How do we avoid the mainstream media bastardization?

T

travias

Member
It's great that the Olympics have brought 'freeskiing' 1,000 times more exposure than ever before. That's awesome. No doubt about it.

BUT

Most of the media coverage we're getting is TMZ garbage. Gus adopts some puppies and gets a shout out from Miley...Torin might lock in a date with Taylor Swift (good luck buddy!)...#iwanttodatenick (is that the hashtag? I haven't sent in my application yet)...

None of that represents us...At all!

We've got about 3 more days before the rest of the world forgets the gold medals and forgets that freeskiing ever existed. So I have 2 questions:

Do we actually want to rest of the world to know we exist?

And if so, how do we actually represent ourselves, sans corporate influence? I say a loop of every Volympics to date. Ideas?

 
Historically, mountains have always sheltered groups who chose their refuge there.

Difficult access, travel, and the general specialization of skillsets to survive there has successfully isolated cultures choosing to sustain themselves there, resulting in a highly mitigated mainstream influence.

I say this for two reasons:

1. It is a historical fact. Check out Robert Kaplan's writing.

2. Keep the mainstream media the fuck out of the mountains and the fuck out of our culture. The ABSOLUTE LAST FUCKING THING any skier needs is the commoditization of our culture/sport/sanctuary. It's happened enough already.

Stick to the mountains, your local community, the few brands that support our way of life. Mass media coverage isn't an opportunity, it's a cash out for a select few. We have enough problems with Boyne Resorts, Vail Resorts, etc.

We're NOT a product, we're something deeper, better, and more tightknit. Don't trade that away for anything.
 
Even though Sage is a boarder, I feel like he represented the (mountain) community very well in his Letterman interview

I was impressed on how he represented himself and stayed true to his roots, I kind of hope freeskiers will follow his lead and do the same.
 
who cares if your aunt and neighbor now know what slope style is?

does it really affect you?

is it wrong that a few extra people may be drawn to skiing relative to snowboarding?

who is it hurting if gus kenworthy is famous or on ET?

real questions. i don't see how those things are all that negative. they hang played out to quite yet either
 
I find it fucking hilarious. I'm flabbergasted at the way that things are covered, but also not very surprised. When people kept saying "The Olympics will bring so much exposure" I wondered what the fuck they expected?

I mean the puppies thing is exactly what we're going to get out of this.

 
But we're also broke as fuck. There's a way to bring in some of that mainstream dough without any of the mainstream with it. Companies like Vail do it the wrong way, the larger companies involved tend to keep all their money or don't actually have much in the first place.

Either way we need to bring some more dough in to our world. Hiding away in the mountains shrugging off the outside world is the worst way to do that.
 
I think all the valentines schenanigans represent our sport actually pretty well. Freeskiers for the most part are pretty laid back and like to have fun. You don't Ted Ligety joking around like that, no hate toward racers intended, it's just a different culture. Joss and the boys I feel have kept the "sport" as laid back as possible durning the Olympics.
 
I think the Olympics showed skiing pretty well. Everyone was laid back and more relaxed compared with almost every other sport. The stories surrounding the skiers are usually about them being funny or goofy and not so serious. Pretty much exactly what most of us are with skiing.

I think it's great that the athletes get a little exposure. It's a Hell of a lot more fun than listening to some 16 year old figure skater on a talk show say the same things every figure skater has for decades
 
Do you really think an article about Gus Kenworthy adopting Russian Doges is going to trigger a widespread rush to EVO by the masses to pick up twin tips?

The general public still can't even discern the nuances between Aerials, Moguls, Slope etc
 
This. I think skiing is getting shown in a great light right now, honestly. All this media attention, and no one is taking themselves too seriously because of it.
 
Why? Freeskiing doesn't need money to survive. People ski because its fun and they have a passion for being on the snow.

Our sport has done just fine without "mainstream" money (whatever you think that is) up until now.

I remember the good ol days when you either were a part of the "newschool" movement or you didn't have a fucken clue what that was. Ah, the times were simpler back then...

NS was a place where a tight core of people came to share there passion for hotdog maneuvers and skiing backwards. There were no orange names. Snowboarding was still cool. T-Hall still white. Warren Miller was actually part of WME. Ski films were actually shot on film (or shitty dv cameras). Nobody had to license their music. And nobody was making ANY money.

This was the golden age of the sport.

Wicked - SAS Films (Full) from David Charnock on Vimeo.

Teddybear Crisis from Howie Arnstad on Vimeo.

Do you think that if Candide was dropped by all his sponsors he'd stop skiing?
 
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What we need to do is allow TMZ and what not to do their bullshit, and we need to support and push people like the Hood Crew, Totally Trevor, Glen Plake, Orage Masters, Super Proof, Line TC, B&E Show and what not. We need to push those people to the forefront of our "press" (which we already do), so that if people ever diverge from TMZ shitshow, they'll see what this crazy jackassery is really all about.

And they will have no idea what our jackassery is all about, because no one does. We're just a bunch of weird people that collect on the internet to talk about putting on two broken trees to limit friction and slip down weird white stuff and jump off things and yell and bark at cameras.

Thats what we're about. Show stuff like that on the homepage, and mainstream media will keep bashing on Henny's sagged pants and lose their mind, then move on and keep riding the clean cut Lindsey Vonn train.
 
