Good for the Sport

pretzel

pretzel

Member
Why do many newschoolers believe that increased media exposure will be good for the sport of freeskiing?

Though this is in no way a new idea, recent discussions of freeskiing in the Olympics and Level 1's promotion by a cbs blogger have made it a relevant topic. Usually one person suggests that freeskiing will be ruined by an influx of posers, while another counters that the "wannabe invasion" is a neccissary evil, a byproduct of the sport's growth.

Obviously, with a greater public interest in skiing, comes a greater influx of cash into the industry. This means bigger budgets allotted to the skiing divisions of major sponsors, like Oakley, Red Bull, etc. We can expect this to result in more lucrative contracts and prize purses for riders, better funded research and development, and increased contributions to film companies.

That all sounds great I guess. But what does that actually mean for me and you, the weekend warriors, the aspiring up and comers, the lovers of the sport?

Will lift ticket prices come down? No.

Will gear prices come down? No.

Will terrain parks be better? Probably not.

It won't snow more and the summer won't get shorter. The feeling dropping a cliff with first tracks on a powder day and the feeling of landing a new trick sure as hell won't change. The act of skiing will still be skiing, no more and no less.

Don't take this as an argument against increased exposure for skiing. Even if it was, skiing's mainstream popularity is not something that we can really control. Think of my words instead as a challenge to that gut reaction to mindlessly embrace the public evolution of our sport. What would it really mean? How would skiing change? Or would it change at all?

 
I like this man. I think you are mostly right on the money. But one thing I thought about is the gear pricing. I think most gear will stay in the same price range. But if you think about the coming "invasion of posers" who all wanna be like Simon Dumont and Torin Yater Wallace, etc... Their sponsors are gonna find some way to cash in on the rush of new customers. So something is gonna change. But I highly doubt the effects will reverberate down to the guys like us.
 
this thread right here shows that the invasion of the gapers already took place way before anything was officially in the olympics...

and i have yet to hear one valid reason as to why exposure is bad for skiing because THERE ISN'T ONE. the sport doesn't change because of what other people, who have no effect on your life, will do. if you somehow think that it will affect your life then you are skiing for the wrong reasons and i politely ask you to fuck off.
 
more exposure, more money, more improvements, more TV coverage, more events, more companies get more $$ to reinvest, more people wearing jiberish
 
I mostly agree with you here. You'll notice that i never suggested that mainstream coverage would hurt the sport. Instead I'm asking what you think skiing will look like after this increased exposure. Not for the pros, but for you and me. What are these "improvements" that will change skiing? Is skiing in need of changes?

technological advancements?

These arn't rhetorical.

Do you want to see skiing change? How?

Please don't think that I am making a case for the preservation of the "good ol' days." I'm not. Only a fool would think that skiing could ever stagnate, and only a greater fool would want it to. New tricks will emerge and new faces will rise no matter what the weight of the industries wallets'.

 
i understood what you said, it was more of a general statement because i know those stupid "keep it core" kids will eventually show up.
 
u can also look at it this way; more ppl skiing, more demand, less supply, more traffic, more travel time, more gapers, more ppl in the parks, less powder per person, etc...

Either way you look at it, YOU CANNOT STOP THE GROWTH! A good metaphor for the growth of freeskiing over the past 2 decades is a lot like a wild forest. It grows outward in all directions and without regulation. And our "forest" has finally started to grow into civilization aka the mainstream. In referance to the Winter Olypics, if we just recognize that halfpipe and slopestyle skiing are just 2 versions of freeskiing and avoid the massive regulation that happen to mogul skiing we should be fine (I hope)
 
FUCK THE OLYMPICS.

the only people who care about skiing are the people skiing. everyone else can die
 
plus half of newschoolers already worships tom wallisch, tanner hall and a lot of the other pros who are leading the sport. i mean how many threads have there been about tom in just the past month like 20 + i also dont think that a flood of posers will come in one year. look at ski cross it was new to the olympics last year and how much exposure and how many posers flooded that sport?!
 
^hey jackass

skier cross sucks.

a sport is- " Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively." free-online dictionary

so, that pertains to skier-cross (which is ghey) and not skiing. not even a sport.
 
yo calmdown i dont want to fight. plus i never said skier cross was cool and stupid is not a synonym for gay or faggot. i was just commenting on the thread. this isnt something to fight about.
 
Skier cross is a much different monster. I see it as more of an attempt to save the dyeing ski racing scene. It is not nearly as popular as its half pipe and slopestyle counter parts, but it was a much easier addition to the Olympics because of its racing aspect. We are going to see a big difference between its inclusion of the new half pipe and slopestyle comps.

