FWT2024

14592844:Big_beta said:
Always wondered why Kai Jones doesn’t compete in FWT - does anyone know?

He is almost 18 yrs old I think next month
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He competed as a grom. He won the North American Junior Freeride series when he was 11.

Maybe he could pull a Stan Rey. That was rad at the last stop!

Don't doubt that Kai would step up if he ever entered.
 
14592897:profa_212 said:
you pretty much have to focus your whole season on traveling to different FWQ stops.
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This is something that bothers me. We have seen skiers quit FWT to have a chance at filming possibilities. But earning a solid pay by just doing FWT seems difficult. FWT needs to grow, add more events etc or plan it so that skiers can do both filming and. FWT.
 
Well I'm pretty stoked for tomorrow's (tonight's? Today's? Whatever) event. Zone looks like there's small options, technical and creative options, and I can spot a handful of takeoffs that nobody in their right mind could work - which usually means there's at least one person crazy enough to try.
 
14584417:JalmarKalmar said:
This is Max Palms season
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I guess this was not Max Palms season :(. His run probably would have been a podium run. I still think he is the best freeride skier.
 
Awesome venue with some great performances, but really disappointing results.

I'm really sad to see APoll and all the other Americans off the tour.

Turdell and Hitzig had good runs but were overscored as usual (Thanks Redbull)

Marcus Goguen absolutely deserved his 1st place though
 
Yeah his run was so sick and unique wish he held on

14594597:JalmarKalmar said:
I guess this was not Max Palms season :(. His run probably would have been a podium run. I still think he is the best freeride skier.
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Super sick venue with so many dope line options. Thought hitzigs run was actually pretty sick but thought Apoll got underscored for one of the more interesting lines of the day. Should be exciting lineups for the finals
 
The judges always score anything cross-court so much lower than anything in the fall line. They also seem to prefer air from cliffs over kickers. It kinda invalidates APoll's whole style

14594817:nCrow said:
Super sick venue with so many dope line options. Thought hitzigs run was actually pretty sick but thought Apoll got underscored for one of the more interesting lines of the day. Should be exciting lineups for the finals
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14594583:ToastyGreens said:
Marcus Goguen’s run was absoloutely bonkers. All the riders are puttin down insane runs. Outstanding competition
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Absolutely nuts! I went to bed in the middle of the women’s category, really wish I waited to see his run. Loved his three to start massive and stomped, and my god the cork 7 was insane, can’t believe he landed that. Mad props to goguen
 
Best comp for sure, I think that's the best freeride run I've ever seen that Marcus had.

Sad to see the Americans and my friends Dillon and Kendall go home for sure. Dillon is a filthy good skier, just not his year competing sadly.

14594590:AlmostCooler said:
Goguen is not human. Best freeride run of all time? Best ski comp of all time?
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**This post was edited on Mar 1st 2024 at 4:53:05pm
 
14593293:Ghini said:
This is something that bothers me. We have seen skiers quit FWT to have a chance at filming possibilities. But earning a solid pay by just doing FWT seems difficult. FWT needs to grow, add more events etc or plan it so that skiers can do both filming and. FWT.
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14595155:BigPurpleSkiSuit said:
Am I crazy or did Finn not compete at this stop?
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14595161:BiggieSmallsNZ said:
Yeah he was filming for MSP
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14595179:BigPurpleSkiSuit said:
ohhhhhhhhhh.....did he make the cut already essentially?
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This ^

Good he went for that, although sad to hear he did not compete. I still have to watch the replay.. But hopefully FWT takes notices..
 
14594817:nCrow said:
Super sick venue with so many dope line options. Thought hitzigs run was actually pretty sick but thought Apoll got underscored for one of the more interesting lines of the day. Should be exciting lineups for the finals
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Whats this face/venue like IRL outside of the comp? Easy to get to from a lift with some skins and get out of? I don't see chairs anywhere in sight.

I really wish they'd drop womens skiing and snowboarding and we could get more stops with 2 runs per rider. I forward through the first 3/4 of the comp every time.
 
Overall I’m pretty high on the judging this year…never going to be perfect, but they’ve been pretty consistent. Going into this year made it clear they weren’t hosting a “best trick” competition, and they stood on that. Not that they shouldn’t value freestyle, but at least gave the competitors the playbook (we want big, clean 3’s and backies). Been a little more lenient on bobbles for the big laid out airs, which seems to be helping Max score higher than you’d expect.

Though I like their scoring overall, that Weitien line from Georgia was a CRIMINAL underscore. Hopefully he gets back on, and hopefully when the judges look back on this season they see what they missed. The kid picks lines with such a unique vision, and is willing to billy goat stuff any rational human thinks is impossible. He’s going about the FWT in a way that’s completely unique, and that’ll take time to be recognized for how sick it is. Personally I’d love to see more guys take his approach. It adds so much to the competition to see someone attack a feature you didn’t even realize was a feature. Big backflip off the nose is sick, but would love to see more ways to win with line choice and that billy goat style.

