Generations of professional skiers

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DynaMeg

Member
After coming across a few pictures of Glen Plake in the People section of the photo galleries, I got to thinking how it is pretty cool how our sport really has at least three different generations of 'professional skiers'. We have people such as Scot Schmidt and Glen Plake who really are our godfathers of the sport, and then people such as Micah Black, Kent Kreitler, Mike Douglas who can be viewed as the veterans. And then there are the rookies like Tanner, Sage, Pep, etc. who have just been catapolted to the scene.

For me, I grew up with Degenerates, 13, Uprising - so JP, JF, Micah, Kent, Mike, etc are my icons. What is your generation? Who is your icon? Who's skiing have you admired the most? Do we have any here that grew up with Glen Plake, Schmidt, etc?

It is great to see new talent come on the scene, it'll be exciting to see who is next...

 
when i was like six, i tried to cut my hair into a mohawk just to be like plake. (my dad almost killed me but he's a ski bum so he wasn't too pissed). he was always the most bad ass dude when i was a little kid. i've always dropped my jaw at kreitler and guys like that too, but plake has always been my hero. but i dunno about the third generation you mentioned, since the first two are lifelong big mountain destroyers and the last group has rose from the freestyle niche and are more about taking freestyle to the big mountain than ripping the gnarliest line out there.

-Strode

Abba Zabba, you my only friend
 
Strode420 - hahah, thats great about trying to get a mohawk at 6! I quote: 'and the last group has rose from the freestyle niche and are more about taking freestyle to the big mountain than ripping the gnarliest line out there.' - Sage would be an exception, he rips pretty gnarly big mtn lines. Think about the new people on the scene though, are there any newcomers that are JUST into ripping big mtn lines and that is it ? I can't think of any.. the sport has changed and evolved somewhat - they are still skiers, but are doing different things than people like Plake and Schmidt.

 
morrison is pretty much on the same level as plake he has not been around has long but he has contributed to progress skiing just as much

-----------------------

i met larry david , AND I KICKED HIM IN THE BALLS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
 
Being 25, I grew up with the Scot Schmidt ski videos. In Search of Powder, Steeper and Deeper, stuff like that. I have been skiing 'extreme' terrain all my life, but really gotten interested in the fully new-school stuff. I can spend entire days in the park now though.

I honestly don't know where I am with skiing right now and what's really pulling me. It's probably because I live in Ontario and there is nothing to do here except race (which I have never really been into) or do park. Starting this fall I'll be living in Vancouver so we'll see where my skiing goes more - park or big mountain. I'll obviously do a lot of both , but which one I will advance more in is the mystery at this point. One things for sure. I'm 25 and I will need at least another 20 years to continually push myself and develop before I could foresee getting bored of skiing...

-m

 
mattj - I enjoyed your last sentence, I can fully relate to that. I have skied A LOT in my life of 20 years, and I have yet to grow bored of the sport. Come springtime when the snow is melting, pow days are long gone, and the sun is shining, there comes a time when I am content moving on to summer sports - but by midsummer I always start to dream of snow and skis once again !

 
usually I get that too. But this year I just can't get enough skiing. First time ever. Plus I skied more days this year than ever before, so I don't know why I couldn't get enough. I'm going to Whistler this weekend (tomorrow actually) to hopefully get one last fill that will tide me over until November or whenever I will be able to ski again...

I'm really into mountain biking too and a whole host of other fantastic summer activities but for some reason I just haven't been able to let winter go this year. The only good news is that a couple of nights ago I had my first biking dream of the season (I get biking dreams in spring and skiing dreams in late summer/fall)...

