Has freesking sold out?

Skroob

Skroob

Member
I read this today and I seriously thought about it,

strange you brought this up, at borders today i picked up a freeskier

and saw a nike ad for shoes..... to me anymore and i may get a lot of

hate but i do not care considering all you people on this site could be

figments of my imagination but freeskiing might have sold out,

particularly freeskier. I mean i can remember freezes just being about

skiing. Argh i wish i was not so hung over and i could actually have a

good argument. ...hate away people.

reasons I think so :

1) the "spokespersons" for our sport (I realize not everyone will think they are the spokespersons but 12 year old suburban kids don't know much more than the x games lineup) are basically tony hawk on skis (I am referring to T Hall and Simon Dumont)

2) I have not read a good ski mag in a while

3) I fell that when nike gets involved its gone to far (that is just me)

4) the x games and events like it are put on to be some sort of huge publicity thing. they are missing the point skiing is not about getting a big name or making money, it is about the feeling of flying down a mountain with two planks strapped to your feet. whether that be floating off jumps, ripping pow or even big mountain we all do it for that rush. I just feel like they should not need to exploit it.

P.S. Kramer if you read this and hate on it to hard I will kick you in the nuts
 
Freeskier = complete garbage.

Everytime I read their magazine it makes me want to rip my eyes out. I don't pay for their subsriptions nor will I ever. The content gets worse and worse, look at this years Buyer's Guide as a testament to that statement. Compared to last years, the current year's is a fucking joke. Freeskier tries to fill the shoes that Freeze left behind but will never be able to fill that void. They should honestly give up, because there doesn't seem to be much of an effort put forth by their so called editing staff to make it worth it.

Bring back Freeze!!!
 
yeah it kinda has, the whole comp part of freeskiing has atleast, just look at simon.
but for alot of people no, i know tons of kids who just dont give a shit about how good they are compared to others, getting spansurizers, how forced they can afterbang, showing up the other skiers, and doing the most technical stuff they can. and just ride around doing whatever the fuck they want and making the most creative shit they can out of anything.
last year, i went into the season wanting to get really good, i had all these goals and hopes to win tons of comps and get sponsors and shit, then about 3 months into the season, after working super hard and trying to get really really good, i just realized how dumb it was.
i just said fuck it and stopped trying anything i didnt want, and just started cruizing around doing whatever comes to mind. instead of going up to a jump and planning out how your gonna do your sw 9 with this grab and stomp it like this, just going up to the jump and almost deciding in the air what your actually doing is so much more fun, so much cooler stuff comes out of you when you ski that way, like 3 to knuckle to 180 on small jumps, tail taps on the knuckle to 180's. flag bonks on the landings, just coming up with new stuff every time you hit something. its so much fun. though the best place to ski like that is the BC. doesnt have to be a pow day but just cruizing around finding anything to jump or jib and making something sick out of it. like the coolest this year was we found a part of a t-bar where it comes back down the mountain (so nobody is on it and nobody can see you) where its like 3 feet off the ground with a wind lip to pop off, so we spend like 2 hours tapping and even jumping on and riding it in different ways.
i think skiing is gonna have a whole new style soon, now its mostly the comp style skiers, and the film style skiers, and there is a new do whatever the fuck i want type of skier thats popping out everywhere, hot lunch and the nimbus crew are sorta doing it, and its awesome!

