Olympics? Hell no!

What is it that you're all so afraid of? You seem to think that halfpipe skiing in the olympics equals the death of our lifestyle? As long as you're out there keepin it real and skiing the way you want to, freeskiing will remain a lifestyle, and a way to express yourself, regardless of it being in the olympics or not. It's exactly what you make of it. This rivalry, or whatever you wanna call it, actually seems to get people thinking about what skiing means to them, and thats a good thing. It's a dynamic thing that i personally enjoy about skiing, so go out and do your own thing, and get stoked, or not, on halfpipe in the olympics. If you do that, skiing in the form you want it, will survive. It's your choice to not want to follow the path of competitions, but it's super narrowminded to think that if others do, our lifestyle will die, it wont!
Keep it real, see you on the mountain!
 
I don't completely agree with you, but what you're saying makes sence, and maybe you'rw right. Yuo've gotten yourself some karma though, along with that other dude who wrote a whole essay!
 
agreed. llok at the snowboard halfpipe for the olympics, its sick, but basically everyone has the exact same tricks, and if you dont throw those tricks than you basically dont qualify.
 
YOU FUCKING RULE.
COULDNT HAVE SAID IT ANY BETTER
fuck the olympics man, everybody says it going to ligitimize our sport and such but fuck that, why does a sport need to be in the olympics to be legit. is skateboarding in the olympics? no. is it a legit sport? yes. im sick of all these bozo's saying its going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. fuck that it will all be FIS controlled and judged. FIS IS FOR RACERS AND DICKHEADS RUN IT. I know this from experence im not just talking out my ass.
OLYMPICS BLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
 
this is exactly what i was going to post, but yours is more thought out and sounds smarter.

Watch any winning event run, or hell even a loosing run, they all use the same high mute grab, literaly no grab variety, just high mute. all the winning runs have hucked dubs.
 
I see your point, as well as others, but feel that, as has been pointed out if this truly is freeskiing, then those who choose to compete in slope and pipe are free to do so because it is, well, free skiing. Those who choose to shred around the mountain, not compete and do what the F**K they want are free to do so also..because this is free skiing. It is merely a personal perception. We could go back to saying that it is whatever is fun as well (something which embodies 'freeskiing'), and if you are free skiing, as long as you are enjoying it, what does it matter to the next person? Everyone is different and will have a different perception!

No hate here, just putting forth what I and others see!
 
So let's get this straight, you are against it because you want things to be "Free" correct?
Ok, why don't you tell us, which is more "Free"?
A - All of the halfpipe competitors being given the option to do something in skiing that they all really desire. (key word "option" nobody will get forced into anything)
or
B- All of the halfpipe competitors being DENIED the option, even though they all really want to have that chance.
Seems to me that letting in in the Olympics creates a more "free" environment than not letting it in the Olympics.
More options = more available choices = more freedom
 
No my friend...what i'm against is how halfpipe skiing will evolve into a very regimented...very same....very homogeneous aspect of free skiing if its in the Olympics...same runs by everyone because they want to win that gold medal...no one will be forced to do the specific tricks that would win, but everyone would because they want to win...big ups to guys like dorey and riddel and margets and dumont and jossi and so on if they really do want to be in the Olympics good for them dream big represent your country whatever...i'm just saying it wouldn't be a good representation of our sport. Free skiing doesn't need a governing body like FIS...free skiing needs to be just that free, not a judged sport because truly there is no way to say one rider is better than the next because everyone has their own way of riding and its all different, not one way is better then the next...I've been part of free skiing since the beginning and i'm just saying this is the opposite direction it started out as....anyone remember the FIS SUCKS stickers from FREEZE...i'm just saying.

Everyone isn't going to agree on this...its all personal opinion...live and let live...i'm just giving my two cents on the topic
 
i dont see a skiing community as large as NS for mogul skiing, or cross country skiing, or any other type of skiing (no hate on any skiing, I
 
i quoted this just cause its true

and the only problem i see with skiing going into the olympics is that it will eventually become structured, and eventually everyone will need to qualify tricks like the mogul skiiers need to. that would kill the evolution of our sport.

 
Just thought I'd post this, quoted word for word from an interview with Mike Douglas from the '09 Buyers Guide edition of SBC SKIER. I feel it is appropriate and has a lot of very good points on the issue.

"So you haven't joined the 1 million strong rallying for ski Superpipe in the 2010 Olympics?