-m

 
hugo is the only person i can think of that is a relatively new face on the ''only big-mountain'' scene. and it's a good thing i've seen focused so i know just how hard pep and cr and pollard rip big mountain. but park will always be the first thing that pops into my head when i hear their names.

and mattj you sound a lot like me, i've been skiing for 20 years, mostly steep and deep, but just this year i rode pretty much all park, and it has made me that more thrilled to still be a skier after all those years

and dynameg....nice cliff shots in your profile i am really impressed

-Strode

Abba Zabba, you my only friend
 
^ I've met a few other people like us. We love what we used to do as kids but we realize that what the kids do these days is also insanely fun = end result - we just can't get enough skiing into our systems... I don't think the condition is curable - may as well just feed the disease...

-m

 
Awesome topic. Plake is probably the oldest freeskier that i remember. But when i started to really freeski it was guys like the new canadian airforce, and even some of the Line team skiboarders that evolved to skis (Pollard, Nick, Wilson) and then at the X games in VT it was all about Tanner, Skogen, Raps, CR, Candide, and those guys. In the generation now there are too many guys ripping to list. It is pretty cool just to look at the evolution

Skiing influences my life way too much, I can be at some surf spot where theres not any snow at all and I walk by this resturant and I'll see a hand rail outside it and I'll have a thought that how can I get snow out here to slide this rail. Which is absolutly super stupid- Jon Olsson
 
TGR's 'The Realm' did it for me. i remember being in the front row of the theater for the premier. when CRs segment came on, i just stood up. people were yelling at me and throwing stuff at me, but i didnt care. from that moment on, my life was never the same.

ALASKA PRIDE
 
ive been skiing my whole life but just recently got into newschool, two or three seasons ago. i never owned any movies until ski movie three and that just made me fall in love with the sport and all of its aspects. guys like pep, CR, morrison, tanner, collin's bros, and mike d. are my role models as far as skiing goes.

there is much more to life than flourescent lights...
 
Scot and Glen are my icons for sure, then after them came the real action pictures crew, i was just at that right age bracket really. Andrew sheppard all the way.

 
I think I was like 14 when I saw Jonny Moseley do the 360 mute in the Olympics, and I was just like, 'HOLY SHIT that was awesome!' So that got me stoked on skiing again, but I didn't really get what was going on until my friend Austin bought Johnny Decesare's 'State of Mind'... we basically just sat there dumbfounded watching JP, JF, Marc McDonell, Mike Douglas, etc. From then on out I was hooked; it was the next year when I started hearing about CR, Tanner, Evan Raps, and those guys.

I think it's important to note that there are a few guys who really span generations: Morrison has been killing it for over a decade and he's still considered one of, if not the best, big mountain skier. McConkey turned the sport around in the '90s, and he's still changing things. And Tanner, hopefully, hasn't even reached his prime yet as the dominant force in freestyle; for over three years he's basically set the standard as to what style is.

The coolest thing is that there's a new generation and a new breed emerging. I'm so stoked to see guys like JP Solberg, Corey Vanular, Tanner Rainville, Charles Gagnier, etc. on the podium. They're the future.

Q: How many NS.com members does it take to answer a simple question?

A: 10. One to answer, three to say 'How fucking stupid are you?', three to say 'This has already been asked a thousand times', and three to say 'Who the fuck cares anyway?'
 
peter and simon are part of the third, the 4th id say are gonna be kids like kye peterson's friends. isnt kye and one of his friends already going to be in WSKI106? i cant remember his friends name.

there is much more to life than flourescent lights...
 
/\ indeed man. which is awesome because the more young talent we have means a larger talent pool for movies so in a few years maybe we wont be seeing the same footy in three different productions. it also blazes the door wide open for progression because we got more minds geared towards it.

there is much more to life than flourescent lights...
 
I've been skiing for 17 years and I can say that I grew up watching Warren Miller films. I still bust out 'The Steep and Deep' every now and then. Scot, and Plake were my heroes. I ski at Wolf Creek, CO so I don't ski much park at all, mostly steep and powder. I'm getting into park slowly though, but I crave powder.

Wolf Creek Ski Area

**www.wolfcreekski.com**

What's cooler than being cool?

 
I would have to say scot schmit man all the shit him and plake would do was so sick back then. Then when i got to ski w/ scot i was so stooked @ 12 omg u have no idea.