In terms of half pipe and slopestyle though I feel that its mainstream boom is an uncontrollable situation as the OP said. I also feel though that the half pipe and slopestyle scene is eventually going to die out as hard as that is to think. Action sports tend to have pretty short life cycles and I think we may be seeing the end of this one. I am not saying though that freestyle skiing will die out completely though just the comp platform we are know now. Just as resorts still maintain bumps I feel parks will stick around. In what may be the near future though I believe we will see a new freestyle skiing platform.

 
I think that more attenition to skiing almost only means bad things. In the start of 2000, all the pros wore stickers on their helmets saying ''FIS sucks''. But now all the pros are going to the olympics, wich FIS is highly involved in. I wonder what happens with style and variations of tricks in competitions.

The judges in the olympics probably won't understand and look to much at style, afterbang and the flow and variations of the tricks the competitors are doing.

I think it will be more like ''Spin to Win'' and all the contestants doing triplecorks, triple flats etc. will win. I also wonder if skiing will be brought back to how it was in the 80's and 90's: Uncool, no variation, an old coach standing there and shouting to you, no style not about having fun, but being the best and winnning. I really don't think skiing should be like this, it should be about having fun, gettin a rush and hanging out with friends. Also partying!

Skiing should be what you want it to be, not what some old FIS people, that does not know a shit about style and freedom of skiing thinks it should be like. I'm afraid skiing will turn out like this after the olympics, but i really hope not. It's a reason it's called Freeskiing.
 
well no shit contests will be all about harder tricks because that's what wins contests. and if bigger contests means that skiing will be no longer cool or fun for you then quit because we will be a lot happier without your sorry ass bitching about how much you don't like skiing. skiing is big enough that there will still be plenty of people not doing contests but making a living through videos/edits, which not only promotes style/creativity but will also have a bigger financial base due to increase interest in the sport. and again explain how big contests will affect how YOU see skiing? what with the olympics is it going to be impossible to still have fun and partying?
 
Hey, fuck you man. I didn't say skiing wouldn't be fun anymore, skiing will always be the best thing you can do, and olympics wont change how fun I have on the hill, at least I hope so. Im just saying how it may affect skiing, and the majority of skiers, contests etc. ,not me as a skier. ;)
 
if some people want to do contests respect that dont go around preaching to the world FUCK OLYMPICS because 90 or more percent of pros embrace the olympics and have worked there asses off trying to get freeskiing in to the olympics and to where it is today. the majority of skiers and ns'ers like the idea of the olympics and this where freeskiing is headed and if you dont want to go stay because the last thing we need is people like you bitching about how the sport is gonna suck so if you dont like where its headed just fuckin quit!
 
Stop whining! Dont you see what happens? Olympics is where sports go to die, sad to say it. FIS is gonna decide more and more if we dont prevent them... AERIALS 2... xD

I totally respect people who likes to ski contests btw, no jk.
 
See this is where I disagree with you.

An injection of money into the sport could negatively effect the filming community. If companies are pushing to get more money out there toward their olympic athelete's, its going to come straight out of your favorite jibber's pocket. Why would a company want to pay someone who puts out one segment a year more than a kid that gets on ABC Sports a few times a year?

Just an opinion, only time will tell I suppose.
 
Yeah, we got to make sure FIS doesn't ruin it. But snowbaording is getting more and more organized and so is skiing?! Good or bad?

I have already seen the athletes meanings on freeskier ;D
 
yeah, but if the olympic slopestyle and halfpipe competitions have great ratings, you can bet your left nut that there's going to be major broadcasts of EVERY ski and snowboard contests on your major networks. not just one a piece on NBC.

and i never said it was going to flood with olympic athletes, but more money IS going to flow their direction.
 
MORE EXPOSURE

CUZ IT MEANS MORE PEOPLE FREESKIING WHICH WILL MAKE A BIGGER PUSH IN INCREASING QUALITY OF PRODUCTS AND LOWER PRICES

AND MORE KIDS TO SKI WITH

WINWINWIN

i am not tanner hall
 
yeah and that more money is going to be a part of the tons of new money flowing IN. they're not going to take away funding from another team when they have plenty of new money coming in... that's just retarded. if anything, money is going to trickle down into the other aspects of the company and who they sponsor.
 
1308849686shit.jpg
 
THIS! i agree but i say yes and no because skiing has changed and there are benefits and negatives to all changes.
 
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