I'm on the fence when it comes to Olumpic pipe skiing. Part of me is in favour because I think it's badass and skiers at the top end are as good as the snowboarders. It would be a great show. But when the New Canadian Air Force guys and myself started the sport it was to run away from all that. We launched the FIS Sucks campaign to keep it out of FIS, and a lot of people who are gung-ho now weren't around then and aren't turned in to why we had to stay away from FIS. We came close to losing control of what we'd created. To me, there's nothing sadder than a sport that exists only for the chance of getting a medal once every four years. I pitched Whistler Blackcomb to do a big ski-pipe event on Blackcomb during the Olympics; it would be a really good thing to geurilla it up a little. I mean, as soon as Katie Couric says the name of your sport its cool factor instantly drops."
 
Hmm good point, I was all for skiing in the olympics now I'm not so sure. I guess with poor judging, it could really hurt the sport. But on the other hand, its good exposure for the sport and athletes and if the judging was good (proper credit for style and grabs etc) it would be sick. Is it worth the risk though?
 
I still don't see why anyone was rooting for halfpipe to be in the olympics in the first place. Guys that do pipe are on the same level as football jocks. They ski to win. Real skiers ski because, frankly, they enjoy skiing (not winning a medal or a check). Competitions are so fucked anyways (slope and pipe). Style and creativity is not rewarded. Just imagine how much the FIS will love any style or creativity!

What is skiing?

THIS?

NZ%20Freeski%20Open%20Halfpipe%20Podium.png


OR THIS?

1229758170-721312-600x429-1229757727Joe_kelly-11-2.jpg


 
I don't get why everyone is so up in arms about this. Personally, I'm stoked because I will hopefully be seeing some of my friends in the Olympics which is pimp, but on the other hand I can see it turning into a spin/flip to win with mediocre grab fest. I don't really care about that though, I'm just going to keep on doing my own thing. Maybe this will give more hills incentive to build and maintain pipes? I would be stoked, I find riding pipe super fun.
 
This is legit.

I completely understand what you mean about halfpipe.

The reason phil casabon will never win gold is the same reason duncan adams will never win gold and its fucking terrible. Both guys are doing stuff nobody out there can do and barely get rewarded. Keep it up phil and duncan, you guys are the shit
 
just saying halfpipe and slopestyle skiing will never be in the olympics. its true not enough countries will vote for it to be in. and they think that it takes away from ariels and moguls because they are already doing tricks. last time they tried to get it in there werent even close to enough votes for it to get in. its not gonna happen. snowboarding is because there is no other olympic sport thay snowboarders do tricks in so its differennt
 
I definitely agree with some of the people in here who have made this statement, and here my perception of this statement:
You guys say that pipe skiing shows the joke side of our sport/activity/lifestyle whatever the fuck you want to call it, but you don't want to be associated with them. You don't have to be! The only people who will be competing in the Olympics are the 'jocks' that actually WANT to compete in them and be a part of that side of the sport. If you don't want to be associated with that, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE. No one's holding a gun to your head and saying 'if you want to be successful with whatever you want to be successful in within skiing (by whatever terms you define success and certainly not from a competitive standpoint necessarily) you have to ski halfpipe.' You guys that don't want this, you don't have to have it or be associated with it. Keep doing what you're doing - the fact that pipe skiing is broadcast on a global stage won't change how you ski if you don't want it to.
If anything, the olympics will accomplish one positive goal for this side of skiing: it will certainly bring a level of legitimacy within international competition, and with legitimacy comes money and exposure. And ultimately, it won't just end up in the pockets of 'Pipe Jocks.' The term 'A rising tide floats all boats' definitely applies here in that if money and exposure are flowing into the industry through pipe skiing, that exposure and revenue will flow toward other aspects of skiing as new kids get into the sport and start spending money on product, etc.
I know all of you guys on here are 'soul shredders' that would never want to see money coming into the sport so that your lifestyle will be disrupted by all of this unwanted attention. But seriously, the sport is definitely headed into two different directions - you guys and the competitors. And the fact of the matter is, if the competitors want an opportunity like this, give it to them - I promise it won't change your lifestyle drastically for the worse.

Sparknotes:Olympic half pipe skiing won't change your perception of skiing unless you let that happen. It will only bring money into the sport that helps us all out, no matter what you want to do with your skiing.
 
when snowboarding halfpipe made the olympics it completely ruined their sport. all of the snowboarders did exactly the same run and it was really boring. even more boring/lame were all of the grand prix events leading up to the olymipics.

some of you kids just don't get it.
 
sure i'd love to see skiing in the olympics. it it doesnt happen, oh well. who cares if your sport is becoming more mainstream? im just gonna keep skiing the way i want.
 
good, keep people in the dark. I don't need everyone at school who know's that i ski to run up to after the Olympics, and say "OMG! OMG! OMG, did you like see tanner Hall? he was so sick!" that's exactly what happened after shaun white won gold in torino. not a single one of those people could tell me that ross powers, who had a more innovative run for his time, won gold in salt lake. or that Danny Kass, who lives literally 35 miles from my high school, had also placed. people who think that they know things annoy me more than anything, and if skiing is put in the olympics alot more of those people are going to be around
 
