Future of Halfpipe Skiing?
- Thread starter Redrobin
- Start date
13928949:iFlip said:
Not that it was the most unique thought but I literally clicked the thread to start off by saying "the future of halfpipe skiing is bleak"
Pipes cost way too much money and maintaining a good pipe requires a good cutter and somebody with proper skills to run it. Then at the same time, if you have 1 or 2 jumps and a few rails next to the pipe, most people will hit those instead. This is the same reason mtns decreased the amount of jumps. Some of the jumps got bigger obviously, but putting in rail features is a lot easier and less snow consuming than jumps. Hell I remember 12-15 jump lines places. And you might find like 2 rails in those parks.
But people love rails these days, and there's a lot of ways to build and set them up creatively. It makes more sense to just spend 20 grand building and maintaining rails than to spend 50k+ on a decent cutter, hundreds of thousands on snowmaking, and paying somebody with skills to cut it. Because even if you get it perfect, if nobody is riding it other than a few die hard pipe riders what's the point?
At one point it was all about the pipe. If you didn't have a pipe you didn't have a real park. Everyone got one of the chain driven pipe dragons, built some earth works, and got their stunt ditch on. By the end of the 90s I feel like even the local sledding hills were building pipes, they were everywhere.The sign that your mountain has a had a park longer than 15 years is an old rusted to fuck 14' pipe dragon dying a slow death in the boneyard.
Rails are cheap and pretty easy to deal with, their are so many options for them. That's why some mountains have 150 rails but only 10-20 jumps.
Pipes are cool but it's dying the fuck out. I don't think it's because 22 is too big, I think people literally just don't give a fuck about pipe anymore. At those diehard pipe resorts with a perfect cut you'll have sick people lapping all day throwing down. Most places pipes are ghost towns even on a saturday. It's just you, 1 shitty family, and that old guy crushing the cords on the deck.
RIP pipes
SofaKingSick
Active member
id love to see mini pipes come back into fashion. back when pipes were mega popular (at least for marketing) and parks were still a complete joke at some places, the most fun thing was a mini pipe that was all kinds of fucked up so you had a million different trannies and lips and angles to mess with
Knewnews
Active member
even bear mountain doesn't have a decent pipe due to lack of snow, that says something when 75% of the mountain is park and they have a mini jacked up pipe and a mid size jacked up pipe. i know bear is unique due to the sun and heat making it spring like all season but still, their pipes suck.
pipe skiing is too dependent on the actual pipe, jumps and rails can be sketchy but still doable, when a pipe isn't perfect you have to pop just right or deck out or bottom out. too much risk.
pipe skiing is too dependent on the actual pipe, jumps and rails can be sketchy but still doable, when a pipe isn't perfect you have to pop just right or deck out or bottom out. too much risk.
SofaKingSick
Active member
13929005:Dlonetti said:
youre prob joking but pipe could hardly be more different from aerials
Hey kids, back when I was yurr age we used to have these halfpipe stunt ditch things we'd ski in. They didn't have so many of the grinderbarz and the ramps weren't built as nice. On a early spring day you'd see several people hiking up the walls just lapping the pipe. Those were the good old days before the millennials obsessions with sliding around on sketchy pieces of steel ruined it all.
Rabble rabble get of my damn lawn!
Rabble rabble get of my damn lawn!
hi_vis360
Active member
13929009:SofaKingSick said:
nah dude pipe is actually super similar to aerials. Both are super niche and require facilities that very few mountains even build. Even pipe skis are becoming more specialized; most skis people ride in the park now (soft, rocker) are super different from pipe skis.
That's superpipe though. I think minipipes are gonna make a huge comeback.
SofaKingSick
Active member
13929214:BASEDJAH said:
oh yeah i agree with what you said, i was just talking the actual disciplines themselves. they can literally take gymnasts who can barely ski and they can become amazing in aerials because the actual skiing part isn't very important. pipe on the other hand demands amazing edge control and other ""real skiing"" skills
13929214:BASEDJAH said:
I mean places that have working cutters or fix their old ones have been building mini pipes and mini pipe setups as well. I dont see a lot of people building them for the same reason people dont build the big ones. Snow and having to cut it all the time.
I like when places zaugg the sides of their jumps although its scary if you ever go too big or hit the wrong point and watch your landing fade away till youre supid high in the air.
I want to see people mix more boarder x elements into parks. Hit a rail, surf some turns, small jump, another berm, some rollers, a couple of rails.
Something super flowy.
I would hate if pipes died but i dont thing anything even minis will make a comeback. The era of a lot of mtns having some sort of pipe is dead... rip