Fed Up With Skiing

The truth is, skiing has always been the same for me. I will always love it with the same enthusiasm I had when I was young.

What has changed, is my interest in ski-world happenings. I just can't seem to give a shit about pros, movie premiers, or the Olympics.
 
Maybe there is a difference about that with some of us late bloomers (started skiing at 15) compared to toddler waddlers off the bunny hill.

Would be nice to see some NS statistics at what age people started skiing.
 
i started at 3 years old and i never have and never will get tired of skiing. i get tired of other people who ski sometimes, but i don't let it affect my relationship with the snow and the mountain. when i'm up there, nothing else matters except the next line, turn, air, etc. i also go to the ski film festival every year and i thoroughly enjoy watching the pros shred on the big screen.
 
You pretty much put my exact thoughts on paper, thanks. Oddly enough, I started to drift away from the skiing culture after my sophomore year in high school. That season, I got 60+ days and had the time of my life. Last year though i only got out around 30 days and even then I had to force myself to go. And now, I'm not even sure if I'm going to buy a pass for the upcoming season.
 
First of all, great writing. I agree that you should look into some sort of writing career if you enjoy it. Second I think that sometimes to give something up is to show the greatest love. If you can't enjoy it how it should be enjoyed then it is time to give it up because you have nothing positive to contribute. I hope that you will be able to go skiing once again and get the same feeling you once did. Again props to a great thread and more power to you.
 
omg yes.

I love girls LOVE them... But the last few gfs I've had have left such shitty tastes in my mouth I'm just fed up with trying. That doesn't mean I don't wanna get my "like a hammer" on, I'm just burnt out with dealing with someone else's emotions and bs on a daily basis. Just like skiing tho, when the conditions are right all that old bullshit disappears and it's all good again.

That's what I was saying before that you can get burnt out on anything. Shit, I got burnt out on dating a Patriots Cheerleader /claim
 
Holy buggles how come i only see this thread now ?!

anyways, one of the best/deepest reads i've had on NS since a long time + i could totally see myself in there and only got me more motivated to grab myself together and "make" time for skiing...

if i was a chick i'm sure i'd have had a tear in my eye after reading this !

i'll set you to 0/10k just so i can bump you back up to 10 !

really nice work mike !
 
I agree with most of this. Just the fact that I read an op that long says something. I wish we had more on here like this instead of some of the crap I see. Quality post +++ k
 
Thanks. I still think the wall of text scares some people judging from the views to reply ratio, but I'm hoping here in Ski Gabber it could get some more discussion and experiences going on.
 
im a lifer, the love will never die. Maybe you should just get some tele skis and ski powder and a find a cool hippy girl.
 
This thread is not just about me, I'm just voicing how I felt and other's like yourself are bringing their own to the table.

However, the love is not lost. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this stuff right now. It's the passion, the ways to do it, the need to be out there that's being cold-shouldered by other things.

And again, with all this powder and telemark talk, ain't actually up my alley, or easily accessible from where I am. "Well go somewhere with powder then". Well, that would require the passion, the need, to put down skrilla on something you've never really cared for.

And screw hippie chicks.
 
Just popping back in here with an update.

Graduation sure makes you think alot about life....

So turns out, my love of skiing isn't lost, I knew it would never leave. It never will.

All that's happening is that I'm maturing. I'm starting to realize that the dream of going pro isn't realistic, so it's time to weigh my other options. Skiing doesn't hold a good future, so instead of investing 100% of my time into it, I'm investing 10% of my time, and the remaining 90% is being invested in my future, which is very exciting.

It will always be my favourite thing to do, I just don't pursue it with the fire that I did 1 season ago; trying to become the best.

The passion remains, merely the goal has changed.

Even if I had gone pro, at the age of 30, where would I have gone? Nowhere. A burnt out pro skier.

Last year, my plan was to move to whistler, become close to a ski bum, and live my life with only one goal, to ski everyday. I would've done this for years, making no career progression; making no life progression at all, other than enjoying skiing.

But now I realize that plan was far from reality.

I'll be moving to Australia in 5 months, to go to university full time, starting in March. Without skiing, times won't be as hard as i thought they'd be, i'll substitute skiing with surfing, because, really, all I need is a sport that i can thrive on and enjoy.

Circumstances change, but one day I'll be back on the slopes, shredding park all day. Or maybe I'll grow to liking powder, which seems to be so dreaded on this site for some reason.

Anyways, I know nobody cares, but sometimes letting your thoughts loose, send other aspects of life forward.

The passion will never leave, It has to merely be put on hold, as other things in life become more important.

Like my future.
 
Yeah man, you really need to try skiing some deep stuff, I probably would not have the same love for skiing if all I could look forward too was park park and some groomers. Powder skiing is the essence of the sport for me.
 
But if there's never been a real interest, as for probably many others, how can you say that it's the true essence of something?
 
I honestly believe there's something about skiing deep pow that can't be expressed by words. It's why tanner hall called it "real skiing", it's why TGR looks down on NS, it's why there's a negative expression for park rats and not for people who shred pow, and it's why you'll never see more smiles from people than on a pow day. It's skiing in its purest and most perfect form, hence the essence bit.
 
I started at like 4 and have skied Around 30 days a season ever sence then, last year when I really started to get into park and NS's I got this fire inside, I skiied as often as possible with 50days. This year I have 20 days and just got back from my condo were I skied 13 days in a row the last couple days were sorta depressing because the landings were rock hard and such. Eitherway I skied everyday I could this break because I know when the summer comes I'll wish I had skied every time I had the chance
 
Although maybe it's because it's been the worst season I've seen in my life out west so far, haunt skied any pow yet :,(
 
I went skiing yesterday for a few hours, alone, but it was fun. My boots seem way too tight though and my bindings seem a bit off, it's like the DIN won't tighten properly since I'm heavier than a few years ago and my left binder kept releasing for no reason.

