ok..heres the deal
Jake (i dont know him very well, but have talked) isnt great at truely expressing what he feels about skiing. I dont speak for him, only for Anon., and the staff.
People at Burton dislike the skiers that kept them off the hill when snowboarding first came around. The "ski nazis" that wouldnt accept change. This attitude was fostered by the large conglomerate ski companies (Salomon/Rossi/Dynastar). They saw snowboarding a threat to their bottom line, therefor skiing was "holding snowboarding back"
EVERYONE on staff at the offices is completely down with freeskiers on anon. Its not like the anon. guys just decided one day "aww hell, lets sponsor skiers even though we hate them". Everyone there knows that what we do is exactly what pro snowboarders do. Those of us who are in the industry, or skiing every day we can, are just like snowboarders. We are driven by the love of a sport we call our own.
There is no hatred from inside of Burton towards newschool skiing. Its the resentment of the big company's that tried to kill snowboarding when it first came about.
As far as the anon. pulling outve skiing rumor, that is completely untrue. We are continuing in our support for freeskiing, we are building an expanded team, and have signed athlete contracts through 06/07. If we were quitting anytime soon, there wouldnt be any such thing as I listed above.
Anon., to me (im biased, but truthful) and Burton in general, has been one of the most rewarding and fun jobs ive ever had (and ive only been there a month and a half). Were fully committed to skiing, sponsoring of ski films/events, and everything involved in our movement.
So yeah, thats about it. Its a bunk rumor
www.h30films.net
www.anonoptics.com
www.redprotection.com
www.evolutionfreeride.com