It's about time other sports start claiming US as their inspiration

jacobski

jacobski

Member
So I'm just bored, anxiously awaiting winter, and if I stare at my new Hellbents any longer the graphic is going to give me nightmares, so here's a RANT.

I just read a Q & A on the Dalbello site with T-Hall and I happen to agree with something he said (sure he's been an arrogant tool in the past, but I think he's gotten better in the last few yrs). Skiing is not rollerblading, nor will it ever be. Sure our sport has been influenced by other sports, but we don't owe our allegiance to any of them. I have nothing personal against Rollerblading, I just have no interest in riding them or watching others ride them at all, just my opinion.

This matters to me for 2 main reasons:

1-To ignore the general public's perception of our sport just slows the progression. I want skiing to get hyped as much as possible, it's not like my "pet indie" band that I'm going to disown once I hear on the radio, screw that thinking, I want it to be my "Radiohead"(super popular but still mad creative). The main reason is for this opinion is $$$$. I want every kid to feel cool for choosing to pick up skiing, and get his parents to pump more cash into the sport. $$$ fuels the progression, in products, movies, style etc...

That said, those within or without our sport that compare us to rollerblading aren't doing us any favors, say what you want, but I just think style in skiing is far superior to blading culture and the inter-related perception can only bring us down.

2-Secondly, as I mentioned briefly, we don't owe our allegiance to ANYONE. Sure other sports have influenced our sport and helped us progress,

"but without snowboarding, we wouldn't have parks or park culture"

"Well without skiing, there wouldn't be any lifts or mountain culture in the first place."

It's about time for other sports to start claiming US as their inspiration. The roots of our steeze now run deep, all over the world and it's growing fast. It's time for those different styles to branch out into their own niches, with more $$$ flowing into each of them, like other sports with more public recognition. There is room for Big Mtn charging, Slopestyle/pipe comps, urban jibbing, rails, gangsta steeze, artsy steeze, or any other perspective on the new school. The branching out of these niches will only make the roots stronger. Those varying styles within the sport are the key to progression, NOT rollerblading or any other sport. Snowlerblades are barely worth mentioning here, they don't even deserve negative attention. I just hope snowblades will soon go away forever, like the Bush administration.

...rant over.

 
i think it's really unnecessary to care... if snowblading wants to credit us skiers with influencing their shit, i'd rather the general public not know. furthermore, skiing is growing at a decent rate, even compared to snowboarding, so this talk of trying to get more people on snow is slightly misleading- it isn't as though there's any crisis in the industry that requires us all to get out there and recruit more skiers just so skiing will survive. i see this as being on par with the "skiing pipe in the olympics" kinda threads- there's plenty of money in the ski industry as a whole to continue to keep freestyle alive, so where's the point of trying to turn skiing into the next cool fad (ie- snowboarding) when we can just continue to stay just a little under the radar and not have ESPN over-hype our sport and turn it into a circus. there are huge companies in skiing- the money isn't going anywhere- so let skiing be as low-key as it can be and just enjoy it. there's no sense in making it a fad so it can burn out by next tuesday.

and it's a bit fucking arrogant to say that other sports should claim us as their inspiration. if they're inspired by us, they'll say so- until then, consider them uninspired. in other words, since you have yet to hear them claiming inspiration, we probably haven't done all that much to inspire.
 
i have given my opinion is soo many in these threads so here is my final word. Just ski for the fuck of it. Ive been skiing since 1993 ( ie pre newschool twin tip) and have been made fun of. I never went to boards, or blades. I just suck to skiing, and had fun with it. No offence but our sport is still just a tiny baby. We are still struggling. Go talk to people who don't ride or go to skihills and ask them what twin tip skiing is. Then ask them what snowboarding is.

Hell Line went to K2, and siver went under. That says that there is a change that needs to happen to the sport. Look at the snowboard companies dropping their ski teams. The sport is far from being safe. Hell rollerblading was MAD popular in the 90s, then fell from grace. We need to take cues from that sport to NOT make the same misstakes. I think that we are just coming off of a MASSIVE growth spert, and that the sport is going to level out a little bit before another one happens. Sports are not going to turn to US for their inspiration for the simple fact that it is still young, and still is growing.

We are expecting everything to happen over night, but our sport is just a little over 10 years old. Hell snowboarding first came up in the mid/late 70s, and look how long it took them to become mainstream. Kids just need to support the sport in any from.
 
It's about time for other sports to start claiming US as their inspiration. thats a bunch of crap. Why would you say something so ignorant. look at where our roots come from and im talking our new roots. CANADA oh ya look at the Canadian air force and the 3 Phils. That was the inspiration for where we are today. If you dont know you better ask some body AH.

Its not even about Canada or the US its about a combined international efforets of develiping a sport for the love and passion of it. ANd thats that
 
If we don't owe our allegiance to anyone, then why should other sports owe their allegiance to skiing?
 
what im saying is everyone should just stop worrying about who inspiried who and whos progressing where and just go skiing. im sick of this same topic
 
I didn't say that other sport's owe us our allegiance, I am saying that as our sport recieves more recognition, it will inspire those in other sports who previously had no idea that it was blowing up like it is.
 
Damn, I forgot this was ns, try to make a unifying statement about the sport and here comes the...

"already been a thread about this dood"

"Canadians invented newschool skiing dood"

"skiing is just for fun dood"

"other sports are fun too dood"

 
Well honestly, your rant came off as quite egotistical and elitest in thinking that other sports should be recognizing freeskiing (despite it's very young age in relation to others) as the inspiration point.
 
well you did capitalize the U and the S which is also short for United States...thats probably what threw him off.

But I'm sure skiing will come along within the next 10 years, it's already expanding faster than snowboarding expanded, there are so many ski companies. There are companies for the gapers, companies for the hardcore BC skiers who go for functionality over fashion, there are companies for the park rats, and there's one for everyone else. Snowboarding just started to peak in its popularity, while skiing is just barely rising...

as someone said before, it took 30 years for snowboarding to become mainstream. ESPN and the x-games took care of that. Skiing, after only 10 years or so (less for mass-marketed twins) was ALREADY being introduced to the olympic committee to see if it will be entered into the 2010 olympics, it was also just barely shut down too. We have a great chance of getting into the 2014 olympic games.

Given the n00bness, the high variety of terrain available, and the up and coming companies, other sports are not similar to us, so they cannot look up to us or claim "inspiration" from us.
 
Are you a skier? Damn right I'm egotistical about it, but how is it elistist to say I want everyone to try it and other sports to respect it?
 
Other sports aren't DISrepecting skiing. A few numbnutted boarders who know jack shit will say things from time to time, but there will always be ignorance no matter how popular freeskiing is.
 
Honestly, i think it'll take less time to get park skiing/ twin tips popular, we are more connected because our roots are still skiing, just another type. Unfortunately (for the skiers culture and vibe), people will see skiers, and think they're cool. Wham, snowboarding all over again. But, actually, now that i think of it, it'll still be a while before all the kids abandon snowboarding for skiing...

And i basically agree with everyone.

Especially matty
 
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