 
As far as the actual physical activity, It's really all a balance for me. If I get to the mountain and try new shit and land it I feel great after, If I don't land anything I feel ok because I was progressing. If I get to the mountain and try the usual shit that I have done 1000 X and I fuck up, I get really annoyed and anxious and go home feeling really dissatisfied.
What I am fed up with is the state of media and content being produced right now. Its like anyone can slap a 7d/t2i/somedslr on a glidecam, go on hype machine and click popular songs, get some film burns in there, maybe some bad tv and become a god. The whole filming style, from the shoulder floating down the hill, its just become so repetitious and mediocre. Duncan Lake perfected it last year, guys like DTF and other certain individuals are just recycling the filming style, and I find plain boring to watch. The skier in the center of the frame, just floating around a mile away from the camera because you have your fucking UWA at 10mm. I literally can't watch ski videos anymore because of this shit.
This is still the best edit ever made (other than evan william's shit with dale talkington):
JON BROGAN TRANSFIXED EDIT from Tyler Weinberger on Vimeo./images/flash_video_placeholder.png

 
Fuck you. Do you want to know why? Because English isn't even your first language and that was better then anything I could dream of writing. Thanks for the read.
 
berneydidnotread.gif
 
Do you still play the sports you played when you were in high school or younger?

Do you still ski?

Do you plan on having a hobby/recreational activity/excercise when your older?

Do you plan on teaching your kids how to ski?

The role of skiing in our lives will change but it will always be there. I think working your ass off and then spending your two vacation weeks per year heli-skiing in Alaska or teaching your son how to 'step on the gas pedal' will be more just as if not more rewarding than landing your first backflip.
 
I rode a lift with an 87 year old last year. He started skiing in 1931. Want to know what aspect of skiing he was most fired up about? Keeping at it so that he'd be to ski with his two year old great-grandson. That guy had a fire and a passion for skiing twice as intense as most people a quarter of his age have, and that's where it came from. For this guy, it was all about staying in the game so that he could share one of the aspects of his life that he'd enjoyed the most with one of the people he loved the most.

Life is about priorities, and priorities can and should change over time. If you want to evolve into an adult that generally means learning how to take care of yourself, and developing the capacity to take care of other people. For the overwhelming majority of us, that means emphasizing things like figuring out how to earn a living and maintain a relationship and figuring out how to reconcile skiing with those priorities, instead of making skiing the main priority and figuring out how to reconcile that with making a living and building a family.There's a handful of folks that have been able to make that work, but the hard truth is that if you aren't standing on podiums or highlighting film segments by the time you are 18 you probably aren't one of them.

If you want to be a stoked 87 year old you'll turn skiing into a way to enrich your life that's consistent with your most fundamental priorities as they evolve over time, and learn to take satisfaction in aspects of skiing that are consistent with them. Your relationship with the sport will change, but play your cards right and it'll change in ways that make it even better. More satisfying. More meaningful.

Wanna burn out and hang-it up by 30, if not sooner? Turn skiing into an obsession that complicates or detracts from all of your other goals and roles in life, and restrict yourself to finding joy and satisfaction in whatever aspects of the sport that you found most compelling as a teenager.

It doesn't have to be like that, so take a lesson from the 87 year old who's still out there getting after it and don't make it like that.

 
Thank you for posting, I really enjoyed reading your reflection... I didn't ski at all last season due to personal reasons, and the college process ( =[ ), and coming back to it has been kind of intimidating. And it shouldn't feel that way. I just want to have fun in the park, and ski around with my friends, but instead people give me looks when I don't do a trick on every jump, or they call kids posers who are just having fun. Its lame. I wish people could just wear what they want to wear, have fun, do what they want to do, and have nobody give it a second thought.
 
10110617:AWALLRUS. said:
FUCKING INSPIRATIONAL WORDS MIKKO. IF YOU WROTE A BOOK, I WOULD READ IT. AND I HATE READING BOOKS A LOT.

I COULD NOT IN MY LIFE IMAGINE NOT CLICKING IN FOR OVER 2 YEARS, IVE SKIED EVERY SEASON A BUNCH OF TIMES SINCE I WAS 2/3 YEARS OLDS. I EVEN COUNTED 71 TIMES SKIING THIS SEASON.

NO MATTER WHAT, I WILL TRY MY HARDEST TO SKI FOREVER, IT MAY NOT HAPPEN, BUT IM GONNA TRY MY HARDEST TO SKI AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. I HAVE AFEELING ILL RUN INTO SOME PROBLEMS SOON, WHEN I MOVE INTO THE REALWORLD AND IM NOTA KID ANYMORE.

BUT SKIING I MY LIFE RIGHT NOW AND WITHOUT IT I AM NOTHING. I CAN RELATE TO THE POST ABOVE ABOUT HAVING TROUBLE COMMUNICATING WITH PEOPLE. I REALIZED THATAFTER THIS SEASON, AND IT SUCKS BUT IM TRYING TO WORK THOUGH IT.

PEACE FOR NOW

LOVE

AWALLACE
Click to expand...

over 9 years and two knee surgeries later I am still jamming in as many days as I possibly can and made my life revolve around the ski industry. I feel proud when I read thoughts as a teenager and look at where I am today. unfortunately I still worry about what I will be without it one day and reckon that it will be sooner rather than later. but even though I am older than ever I am still getting better every day that I put my skis on and that makes me glad.
 
I have to admit I felt that way about skiing for a few years but this past year has made me feel like I did when I was a kid skiing all the time. It feels like I got the spark back and I love it again
 
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