 
Is it really selling out? You do realize that nike sponsor athletes now and therefore are a legitimate contributor to our sport, plus we wear shoes, they sell shoes. we read ski mags, so they put adds in ski mags. Thats how the industry operates. Im not sure what you describe as "selling out" is as bad as you are making it out to be, it just shows that skiing is making it bigtime and that the sport has grown so much that it has tapped into the prime time commercial action sports market, if want to be able to tell people you ski and for them to not look at you like it is a rich people sport for old men and that you should be snowboarding then it has to be taken to the masses. that costs a shit load of money to do, getting live TV coverage for something like the X-Games superpipe is something that we as the skiing communtiy probably take for granted because it is what we want to see on TV. Major companies supporting our athletes is not a bad thing and has helped push the progression of the sport. Bigger budgets mean they can have cameras everywhere and afford to give it to you for free over then net. so when you say simon is selling out because he takes opportunities that come his way then i suggest you put a good argument together that might help change my mind because i dont feel that way at all. i mean he still skis alot, he still competes, he still shoots. If a snowboarder had gone onto a show like ellen 10 years ago I would get this burning inside me wishing that it was Jp Auclair or Vincent etc. Now our industry has reached a point where it is really strong and we now have a generation of people that grew up growing the sport, sneaking in parks, mounting skis backwards and they are the people that are making the big decisions financially, the "product" that is freeskiing now carries a valuable price tag on it and companies are ready to pay big money to get in with us, as long as the people keep making the right decisions with the money i see no reason for us to prevent the investment of anyone as long as it betters the sport. I mean you could continue to have regular contests with 2 rails and 3 kickers in a park somewhere or you could let big business in and let them build something like the Icer air or the redbull playstreets. I mean really every event redbull put on is a huge marketing stunt but no one seems to complain because the events are always progressive, then when you go get to the fridge at a store and you need energy you take a Redbull and probably stare at the can while you are drinking it and think about one of their events, or the base of tanners skis or something ridiculous McConkey did naked 15 years ago. Is it not then you who has sold out?
 
I hate to burst the bubble here, but Freeze had NAVY and MCDONALDS ads in their final year.

Freeze was a great mag, but sometimes the corporate dollars are enough that you've got to take 'em. Hell if Freeze had more of that stuff, it wouldn't have gone away.

The key is to take corporate dollars and then do the right thing with them. Give back to the community, offer the best coverage, do events, etc. Everything we do is supported at some level by corporate dollars.

Lots of events are brought to you by Navy, Gillette, etc. Look at the X-games sponsors...

Its not selling out just because you take larger advertisers. Thats just doing business. You sell out when you change your message to get these dollars...

 
but Mr. Bishop, i dont personally think of the X-Games as anything like an organization using corporate money for the people who compete in or watch the events. they got rid of rollerblading ENTIRELY because they saw a loss of marketing potential. that IMO, is a corporate move. no doubt about it.

also, the X-Games logo has been slapped on everything from flash drives to bicycles that are supposed to look like motos. that makes me think that they have become a corporation rather than an event for the riders and spectators.
 
I agree with happywhenhard (haha) and bishop.

Whats wrong with more money in our sport? Think of it this way, when companies such as Nike and Target make an effort to get involved with skiing, they are essentially putting a lot more money into our sport.

This in turn will lead to professional skiers getting paid higher salaries (which they deserve). Competitions will give out higher monetary prizes. Filmers and productions crews will have more money to really make good films with high budgets and less personal expenses.

Then wont that drive more people into the industry (which is not a bad thing). Wont kids have more motivation to stick with skiing and try to go pro, knowing that when they succeed they wont be living out of a car in summit county all winter. Wont resorts have better budgets to create some kick ass contests with excellent coverage and a highly skilled lineup.

This being said, more money isn't bad as long as the money from corporate sponsors is going back into the industry. When company presidents or anyone for that matter becomes greedy and takes the money but doesnt provide skiing with something in return thats when it gets bad. Thats what i would call "selling out" and right now I don't think freeskiing has sold out.

I mean look at the coverage we have now compared to five years ago. Every single contest now has videos, pictures, and reviews (thanks to NS). A long list of sponsors and decent prize money. Look at the films now. Level 1 is hosting turbo premiers in Europe and Asia, the quality of production is excellent, ski resorts are allowing production crews to spend days filming on custom made features after the mountain closes. Contests like superunkown and KOS video entry give "relatively" unknown kids a chance to move forward in their skiing careers. Events like London Freeze, Icer Air, even JOI could never happen without the sponsor funding. I look forward to seeing where skiing goes in the next ten years, and hopefully it will continue to grow bigger and bigger.

 
lets ignore nike for a minute and talk about under armour! what the fuck are they doing in snowsports?
 
ya i agree. i ski because i love it not to get famous and sponsered and be rich. dont get me wrong, being pro and gettin free shit and lots of cash would be sick but in the end if im not a pro skiier, i dont care as long as im still skiing and having a great time.
 
Well since my orignal post to the 'who misses free magazine' started was the start of this thread, i feel i need to say something more about my thoughts on the melancholy of skiing today. I would actually like to claim copyright, and going to sue bluntz4life for plagiarism.