I stopped snowboarding for this reason(and I kind of lost interest in the sport). suddenly more begginners at my mountain are snowboarders than skiers. the word snowboarder became synonomous with "10 year old kid who thinks he's cool because he comes up from the bay area twice a year to snowboard." I really found a great balance in skiing between great participants and a certain level of anonymity. last season I met countless skiers who i think are really sick and have become my friends, in that time i have only met 2 snowboarders who i could stand to ride the lift with because all they talked about is how I should board the sinking ship that is snowboarding because "Shaun White is like so sick dude! he can do like way more stuff than skiers can" and i just smile on the inside with the knowledge that even Andy Parry has more steeze than Shaun White will ever have.

P.S. does anyone have any FIS Sucks stickers i could buy?

/rant
 
when i go on the mtn on my twintips i feel special...when i go on snowboard i feel im there to be one of a milion,trying to be coolits that kids go snowboarding because it cool,not to jump arpund and laught and im guessing skiing will go the same way
 
Well it's up to you that it doesn't go the same way! It is whatever you make of it, as long as you're there to have fun, laugh with your friends and shred around the mountain, then thats what it is! And i think all of my snowboarder friends would disagree quite strongly with the very heavy generalisation you just made about snowboarders. Please dont talk about snowboarding as a "dead" mainstream sport/lifestyle, cause it's so much more! Look at the many independent crews and film companies in snowboarding, i think that halfpipe snowboarding becoming so mainstream and "cool" has created a counter culture if you will, and this has brought so many good things with it. The amount of talented kids just shreddin for fun on their snowboards is huge, so all in all snowboarding seems to be doing quite well.
 
That's being presented out of context:
Just like Mike says, they originally launched the FIS sucks campaign because, in the early stages of the sport they did not want to lose control of what they created. At that time, the sport was in its infancy and did not have the type of self-sustaining life and industry that it does now. It is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT situation now. The sport is now thriving on it's own, and allowing FIS to hold some events will not mean that they "control" the sport any more than they "control" snowboarding.
Is Travis Rice controlled by FIS in any way? Is Danny Kass? Not at all, but FIS does provide an opportunity for those guys to go to the Olympics (BTW Travis was trying out for the Torino Games but didn't qualify). If you were to ask Travis how much FIS has "ruined snowboarding" he would laugh all the way to his helicopter, after all, snowboarding is exactly how he decides to make it, and that also goes for Shaun, Louie, etc. They get to do what they want, if that happens to be going to the Olympics, then they have the chance to do it.
Is Lucas Magoon controlled by FIS just because FIS got snowboarding an Olympic berth? Of course not, he chooses to follow his own vision of snowboarding, just as everyone will still be free to follow your own vision of skiing even when skiing HP gets in the Olympics. If your vision is to stay away from FIS and the Olympics, you will certainly be free to do that, and if someone like Justin Dorey's vision is to go to the Olympics, then hopefully that choice will finally be there for him.
BTW the entire purpose of the ski pipe event referenced in that interview, that Mike was pitching along with Whistler Blackcomb during 2010, was to highlight the sport to both the Vancouver Olympic crowds as well as the IOC, specifically to support getting ski pipe into the Olympics.
The only people who will actually be affected by the Olympics, are the competition halfpipe skiers. And since they ALL want it, then why would anyone who isn't a halfpipe competitor be opposed to it? Why would you not support fellow skiers getting to do what they want?
Anyone bitching about "how our sport is being represented" obviously cares more about the image than the experience. If someone wants the experience of Olympic competition, then who are we to say they shouldn't be allowed to do that?
It's only people who don't do pipe who oppose it, and if you think about that, it's actually pretty hilarious.
Honestly, imagine a halfpipe skier saying that skiers shouldn't be allowed to hit urban rails because "that's not where I want to see the sport going, I don't want our sport to be represented like that."
 
seems like you're the one to took the quote out of context.

keep FIS out of skiing. i used to compete in bullshit ussa big airs and slopestyle, and moguls before that. while standard slope judging usually does suck (aspen open), the judging and understand of the judges in the ussa competitions was a complete joke. the people involved in these organizations still get a hard on for aerials and have no clue what's going on in the freeride world. let them have their perfect pencil spins and keep scoring them with their degree of difficulty multipliers and let us do what we do, without having to put a number on everything and look at everything logically. the new canadian airforce wanted to ski and not have to worry about their knee breaks or not holding their position in their 360 for long enough.

THERE ARE INFINITE CORRECT WAYS TO DO ANY TRICK AND FIS/USSA DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THAT.

keep individuality in our scene.
 