Sad to see APoll move on to other things, but happy for him. Every Alta dude I know speaks so highly of him, truly a special guy to the tour and to his community. Excited for what’s next.

Hitzig debut’d [tag=154780]@tomPietrowski[/tag] ‘s new boot this time around, and it looks like a beast (or maybe he looks like a beast and he wears it?).

Hate seeing the Americans get cut - Flinders got one of the Tour’s toughest underscores on his debut; so many American rookies I think we’re in for a ride as these guys get more experience. Now comes the worst part - watching the challengers, all these guys you’d love to see get another shot but so many sick riders you want to see out there next year as well.
 
14595677:blueberrypaladin said:
Hitzig debut’d [tag=154780]@tomPietrowski[/tag] ‘s new boot this time around, and it looks like a beast (or maybe he looks like a beast and he wears it?).
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he has been on them all season actually this is just the next update with the correct color shell. The boot really is a beast. I have been skiing them all week in Europe and can’t get over how well they ski. Max wanted a boot which skied just as well as a race boot but had freeride features, this new boot is exactly that.

Also stoked to see Manon leading the women’s side she is throwing down this season. Boa boots on top of both men’s and women’s tour!
 
14595744:tomPietrowski said:
he has been on them all season actually this is just the next update with the correct color shell. The boot really is a beast. I have been skiing them all week in Europe and can’t get over how well they ski. Max wanted a boot which skied just as well as a race boot but had freeride features, this new boot is exactly that.

Also stoked to see Manon leading the women’s side she is throwing down this season. Boa boots on top of both men’s and women’s tour!
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will they be available to the public next season? and how did you become product manager, looks like an interesting job.
 
14595744:tomPietrowski said:
he has been on them all season actually this is just the next update with the correct color shell. The boot really is a beast. I have been skiing them all week in Europe and can’t get over how well they ski. Max wanted a boot which skied just as well as a race boot but had freeride features, this new boot is exactly that.

Also stoked to see Manon leading the women’s side she is throwing down this season. Boa boots on top of both men’s and women’s tour!
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How many boots do your athletes break per season? Lately i have seen too many pictures of broken k2 boots.
 
14595760:BiggieSmallsNZ said:
will they be available to the public next season? and how did you become product manager, looks like an interesting job.
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These boots are a 2025/26 season product so a little longer to wait.

I worked as a boot fitter for 14 years and then started helping out my local k2 rep. This allowed me to get to know some of the k2 guys and then when the job came up I applied and was lucky enough to get it.
 
14595763:JalmarKalmar said:
How many boots do your athletes break per season? Lately i have seen too many pictures of broken k2 boots.
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We are yet to have an athlete break a boot this season. I know of two which did break previously one of which was Jake Carney on the first day. I gave him another pair and he rode them with no issues for 3 years. The breaks are actually very few and far between. The recon boa is the top selling mv boot this season so there are a lot of them out there so if 3 or 4 break and people post them it seems a lot but it’s actually a tiny percentage. But any breaks is not good and we are always working to improve further although when you inject plastic there are so many variables it’s basically impossible to make something where you have zero warranties.
 
14595766:tomPietrowski said:
These boots are a 2025/26 season product so a little longer to wait.

I worked as a boot fitter for 14 years and then started helping out my local k2 rep. This allowed me to get to know some of the k2 guys and then when the job came up I applied and was lucky enough to get it.
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Sounds like a decent gig. What was moving from the UK to Whistler like, as I am a fellow Brit myself? Also, thought Jake Carney was with Rossignol.
 
Whistler is rad or a least I was. It’s got very good downsize so it’s certainly harder now to live there but is sill well worth it for a season if you get chance.

Jake is on Rossi now but he was wig k2 for years before.

14595812:BiggieSmallsNZ said:
Sounds like a decent gig. What was moving from the UK to Whistler like, as I am a fellow Brit myself? Also, thought Jake Carney was with Rossignol.
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14595744:tomPietrowski said:
he has been on them all season actually this is just the next update with the correct color shell. The boot really is a beast. I have been skiing them all week in Europe and can’t get over how well they ski. Max wanted a boot which skied just as well as a race boot but had freeride features, this new boot is exactly that.

Also stoked to see Manon leading the women’s side she is throwing down this season. Boa boots on top of both men’s and women’s tour!
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Makes a ton of sense. That leads us to the important question: Did turning the boots white cause Max to start backslapping?
 
Haha I know right I was concerned when he did not win! We did get him an updated super secret cuff too but those made the boots too stiff for him so hopefully we can get him softer injections to use and maybe those will help for the rest of the tour.