Anyways i feel that comment was made, because i was sad with the way skiing is being portrayed in today's meida's eyes. Anymore it is all about one style one year, and if somebody does something different they get hated on. I still do not know where this post or my original post was going. I was just trying to shine a light on how things once were in a magazine called Freeze...And to say that i will keep skiing no matter what happens to the sport. When i first discovered NS almost 4 years ago this november, freestyle skiing was a lot different. I thank ullr everyday for things like NS, because it help feeds my addiction. Even if skiing with one ski becomes popular, with trends like no poles, afterbang, hating snowboarders and then just one in genearl, one footed grinds, gorilla steeze, and wearing helments who knows what could happen. I will always miss the idea of riding in movies like Session 1242 and The Resistance, just out ont he slopes having fun. Oh and as for my personal level of skiing, i am no where near the level of skiing you kids are at.... yet that should not matter all that matters is i ski and so do you so we should be friends.
 
alright, i'm not going to address the issue about the big sports guys (like nike and such) or the viewer based x-games.
my input into this debat is small and simple. you guys are complaining about there not being good ski magazines. I agree with you, for the most part. there is one magazine that i find real. SBC Skier. if you're american and don't know it - find it. it's canadian and it's real.
 
What's wrong with the industry making money?

Big corporations like nike bring more money into the industry that helps fucks like you get rep for the sport you love. So what, one page of the magazine has a nike ad. But guess what, half of the kids who complain about it have nike shoes.

You can call thall and dumont little Hawks if you want, but so what? They're changing the sport for the better. Don't tell me you havn't been influenced by them, because that's just a big lie.

I respect that you want to keep the sport "pure" but if we did that, we'd never progress. Without industries buying into the sport we'd be stuck in the ages of "snowboarders in the park, skiers on the 'real mountain'".

 
I agree with this but at the same time I feel like as we get closer to the "mainstream" we get closer to selling out. There are athletes who have already sold out and I feel like more and more will as the sport gets more popular. I just don't think that it should be about money or fame. It is more about being in the mountains and having a good time with your friends. If someone thinks that it is an old rich man sport so be it, i love it and will continue to do it. I don't ski to tell people I ski, I ski for the love of it.
 
stop fucking crying about freeze holy shit get over it, if they existed still they would be running ads by all kinda of big companies it puts more money and support into our sport... some people don't like being broke as fuck so they find ways to make money.
 
how can you hate on money being put into our sport? sound like a bunch of "CORE EXTREME LOCALS SOUL SKIERS BRAH!"

jesus, itll keep our sport growing and progressing, which is what we want right?
 
freeskier might suck and sold out but these bigger sponsors are better more money, more products, inovations, etc. snowboardin is huge now and the only way to get a "video game" is to have these sponsors dumpin mad money into the industry. also simon and tanner represent freskin to the mainstream and there doin a good job doin it. also to the haters who wnat to stay core, ur just mad that u suck and other peopl will come in and dominate you in a year or two. and if we had mad sponsors we could make our own 7 millioni 2 year production which would be insane
 
who gives a shit? you're getting better quality products and resorts out of all this exposure. just because you wanna be core doesn't mean the entire industry has to, just look at boarders, a lot of them are just out there boarding, not giving a shit what anyone thinks of boarding or the people who do it, they're just doing it. they get up, throw on whatever they need to wear, regardless of what it looks like or what people will say about it, and they just go shred, they don't act like somebody they aren't, they don't give a shit how rich the company that makes their snowboard is, they're just having fun.

i wish we could be more like that, but no, we have to argue about how uncore everything in freeskiing is, or how our pants clash with our jackets, or how our boots don't match the rest of our outfit, etc. we are too busy trying to make everything perfect, that we forget to just get out there and have fun.
 
I'm not gonna weigh in on whether or not freeskiing has sold out or not, because really couldn't give two shits about whether it has yet or not, BUT as far as things go with Freeskier, if you think it sucks, make your own mag. If you're not gonna do it, stop bitching.
 
oh noooessss
if freeskiing doesnt sell out, how are we ever going to have the core revival were all looking forward to so much in 10 years. freeskiing has to sell out completely then die again, then be reborn again. at least 3 times before im dead, theres a lot of time left.
 