Are you speaking from experience?
Interesting.... you must have been pretty involved with following snowboarding halfpipe in 1996 (That's when snowboarding halfpipe was awarded Olympic status for the 98 games), and how old were you then anyways?
It's strange, but I don't remember all the runs being the same, in fact, the runs were all very different and if only Mike had landed his finals run in Nagano it would have been epic, because the Michalchuk was one of the sickest tricks I had ever seen back then.
But shit man, that's too bad it "completely ruined their sport". I mean damn, all those snowboarders out there in the world having fun on snowboards every day are probably still crying about their sport being ruined by the IOC back in 1996, right?
 
Sweet, another guy who doesn't compete in halfpipe, arguing that the halfpipe skiers should NOT be given an opportunity that they all want.
You keep on fighting that good fight pal, shutting down hard working people's dreams and opportunities. All in the name of freedom, right?
 
halfpipe skiing just isn't that cool. there should be less pipe comps and MORE rail jams. there are 0 high profile rail comps in skiing whereas in snowboarding you can make $10,000 at one of many.

there are too many pipe comps, and nothing ever changes except for the amount of spins and flips. BORING.

fuck the olympics anyways, the whole scotty lago deal from this past one was so god damn stupid. same goes for the situation with kazuhiro kokubo. SUCH EMPHASIS PUT ON THE STUPIDEST SHIT. OH MY GOD AN OLYMPIC MEDALIST IS GETTING DRUNK AFTER WINNING A MEDAL. HOLY CRAP THIS JAPANESE SNOWBOARDER IS SAGGING HIS PANTS!

fuck. it's not just about the competition and exposure, it's about being an INDIVIDUAL, and not having some stupid organization running your life just so you can go to the big show!
 
I can definatly see your point, but some of what you said doesn't make sense.

You said everyone will have the exact same run etc, but then you said Look at dumont and jossi's run at snowbasin, you said their runs were identical, but jossi got one more hit. That right off the bat shows they were different, then you said that Jossi had more styles you think he should of won, clearly if someone had a different run then there is still room for creativity. Personally, Dumonts run was one of my favorites ever, he went so big, I remember watching that run and just thinking oh shit, that was crazy. Clearly there are going to be differences in runs and I think that it will still allow for creativity, yeah things like rode 5's aren't going to be seen as much and there are going to be dubs and eventually trips, but that doesn't mean creativity is going to get killed, I think that it will continue looking sick and being fun to watch.

/rant
 
Calm down bud, nobody is going to force you to compete in the Olympics and nobody is going to tie you to a couch and make you watch the Olympics if you don't want to.
You are 100% correct, it is about being an individual. So, why don't you simply follow your own vision of skiing, and let the pipe skiers follow their vision.
It's highly doubtful that Jossi has an issue with what you choose to do on skis, so why would you complain about what he chooses to do?
 
Haha ok.
Funny about the rail jam thing, because like you said, snowboarding has more rail jams... hmmm, and whattaya know, they also have an Olympic halfpipe event.
So, if your desire is to see more rail jams (like snowboarders do), then it's doubtful that Olympic ski pipe will hurt those chances, since after all it's currently the guys with the Olympic pipe event that are also getting more rail jams....
 
Yeah sorry man, shouldn't have been so aggro on your post. I just get riled up on this subject pretty easily, and tend to snap.
I just really believe the pipe skiers should get a chance to do what they want, and hearing other skiers lobby against that concept is so frustrating.
After all, even the "FIS sucks" stickers back in the day, were basically a rallying cry for those athletes to do what THEY wanted back then. So in keeping with that spirit, if Tanner and Jossi and Sarah etc etc want to go to the Olympics, then really it's pretty inconsiderate of anyone (ESPECIALLY their fellow skiers) to tell them they shouldn't be allowed to. (Not implying that you were saying that, just trying to explain why I get so hotheaded about the subject.)
Let's all just be happy for everything about skiing and hope that everyone out there has as many choices of how they wish to approach the sport as possible.
Peace
 
mabey im wrong but put aside the freeski versus structure debate for one second

our whole lifestyle is so opposite to olympics

remember a little while ago after the olympics Micheal Phelps got busted and a total horrible press release for doing one hit of weed? or that one of the ski racers posted pictures of herself in a bikini and got torn up?

just imagine what these uptight assholes are gonna think when they see Thall and the Ccrew :P

i dont know about you but that just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

yes it may thrust freeskiing into the bigtime but whos to say it will go big in a positive way

i honestly can barely imagine any freeskier wearing a matching outfit with 3 or 4 other people

or even pulling there pants up for that matter (which the IOC will probably insist upon)

in a sport fueled by individuality and freedom, the olympics, possibly the most strict sporting event in the world doesnt seem like a great place for freesking

 
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