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Being 23 and from the UK it took awile for the ski scean to hit us. But i have one single all defining moment that uttlerly blew me away. And that was in ski movie 1 where boyd easly does a cork 7 over the camera. No grab but skis crossed knees bent. with his arm out strecthed, My spine tingles cos it was the most perfect example of editing to the most furious part of the song. phew.

I then bought propaganda, realised the mistake id made with 3 years of my lifesnowboarding, and converted right back to skiing. So my icons are Jon olosson/ tanner/ candide/sczocs/shannon schad/ Mike D etc etc.

Yeah, skiing is cool.

 
i grew up on rap films, and the odd tgr flick. i remember plake, schmidt, etc, but they didnt influence me a whole lot, living in ottawa and all. then i saw the so called second generation of freeskiers, like shane, seth, jp, jf, mike, vinny and skogen, and thats what really got me hooked.

Joel

'Go shut yourself in a freezer and see if you can evolve out of it.' -PhattTim

'i think its funny that they decriminilized both homosexual sex and animal sex at the same time... what kinda message does that send?' -Apple

 
For me is was the New Canadian Airforce, JP, JF, Vinnie, Mike D, plus McConkey, Kreitler and Seth who got me stoked on skiing again. And then later, Philou, Evan Raps and Skogan.

This 4th generation is going to encompass so many different people its ridiculous, the progression of the sport and the skill level of so many people is growing at a ridiculous rate.

Hopefully we will see more guys like Hugo and Sage pushing the Big Mountain scene as well.

wow good observation! You are officaily the new ns genious. You can pick up your award after I shove it up your ass. - Phrosty

 
i have to add on to what i said originally, because plake and those guys were my guys growing up, but i was kinda out of skiing for a few years to do a sickness and multiple injuries related to that sickness (severe hyperthyroid disease). i have to say it was the 2nd and third generations that got me back into skiing a few years ago.

i basically quit skiing for a few years, and when i quit was right when shaped skis were first coming around.....then i was totally out of the ski scene (my dad moved from aspen and i went to college) for about three years. then my freshman year at college one of my friends from steamboat showed me a video of skogen (i think) doing a switch cork 7 or something like that and i was like ''holy fucking shit ass balls!'' then he handed me a new freeze with an article about some 15 year old kid named tanner who had to beg to get the course designers to let him into superpark. after that, (and finally figuring out my bones were breaking because i had a shitty disease). i thought it was so cool that going backwards and grabbing was a big thing, because i used to do both all the time when i was a little kid, mainly from skiing with a bunch of snowboarder. after that i was back in full on, and i have the new guys to thank for rediscovering what i love

-Strode

Abba Zabba, you my only friend
 
the past generations grew out of other parts of skiing, free skiing and mogules, but now with the new generations coming out i think it will be harder to distinguish the different groups of people. You never before had skiiers that were as young as kye ect. before they emerged in their young adult hood, now we have people who are being born into the sport. Skiing has a future, glad to be part of it

 
ive always skiied- but snowboarding was what i got into when i was like 12 in the early 90's i think i may have been like 16 or so when i got p tex lies and duct tape, and the cham segment with jason moore and dean cummings was really cool, as was the root down bump segment. i also remember seing people like andrew shepherd doing grabs off cliffs and the first 360 mute i can recall like in 97 or so. then i got k2's performers and that was when i really got back into skiing. so i guess my generation would be the end of the plake/schmidt and mostly the black/krietler(i had a subscription to boards in motion magazine for crying out loud)/mcconkey/morrison generation

-you think you can take us on... you and your cronies-
 
dude just look at kye peterson the kids 13 and pro and hes dad was an amazing skier (pro)

And it makes me see, every puff that I breathe, potent herbs and leaves could ease the world . . .

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ill claim the beginning of freeze as my generation... i was 17, and purchaced the original 'dirty dozen' issue of freeze off the news stand. that was when the whole mcconkey/krietler/morrison crew blew up.