14595831:blueberrypaladin said:
Makes a ton of sense. That leads us to the important question: Did turning the boots white cause Max to start backslapping?
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14584356:SmokedGouda said:
Marcus Goguen dominates with some insane trick for FWT or he crashes and burns messing up his whole run. Dude takes huge risks.
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Knew this would happen at least once. That run in georgia was fucking nuts
 
14595844:tomPietrowski said:
Haha I know right I was concerned when he did not win! We did get him an updated super secret cuff too but those made the boots too stiff for him so hopefully we can get him softer injections to use and maybe those will help for the rest of the tour.
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Does Max ski on stock Reckoner 110s, or some super secret ones?

**This post was edited on Mar 5th 2024 at 2:27:18am
 
I believe they are just the standard 110 yeah. I know he started the season on the 112 but I think he has now swapped to the 110.

14596058:DSedlak said:
Does Max ski on stock Reckoner 110s, or some super secret ones?

**This post was edited on Mar 5th 2024 at 2:27:18am
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I feel like Ben Richards score was little bit too high and Finns second score could have been higher by few points.
 
14598284:JalmarKalmar said:
I feel like Ben Richards score was little bit too high and Finns second score could have been higher by few points.
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I feel this is somewhat accurate, Ben definitely skied the most fluid line of the day, just not as impressive tricks compared to Chabloz and others, but this was a tough one to judge.

I also felt Hitzig was overscored on his first run for being somewhat out of control and having essentially one big feature.

Tenra felt underscored to me, but the judges were clearly emphasizing fast fluid lines with Tricks today which is how I think it should be.

I actually got a response to the article I wrote last year about judging on the FWT last year from the head judge, Lolo, who read it, and I think he took the conclusion of it to heart. That was that there is too much focus on freestlye and not enough focus on making the freestyle a part of a good freeride line which lead to fractured lines being skied to have a backflip and a 360.

In this case, they definitely put an emphasis on fluidity which is why Tenra and Maxime were scored lower despite having more impressive freestlye than Ben Richards.
 
14595677:blueberrypaladin said:
Overall I’m pretty high on the judging this year…never going to be perfect, but they’ve been pretty consistent. Going into this year made it clear they weren’t hosting a “best trick” competition, and they stood on that. Not that they shouldn’t value freestyle, but at least gave the competitors the playbook (we want big, clean 3’s and backies). Been a little more lenient on bobbles for the big laid out airs, which seems to be helping Max score higher than you’d expect.

Though I like their scoring overall, that Weitien line from Georgia was a CRIMINAL underscore. Hopefully he gets back on, and hopefully when the judges look back on this season they see what they missed. The kid picks lines with such a unique vision, and is willing to billy goat stuff any rational human thinks is impossible. He’s going about the FWT in a way that’s completely unique, and that’ll take time to be recognized for how sick it is. Personally I’d love to see more guys take his approach. It adds so much to the competition to see someone attack a feature you didn’t even realize was a feature. Big backflip off the nose is sick, but would love to see more ways to win with line choice and that billy goat style.

Sad to see APoll move on to other things, but happy for him. Every Alta dude I know speaks so highly of him, truly a special guy to the tour and to his community. Excited for what’s next.

Hitzig debut’d [tag=154780]@tomPietrowski[/tag] ‘s new boot this time around, and it looks like a beast (or maybe he looks like a beast and he wears it?).

Hate seeing the Americans get cut - Flinders got one of the Tour’s toughest underscores on his debut; so many American rookies I think we’re in for a ride as these guys get more experience. Now comes the worst part - watching the challengers, all these guys you’d love to see get another shot but so many sick riders you want to see out there next year as well.
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Apoll is a really nice dude, he puts on little community events like the end of season roadside jib fest, pork and cork, and 2 years ago put together an awesome end of year hike to pondskim comp. Just a super solid dude.

I think Dillon could really win the tour someday, he's just coming off injury last year, and even if he says he's fine, it's tough to get back on the horse, especially doing largely visual inspection. Also an awesome awesome person, Kendall too.
 
Overall I'd say this is maybe the best season of the FWT I've seen in quite some time, the level of riding is just absurd and they have the production dialed now. Red Bull should pick it up and support it the same way they sponsor Natural selection.
 
Trying to watch Natural Selections right now after watching FWT this morning.

I don't think I can actually finish this thing... my mom can do some of the runs these guys are doing.

As far as FWT - stoked for the Bec - looking at current photos the coverage looks healthy.
 
14598359:nCrow said:
Tenra sending without a helmet was wild. Ben's run felt very Apoll-esque
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Yeah fucking dumb imo. It'd be a trek I know but I don't know why he didn't just hike up and get it. Knew his score was gone either way so may aswell at least play it safe.
 
Ok boomer.

Only argument would be that it's in poor taste to bomb out the landings if you're NS, but considering the conditions and overall rowdyness of the day, whatever.

14598412:TheMailMan said:
Yeah fucking dumb imo. It'd be a trek I know but I don't know why he didn't just hike up and get it. Knew his score was gone either way so may aswell at least play it safe.
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