It hit me

CalebT

CalebT

Active member
Do you like the direction Freeskiing is heading? -Nieds

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I do like it, but I think THE WORD “FREESKIING” IS DUMB & HURTING OUR SPORT. It’s just “skiing”! Every time you call “skiing” something else, you’re saying that “skiing” is not what you do, skiing isn’t good enough for you, skiing is old school, skiing is lame, skiing is what others do not you, skiing is not what you should try, I AM NOT A SKIER. “I’m a freeskier?” This needs to stop, just like calling skis, “twin tips”. When was the last time you heard someone refer to snowboards as twin tips or said I’m a freesnowboarder.

It’s absolutely ridiculous that there is a:

US Ski Team

US Freestyle Ski Team

US Freeskiing Ski Team

It should all be the “US Ski Team” and they simply focus on different disciplines within the sport, like the US Track & Field Team.

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It’s too tiny a sport in need of too much promotion to segregate and divide the promotion of the sport or people participating in it. Especially to the general public who can just barely stay informed as to what skiing is, if that’s what they still call it?

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We need all the accomplishments, image & communication of what we do in all disciplines to be leveraged for the greater communication & good of the sport as a whole. We’re all skiers, and the sport we do is skiing. Stop running away from what you are. It’s not helping.

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I don't have much to say, but I believe this to be so true.

 
I don't agree, for three main reasons:

1. Having a different word is useful, as it specifies how we ski. Even to non-skiers, it will be clear that we ski, and that we participate in some specific type of skiing.

2. Our sport is based on the idea of being different, from the beginning. I don't think that we should change that. The idea of accepting and celebrating uniqueness is one of the best things about what we do.

3. I also know from personal experience that having that mentality of being different does not mean that we can't be friends with people in other parts of skiing. Because of this, this debate might not actually matter.

That being said, I do think you're right about the US Ski Team. You also get an upvote for starting (or trying to start) a real, interesting discussion.
 
But I'm not convinced that freeskiing really does come across as an obviously different skiing to people outside of it. Yeah they recognize halfpipe as different from GS, but they also recognize it as different from urban (if they are ever aware of urban). In my mind moguls have more in common with halfpipe than big mountain does. And although technique is different I bet a lot of people would consider aerials and big air similar. Even if you disagree with that argument, I still feel like we've reached the point where there is more things making subsets of freesking different than things they share that aren't shared with freestyle/racing/getting down the hill.

If you want to set yourself apart from 'other skiers' I think you're a lot better off being specific and saying 'a ski park' or 'I spend most of my time skiing steep chutes and dropping cliffs' as freeskiing itself doesn't carry that much meaning to anyone other than us.
 
When I say to people I ski, they think that I nordic ski. this is not correct. Also, when I say I ski downhill, I want people to know that I also hit jumps and ski rails... That I am different than the regular skiing scene. So OP, "skiing" to me is way to vague to describe exactly what I like to do.
 
What he's saying in the article is that it doesn't matter what skiing you do. Just let your friends or whatever know that you ski ad if you want tell them specifically, it's not a huge struggle
 
I don't think you understand what OP is saying. He completely understands what the article is saying, but what he is saying, is that he doesn't like to tell people(who don't know there are more forms of skiing than just skiing groomers) that he just skis, because he would be putting the wrong image into their heads of what he does.
 
I personally think it deserves it's own category. It's different to skiing. When someone says "I ski" and another says "I'm a freeskier" two different pictures come to mind. It's the same as saying you're a longboarder rather than a skater. It's different equipment, it's different terrain, it'd different aspirations...

I'm so confused by this thread. Have I completely missed the point of OP's argument? I probably have. Apologies.
 
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