-you think you can take us on... you and your cronies-
 
This is the best topic I have seen in awhile on this board. Growing up in the 80's and 90's (I am now 29 (26 on skis)I was addicted to Greg Stump Videos. The first time I watched Maltese Flamingo I was hooked on the concept that some guy (Warren Miller) didn't have to say cheesy punch lines over the film. The skiing was progresive and the feel took from the eary 'Vision' skate flicks. Each year I couldn't wait for the next movie, and each year Greg Stump delivered. Plake made his first apparence in the 'DUNE SKIING' section of Maltese. Next year Stump let out Blizzard of Ahhhhhhhs! This was Plake's break out movie. Major segments were committed to him. I related to Plake. Stump says in the movie 'he listens to Black Flag and Minor Threat' two bands that I was listening to in the punk scene. Before I keep rambling on how unbelievebale early 'freeski' movies were here is the list of must sees from my generation....

ALL STUMP:

Maltese Flamingo

BLizzard Of Ahhhhhhs

License to Thrill (Plake do the first alley-oop of a natural pipe that I ever saw in a ski movie..footnote: the last segment of the film)

Dr. Strangeglove (Plake with huge tip grabs)

Groove Requime (MUST HAVE, good music tons of Beasties)

Freeski Historian- Geo

 
i always saw the olympics and wanted to be a racer or a moguler, but then after skiing for 12 of my 15 years i saw ski movie 1 after watching seth morisan skiing, my life change and i fulley dedicated my life to freestyle skiing

 
mattj and strode, i agree with you, its kinda like an addiction to crack or somethin, the more you get the more ya want. ski season was over in mid march for me this year, and i cant wait for next season already. i kinda got away from skiing for a few years when i was like 13,14 or so, then i saw the 1080's and the addiction has gotten worse every year since

 
i remember watching skogen in area 51 and just realizing how fucking smooth he was. i wan't to be just like him. Now whenever i watch area 51 now i realize how skogen pretty much brought style onto the scene, he had the style in 2000 that people have now.

__________________________________________________

- Josh Rainey

- Jackson Hole

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My state of mind purple

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my gfs sister is fucken hot, so is her mom, i lay in bed at night with my hand on my dick thinking about an incested orgy with the 3 of them, i blow so fast-Lateralis
 
Wow... the great Meg Oster has deigned to bless us with a comment. I feel humbled, this is rarer than a Harvey sighting.

As for the topic, I've always considered skiing an exceptionally individual sport and I've never really had an 'icon' to look up per se. I mean I can respect people who rip, but they aren't my idols. It's a personal thing. And yeah, like several people have said, I'll ski for another 20 years or until my knees are screwed beyond the ability to walk (not that far-fetched, I'm really fucking them up). Or until I ski off a cliff or something.

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''dude i am literat i just cant spell worth shit u got prob with it bitch'' -Bridgerbowlskier

''Gay marriages are gay.'' -SUpilot

'if it werent for women, i wouldnt have to wear condoms' -Hucksterjibber
 
Big ups to Dynameg for starting this thread. NS needs more of these.

Kreitler got me into it...I got into this stuff watching Degenerates. I saw State of Mind, Degenerates, then 13 came out, and it's exploded since then. It's weird that it's come this far.

-
 
most of the guys in Parental Advisory i would look up to.

eric pehota

jp

jf

ryan oakden

toben southerland

jeff holden

joe lammers

bryce phillips

etc....

HUGO IS GOD!!!

SKIER'S IRRESPONSIBILITY CODE

1.ski FAST at ALL TIMES

2.take MAX air at EVERY opportunity

3.POACH everyone's favourite lines

4.IGNORE all posted signs

5.EVADE patrol at all costs

6.SMOKE big fat stinky ones

7.DRINK to excess

***C*C*R***
 
yeah, forgot the real legends like jim kcconkey and all the super-old schoolers. personally i dont really have a generation i dont think. i just watch skiers.

