
 
This is exactly what I've felt like for the past few months, not just as extreme. I always have the little spark of exciment at the beginning of the season, but from there it just slowly fades away. I really wish I could make that spark last the whole season. I miss those times when I could really commit to skiing, but for now I dont have the motivation...
 
I'm not sure if you're serious or not, but I really don't get what is indie or hipster in my text. Also, quoting Billy Madison seems kind of unrelated.

Skiing has changed a shit-ton since 1997, for example, so I don't know what you're talking about.
 
That was well worth my time. You should make a profession out of your profound writing skills! I guess it just comes to some people naturally.
 
I think it's a good progression in a way, it's often in situations like this that you can "discover" something again years, even decades later and it's fresh again.
 
So Sorry dude fuck the people that give us young people bad rep with the vets. The pow at skibowls awesome, i cant wait to be able to go up again.
 
I know what you mean. This year, I just wasn't enjoying it anywhere near as much as I have. I just didn't want to hit the hill. Then in February, I had an amazing powder day, and on the second run, I realized that when I'm skiing, nothing else matters. I just wasn't feeling the usual passion, but just for a few minutes, it was amazing. I really hope I never give it up, but it's probably going to happen. Still, though, there's this one guy at the mountain who's about 85, still shreds all day, so that makes me hopeful.
 
It's a quite difficult a feeling to put into words, you could compare it to a slight form of depression as it may lead one to think "Is there something wrong with me because I'm not enjoying this as much as I should?"
 
4 sure.. i have this idea of right when i graduated High school and moved up to gov-vie.. its a feeling,, i hear it in songs.. i will be skiing down a run and smell a tree( a real tree not weed) and be brought back to that time. i look at it like friends. you cant go over and spend the night and play battle toads anymore but when you see your friends your stoked to seem them still.
Ive had to change the recipe as ingredients come and go. to get the cookie i want the other day. in fact my whole old gang some how got up to the mtn at the same time... holy shit it was a fucking blast.

the main thing man. is that you may not enjoy it right now.. don't ever get the idea that skiing is what is bringing you down and that you need to avoid it.
 
Dude, this was so good to read. Thanks for that, you summed it all up, good to know I'm not the only one.
I'll still sum up my situation though just in case it illuminates anything.
In high school, skiing defined my life, I obsessed over every aspect and repped every skiing-related thing I could. I didn't really associate with the people in my high school, instead looking forward to going to the mountain as much as possible and riding with people I met up there (some through NS). I'd spend a month looking forward to a ski film premiere, buy every ski movie I could afford, and spend all my time on NS saturating myself with the skiing culture. I was a skier through and through, and though I wasn't that good in the park I felt like I had a place that fit. I could answer any identity-related question with something to do with skiing, and I was proud of being that kid who wears bright clothes that are too tall.
Then as high school wrapped up, it just started fading away a bit as other aspects of life came into play. What I'm gonna do as a job, girl issues, education, etc. Went to university and got less than 20 days of riding. Didn't ride my backyard setup once last summer.
At first this falling out with skiing was so scary. Since skiing was who I was, I felt like I was essentially losing my identity. I tried to progress to define myself as a skier, then as a result stopped having as much fun while riding. This just made me less stoked, feel less identified, and into a bit of depression.
I started finding other things that I liked a lot over the past year (like making music), and now that I can identify myself with that I can accept that I'm not JUST a skier, and the pressure is gone. I love skiing again, and though I don't find myself daydreaming about it all jittery every day, I enjoy my time on the hills more than almost anything. Nothing to prove, just amazing times with amazing people, in amazing locations. I don't think that love will ever go away, even if it isn't always the first thing on my mind.
 
Shit that sums up this last couple seasons for me. I've been focusing too much on filming and trying to get a name for myself then enjoying myself. If I'm not getting shots I start getting all down because the last two season's I have had such shitty season edits. I wish I could go back to the first year I started park skiing where it was just about having fun. No one judged you for how good you were, if you were having fun people were stoked. Now it's like every time you head to the hill kids are judging you on what tricks you are doing, how you dress, and damn it's just overwhelming. I long for that day that skiing gives me the same stoke that it used to. It really doesn't help getting on an Am team and then getting dropped though. It really turns my perspective on my future around.

/rant
 
Damn well said. I mostly did the same thing in high school, during breaks usually just playing DNA Spin or some other skiing game on the computers instead interacting with other people. It really affected my experience, as when I started skiing less (or there was no skiing) people weren't that interested in me as I always just surfed NS or talked about skiing.

It's kind of hard to realize, but now I do see it clearly and though there are no regrets, I do wish I would have been less introverted when it came to representing myself almost exclusively as a skier.
 
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