Yeah.

Freeskiing will live on until there is no one left who grabs their skis and ventures out to just have some plain old fun, whether it be in the streets, the backcountry, or everywhere in between.
 
personally i could give a fuck until it starts having a direct impact on my life. otherwise, i dont care at all
 
Because skis and outerwear are free, right? Y'all are jonesing for the good ole days but it's the 'mainstream media' parents that fund all the young groms that take over the scene when you stop making content.
 
What year do you think it changed? I think the original quantum leap/paradigm shift (2d to 3d) was the 2001-2002 season (SKI Movie 3 Year). Compare the segments/tricks/style to the previous year and its pretty obvious skiing took a major step forward that year.

The progression increased exponentially from that year to the next ( 1242 / Focused/ High 5) ..so did cinematography, editing, music selection (no more swollen members/less pop punk).

The next quantum leap would be the emergence of Tom Wallisch and Idea in 2006-2008. I feel like this is where we could claim we were congruent with snowboarding in terms of tricks, video segments/ getting toward their level of creativity

The Sport is still progressing but the progression is much more nuanced.
 
i sure hope it doesn't become as competitive on a day to day basis like the other disciplines of skiing have. Skiing always needs to be done because its fun, not because its daily training.
 
I wasn't jonesing for anything, I was just stating that freeskiing will still live on regardless, media or not.

Who says it has to be filmed or captured to be freeskiing?
 
The best thing that could have possibly happened, happened. US swept the podium at slope style. Those 3 dudes all have some kind of personality so they are marketable to the masses and they are doing a great job of it. It's awesome that olympic slope and pipe got coverage from the ski community, sports broadcasting, social broadcasting, and even tabloids! Something has to keep the machine funded so that people can keep on enjoying skiing and this is a perfect way to do that. And this doesn't mean that the "soul" group has to go away, they can obviously keep on doing their thing too! Hopefully money becomes accessible in a variety of ways; to the athletes working their asses of to compete, to the athletes working their asses of to film movie segments, to companies big and small, to film companies that can continue showcasing their talent and the that of the athletes, etc. etc. I'll admit, I love to complain when the mountain is crowded and I'm sure lift ticket prices will continue to climb, but I also am a big fan of the small businesses trying to make it in the ski world and hopefully those groups can capitalize on what I hope continues to be a large influx of new attention. Lord knows all the ski bros looking for pro forms and hook ups aren't going to keep those companies alive.
 
So much nostalgia in this post. Crazy to think Refresh and Edias are like 5 years old now too.

to OP, it doesnt really matter and likely wont affect anything. Aerials , racing, moguls etc have been olympic sports forever and the media doesnt really freak out about those skiiers when the olympics arent on, dont see why freestyle should be any different. I think it will be one of those olympic sports that everyone outside the freeski community forgets about until the next olympics.
 
its probably been said, but honestly I doubt that its gonna effect many of us in a real way. Whether your'e a college kid, full time ski bum, weekend warrior or academy kid en route to the olympics its still fun. Yes, there might be a few more big name "mainstream" sponsors trying to get in on it, but your day on the slopes really will not change much. There might be more kids trying to get into park (which has happened over the past 3-4 years already) but most of the world has no fucking clue what the deal is. Just look at that inside edition on smoke shacks in colorado. The real world has no concept of the mountain culture and sounds retarded when they even try to address it. No matter how you ski, if its a passion of yours it will stay that way, regardless of whether Miley is twerking Gus's pole. Which for his sake I hope she does.
 
People who don't ski will never give two shits about any of the stuff we

care about and I've decided that that's perfectly fine with me.

 
why does it matter what the media puts us out to be? freeskiers have never cared about what others thought. i was to young to be a part of the generation that would go into the parks with signs that said, "SNOWBOARDERS ONLY" but i sure as hell wish i couldve. because honestly they set the tone for freeskiing. why else would we wear t shirts that go to our knees, worship a short a white swedish dude with crazy dreads, and make ourselves look like fools on the reg? because we dont care what others think about us or our sport. /rant
 
I feel like it will just bring a lot of attention towards the stuff skiers don't really care about from incoming kids. I have a problem with that, although I can't say how much it really affects me
 
I feel like since the beginning we've been begging to be validated:

Let us in the "Snowboard Only" park

Skiing IS cool again

No, I actually ski not snowboard (when talking to people who have no idea)

and now that the world is catching on we complain that it'll somehow become "too big."

Sad realization is that the only people who saw freeskiing in Sochi was North America. We dominated the event therefore 90% of the media that is going to cover it will be domestically based. Further, the ratings drivers for the Olympics are women 35-55y/o. I'm not sure we made a huge impact... except for maybe the puppies. That might have been considered a viral hit.
 
Its true, it doesn't matter if there's a little main stream media involved with the sport. The worst it will really do is change the big competitions the sport strives for. People are still out soul snowboarding, people will always have pillow lines that aren't in the olympics. Just keep skiing for you and be stoked that anyone new to the sport gets the same pleasure out of it as you do.
 
The olympics are going to be awesome! IT's going to bring so much exposure and validate our sport!

The olympics sucked. We're not a product that can be bought or sold. Screw all this new interest in our sport.

Skier logic

images
 
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