Maude Raymond's perspective on woman's contests

G

gnarschralped

Member
From her FB page

"It's so sad for girls slopestyle skiers, all

commentators want is tripples and change ups, there is no props on the

real sick tricks, the jumps are built for dubs or triples.. its not that

bad but they all look like kooks, there is always 3-4 serious injuries,

On top of that there is no exposer what so ever for girls.. next thing

you know, half of them are out till next season, Again. Double front or

double back flips are cool in slope now cause it's at least a "dub" then

you go and say #celebratesarah. Thanks for NineQueen to be the only one

stoked on girls."
 
If the girls could go even 360 degrees harder in the paint people would actually give a fuck
 
women snowboarding is so much ahead of women skiing, in snowboard a girl stomped a dub rodeo in the pipe, and the women skiing are just putting down 540s and 720s, Sarah was won of the only ones really progressing the sport fast
 
This is why I hate contests. Everyone believes they should win and when they dont, they blame everything except for their performance.

The freeride experience is better.
 
Many on NS have already agreed with her point about the slope course being much more appropriate for guys than it is for girls... but the solution isn't to blame the event or the commentators for not giving "props on the real sick tricks". Because, while I have a lot of respect for the girls who are out there giving it their all, the fact of the matter is they just aren't really up to "X games caliber" yet as a whole.

This is true for both women's skiing AND snowboarding... I mean, the jump section in the gold-medal run for girls snowboarding was a back 2 off the cannon box, a 180, a 7, and a 5. The issue wasn't that "the jumps were built wrong", because both girl skiers and snowboarders were clearing the landings just fine. The issue was that nobody is putting in near the effort that guys are to huck new shit and stomp new tricks. NS has argued over and over again as to why that is, so I'm not even going to touch that topic here, but there is some serious stagnation going on with womens slopestyle for both skis and boards.

Yes, it sucks that 3-4 girls went down with injuries, and I really hope they recover quickly. I just think she's a little off-base when she's blaming the commentators or the course design for the lack of progression in womens competition ski and snowboard slopestyle

/rant
 
The problem is the major dilemma between women wanting equality in the sport with regard to exposure, prize purse etc but then the jumps being too big for the women to feel comfortable in pushing themselves. It leaves them with the choice of pushing for a new size course/smaller kickers/reshape of mens course after which will enevitably bring about questions on prizes and coverage or a case of dealing with the course that there is and keeping up equality and having to face up to hitting larger kickers and stepping up the game.
 
Wow I hope that isn't a copy paste from her FB. If it is her grammar and spelling is atrocious.

And in no way did I feel that the commentators were really hyping huge stuff, hence 'pressuring' the females to go bigger than they felt was comfortable.
 
Yeah, spend hundreds of thousands to arrange a smaller, more user friendly course for an event nobody watches and generates next to nothing financially. I bet if they did that we would hear complaints of how "it's sexist and condescending to put women on a smaller course, we are good enough for the big course".
 
we've seen maude throw down. just do some dub flat 7s or 9s in a comp and take first then shit will start blowing up for women's skiing. take the initiative before you complain about no one caring
 
Gahhh that's true but any raw Quebec'ers I've meet have had pretty stellar reading and writing. Ill give her the benefit of the doubt though.

And yeah Don_Cartage, I see what your saying. If they all really wanted a smaller setup I think they would ALL have to be on board for it, no complaints if they get it. And I think your also right with it being a very low exposure group, so would it actually be worth x-games time. If they did get a smaller course that was more appropriate for them to throw down on, would they garner more exposure...? Little bit of devils advocate.
 
I think if someone came along and started absolutely dominating we would see a drastic change in what's being thrown down.
 
hah this is incredibly ironic,

refer to the tricks at :13, :22, both done by the girl you just to told to shut up

Maude Raymond - Mellow Edit - Early 2012 from Robert Quinn on Vimeo.

both extremely stylish
 
Now all they need to do is grab that well in comps and people won't complain nearly as much. Instead they just do sloppy safety ski touches
 
I can see why girls would be frustrated that X Games doesn't give them much exposure, but it shouldn't come as a surprise. It's not like X Games is intentionally trying to screw over the girls, it's just that it's all about dollars and cents. Same reason why the WNBA doesn't get hyped as much as the NBA, it's just not worth the effort when it won't get as many viewers regardless.
 
Fuck, I considered making a super long response to this thread but it's really not worth it because it's not blowing up. Maybe what I have to say will spark some interest. It's just a quick jab. I'll get into it if anyone wants to take that bait.