I don't know about the whole sport selling out or anything, plus it would be cool if the mainstream had a better idea about what our sport is really about, but as far as individual skiiers bowing to sponsors, like dumont and target, or appearing on talk shows i think that it can be good for the sport but i personally don't understand it. I have alot of trouble believing that dumont is any happier than tom wallisch or gus kenworthy or anyone who is making less money but is skiing all the time
 
I've paraphrased your reasons to understand your argument:

1)Skiing has spokespersons who are semi-household names.

2)You haven't read a good ski mag in a while.

3)Nike supports skiing.

4)Pro skiers and ski companies want to make money.

...and that's how we know skiing has sold out? Maybe I'm interpreting your argument completely wrong, but I can hardly think of a sport that those reasons couldn't apply to.
 
What has Nike ever done for skiing? They are just using the athletes to make money off you guys. Similar to Burton having skiers on their goggles at one point. Nike's snow program is all about snowboarders, has nothing to do with skiers, kinda weird don't you think? Look at their site.
 
skiing has sold out,that one dude shiller is aparently a hair model for PAUL MITCHEL , SIMONs sellin SUPER TARGET (the expensive walmart) NIKE, REDBULL, OAKLEY, UNDERARMOR, INTERNET,

skiing is seen as a place to make money. and well its only going to get worse.

NS.COM has 3 large add spaces on it, pretty much the fact that mainstream skiers will do whatever they need to do and sell whoevers product for a little cash. its mostly not about supporting a prodcut you believe in, but supporting a product that pays you money.

do you think tanner actually likes redbull anymore? i bet he has had to drink one million redbulls in his life.
 
I think one thing that people dont get on this site is that you need money to do things. Most companies in the ski industy dont get rich from being in the industry. They are involved with it b/c they love sking, period. Do you think nike needs sking to make money? No. Not that I support nike and I will never buy a pair of the shoes all y'all are wearing. Most of these companies have people on the ski/ snowboard areas that ride and wish they could everyday. Well, they cant ride everyday, so they make gear for you so that you can ride. To make gear you need money. Money is a necessary evil that makes the world go round, even the ski world
 
So ok, lets say youre pretty fucking good at skiing, and nike and targets comes up to you and says, hey dude, we'll give you a shit load of moeny if youll but stickers on yours skis that represents us, that way youll be able to live like a rockstar and still be able to ski as much as you can.

Are you saying these people should say no??
 
I disagree because if the skiiers want to earn more money, they have to work alot more. If you look at the snowboarders, many of them almost only snowboard at comps and shoots, because of many interwievs, commercials etc. I think it's not that important to earn a lot of money if you don't have the opportunity to acctually go ski without any pressure. Is'nt it more important to just have fun?
 
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Think of it this way, Red Bull has been around for years sponsoring us skiers, and almost every other action sport. But you dont bitch about that (not that i have seen). I agree with a lot of what has been said. I agree that it is sad to see skiing going to all those major sponsor and a lot of the guys that are in it all evidently for the money. Take Steve Stepp for example, he has sponsors, but he doenst do any of the majr competitions. He just goes out there everyday, and does what he loves. The X games is a great competition for so many reasons, it gets skiing known which presents more oppurtinitys for the sport to push forward. we want the same thing target does, we want to get the name out there and promote what we represent. Its not all one way here, with the money that we get for strapping a target sign on a sign and putting up at X games keeps the games going, and brings more money to the industry to ake for bigger and better events. It is somewhat dishearting to see a nike add in freeskier but i garuntee you more then one kid will see that add and go out to buy those shoes.So i agree, it is weird to see an add for a company that you dont recognize as a ski company, but helps us all. Im sure that it was all the major sponsors buying into the sport that promoted freestyle skiing to become an NCAA sport, which is amazing. Without those sponsors there would be no money in the buisness, and it would still be just a rec thing that everyone does on the weekend with no recognition. So look to the positive, it really is not all that bad at all.
Sorry if i jumped around a lot and didnt make total sense
 
Ahhh, the good old selling out arguement where some people get upset that people are making money off the business that is the sport of skiing.
 
freesking can never sell out, you just named a few people and a magazine, last time I checked that isn't freesking. Thats like saying snowboarding sold out, wrong, and in all honesty id take all the money i can, I don't care that people think I'm core or not, money is money
 
Freeskiing has not sold out, park skiing has. That little thing called the X-games really helps showcase park skiing. Freeskiing is something you do when you ski race and get a powder day so no gate training, or if you clip a ticket in the parking lot.
 
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