___________________

Silly Rabbits. Pink is for cheese! –stevexs2

i love watching people get nutted. i hate seeing naked fat people getting the box munched - BallinBU

numbers are for jewish investment bankers - sleezemcfly

im a straight up thugged out ghetto prep - ATLANTASKI

Looting, it's the new way to buy stuff! - Jib_This
 
thank you meg for starting this post. Awesome!

For me, I was flying to Arizona for spring break and picked up a magazine to read on the way up there. It was a Freeze, all I remember was that it had ASK BRAD featuring Brad showing how you can exercise while stealing stuff. Ghetto Blaster! Ha! Anyways, I read through that and decided I wanted to ski differently. The following ski season I still had my Dynastar straights but I was going more challenging stuff and what not. Then I bought Ski Movie and fell in love. The next week I bought the blue 1080s and ever since then, the addiction grows every year

Wolf Creek Ski Area

**www.wolfcreekski.com**

What's cooler than being cool?

 
I grew up on daily helpings of Schmidt and plake on our local sports channel. Be and my bro always watched these guys with our jaws on the floor. Droppin monster cliffs, Schmidt was yellow man, and plake was the Mohawk...

 
I can remember how excited I'd be when my dad would come home with warren millers new movie every year, my brother and I would put all our stuff on and start jumping around, pretending to do powder 8's in the living room, jumping off the couches and we'd always claim skiers like 'thats me' haha 'dad that'd be you'... as for icons I'd say Mr. Plake, Scott Schmidt, and Craig Kelly(RIP) are the guys I grew up watching and wanting to be like... 12 years later and here I am still wishing.

the CTC

'you cant put a price on being cool' - Big Fish
 
yeah back in the day, when i was like 6, my friend and i would pop in a warren miller or blizzard of ahhs or something and then put the little mini-tramp we had behind the couch... and do flips and grabs and shit over the couch. we were badass.

___________________

Silly Rabbits. Pink is for cheese! –stevexs2

i love watching people get nutted. i hate seeing naked fat people getting the box munched - BallinBU

numbers are for jewish investment bankers - sleezemcfly

im a straight up thugged out ghetto prep - ATLANTASKI

Looting, it's the new way to buy stuff! - Jib_This
 
Have been on the road for the past week so haven't been able to keep up on this thread that I started. Was great to read everyone's responses ! Too many to comment on...

Speaking of the topic, I met Greg Stump today - was very cool I must say...

Ride on.

 
kami had a striking comment earlier, saying 'The coolest thing is that there's a new generation and a new breed emerging. I'm so stoked to see guys like JP Solberg, Corey Vanular, Tanner Rainville, Charles Gagnier, etc. on the podium. They're the future.'

tanner hall's comments on how he was gonna let all the young'uns have a chance in the open reminded me of this thread. it made me think. if tanner is such a vet now, then the 4th generation of freeskiers has definitely arrived, and its exactly the skiers that kami mentioned who are leading the new generation. and todays events only solidified this notion, what with charles gagnier winning the open like he did.

we have now entered a new era in freeskiing...what are your thoughts on this?

-Joel

~Phunkin Phatt Phreerider~

Capital City Rider

Dragons Lair

I don't condone this.
 
i grew up with the whistler pros...the first newschool/bigmountain ski movie i watched was First Strike...all the atomic guys (leif,rex etc) and eric hjorleifson...and the first big budget movie was happydayz...3rd generation...boyd, tanner...all the big names now.

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i nailed a chick on saterday night, well sunday morning. then at 815 her friend ran into the room say we are late for church. we need to go. haha i love catholic high school girls

-skiingpimp

im native *beats a drum*

-ontarioskiingsucks

and i'm the government. *beats native over the head with drum and kicks him off his land. serves you right motherfucking shitty drummer

-EastCoastPride

TMC, JC, S3p
 
well, a final involving tj and spong basically proves the fact that the 4th generation is here.



yeah, rockin' the heartagram.

...ccr/dfp represent

feel the rush
 
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