In the last year, the best thing to happen to women's skiing in terms of progression wasn't Kelly or Lisa, it was Kaya not winning yesterday.
 
Why? I missed it, but I just looked up what I believe was the winning run and aside from a smooth k-fed, it didn't look that different from many women's slope runs I've seen. looked like she missed her grabs on most, if not all of her jumps, including a sw 5.
 
Will, you're looking at it wrong. It's not about the tricks she did or did not do. While it's true her last year's gold run would have beat this year's silver run and there are many problems with that, it is not what I'm getting at.

Kaya had won the last 3 times in aspen and Tignes. She was in a league of her own. She was the Simon vs. Tanner of yesteryear where she played both Simon and Tanner. Either she was going to win or she was going to win. The field played along. Not many lineup changes to the slopestyle field have occurred in the last few years. The men's turnover is nuts, however, it's been the same girls at every comp for a while now. There was nothing to push progression except Kaya saying she was pushing it. Now that Kaya has been beaten by some 17 year old Norse chick whose name I cannot remember, Kaya is beatable and there's actually a reason to progress.
 
Kaya fell on her first 2 runs where she was actually going to do her bigger tricks. She didn't want to get last so she threw a stock run her third time around and still got silver. Kaya would have won easily if she had landed her first or second run and been able to go harder on her last run. Sw 10 for sure
 
Yeah I know that's what you meant. But you have something like skiing big air where Henrik comes in and blows everybody's minds and takes what's possible to a new level. Then you have women's slope where yeah, it's good that somebody else got first this year, but the level doesn't really seem that different. Kind of just makes me think Kaya was just having an off day. I should probably go watch Kaya's runs so I actually know what I am talking about though. I definitely understand what you are saying, but I just don't think it's going to push progression nearly as much as a girl coming in and throwing down stuff that's never been done by a girl in competition, not simply beating the reigning champ with a par for the course run.
 
I don't think either of us are in a position to speculate on Kaya's thought process.

So.....

It's only progression it's landed. She didn't land it. What you're saying it pretty much irrelevant on those regards.
 
Yeah, if the field REALLY want's to move along, they need someone that is at a league above every other female skier, and from there she move's even further outside of the 'league' she was in. Something to really threaten everyone else.
 
What the hell is she bitching about.

The jumps are big enough for dubs but they're also built to be nice jumps. Other people don't have a problem throwing lofty on axis spins over them.

If you're going to bitch at least be able to back it up.

What real sick tricks does she have? An abortion grind, to dead fetus 360 on the booters?

 
I'm just going to chime in here quick to ask, did anyone see Jamie's dub backie!? Oh and I wish Devin Logan were healthy because she pushes the sport.
 
yeah. i feel as though right now kaya is thinking "i need to work on my consistency," rather than "holy shit I need to bring an insane trick to the table next year," which is probably what all the guys are thinking after henrik's triple. I think it will take somebody like lisa zimmermann throwing a dub or something in competition to get girls into that mindset.
 
Every time these threads pop up, I can only think about Kristi Leskinen's athlete survey that said the ideal female competition jump size is 20% smaller than men's. Everyone knows that your bag of tricks gets smaller as the jumps get bigger, and as shitty as it is to hit the smaller jump, a double rodeo over a 50 foot jump is more interesting than a 5 over a 75 foot jump.
 
I dont want to get into a debate about Womans skiing. However, it is kinda dissapointing that most of my friends (who live in michigan) could give all of these girls a run for their money. Most girls just strait hit the box/rail features, with the occasional 270 out. Oh yea, and i guess a SW 5 with a half ass'd grab is a technical trick.
 
there's a girl who rides at my local mountain who threw a mute 12 at provincials last year...just saying

I'm starting to be of the opinion that separate courses for men and women while being unrealistic would be a better option and would show alot more progression.
 
Womens contests needs Kelly Sidaru, she can have an impact for sure and keep pushing on the good work Sarah started. She may struggle on the big features to begin with but she will adjust quickly
 
I believe Maude is the steeziest girl out there, she may not be throwing dubs but what she throws looks better than any hucked dub from a girl. Its just how it is but the female body very simply is not designed like the males. We can not take the hits as well as men, hence why Maude has gone through 3 or more knee reconstructions, a broken back, a broken jaw and at least a bunch of other injuries. not to mention in last 6 months 5 of the top 10 girls in the world are out with injury. No wonder the progression is slow.

Im not asking for bigger prize money or more hype in womens skiing.

but. a little respect would be nice.
 
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