Parks Progressing Too Fast>?

lorida

Active member
A little background;

So I used to ride Avila a few years back (5-6?) when it was fairly tame. Gnarliest features were super long boxes, maybe a double kink rail, etc. I was able to hit everything and was progressing since everything was within my ability.

Then, my home mountain changed. The park where I'm at is pretty static. Same 3 line jump, 10-15' tables, moderate kick, then a box and a few rails. A family hill. Every year they move things around, change the setup a bit, but basically it's the same thing. Throwing 3's and 5's, switch on and 270's off of the rails, we were above average at our mountain.

One day, getting a little annoyed of the beat features of this smaller hill, my buddy and I decide to trek out to Avila, after 4-5 years of being out of touch.

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED IN 5 YEARS?!?

Everything is set up super gnarly, hand rail style, or like quadruple kink circular tubing. Jumps you have to hit tits out or you're not making that landing. After a day there, I was finally able to slide a full rail, although barely able to walk from all the bruises.

The craziest part: EVERYONE is sick! I was one of the worst riders there! Not that it got me down, I was stoked to see how the community as a whole has progressed, but I didn't realize to what extent?

The kickers I could barely clear with a 3, while others dominated with cork 7's, 9's, lincolns, anything, and all by 13-19 year olds.

Can anybody else relate? Any other comments on progression as a whole? I'll definitely hit Avila more often now to get back into it.

 
Yes I can relate to this. My mountain has tiny hits and then when I go up to Mount Snow in vermont, people are throwing rodeos, lincolns, and I can't do anything!! It's SO annoying. But if you get to be as good as them- then you'll be the best :-)
 
are you sure your "mountain" isnt inside a cave?

But really.....the skiers whos home mountain is avila will have progressed over the last five years thus wanting the difficulty of the features to progress with them.

You have been skiing at a mountain that seems not to have a lot of park skiers so they must not have felt the need to make more dificult features.
 
if you ski park in the montreal area, there's a big chance you go to avila, and it's been pretty much the case for a few years. i don't think it's fair to say it's progressing too fast... particularly if you're argument is that you haven't gone in 5-6 years.
 
Right, but it's not like I've been totally off the map.

I ride every 1-2 weekends, and can hit (with confidence) every feature at said local hill.

Anyways, I'm not saying it's a bad thing Avila has raised the bar, it was just a bit of a surprise after not seeing it for a while. It was more the setup of the features then the features themselves...if that makes sense.

 
Yeah well Avila as been my home mountain for the last 3 years and I can honestly say that every local riders progress so much each year. I love the new park and its definitely a step up from other seasons (way bigger jump line) so I can't complain and I really do feel I'm finally getting good and doing my own things, but I realized that a lot of mediocre riders talked shit in early season on Avila's facebook complaining about how they should make a huge jump line with bigger features and such(probably trying to look like badass skiers or snowboarders on facebook), and for once, Avila listened and built the jump line everyone asked. Now the result : the jump line is most of the time empty. Whats my conclusion? A huge bunch of riders asked for a bigger jump line without having the skills or the balls to hit it. I'm excluding the local riders here, they are the ones you see throwing cork 9 and shit.
 
But I think they always had a huge jump line on the right, and then a moderate one on the left?

Same with the rail park...they always had two side by side- a Medium and L/XL beside it.

Still, not complaining, just have to step my game up.
 
this is totally wrong. It's only one trail.

I've talk to park rangers and one of them told me that ski patrollers want to close the park because their was too much injuries.

But yeah, avila is a good example of progression in park.
 
No, they always had one and only one big kicker. This year they made a jump line of 3 massive kickers and I love to hit it, I'm just saying they worked their ass off for nothing : they finished the line way too late this season (and i'm not even comparing them to bromont, wich had a sicker jump line months before avila even had an acceptable line), the jump line is most of the time empty when local killers like Pelletier, Ferlatte, etc are not there and now snowboarders are already complaining that jumps are not suitable for them...
 
things progressed too fast at my hill and the park collapsed into itself. now theres nothing in that run but an abyss and nobody knows where it goes yet, i might hike down one day
 
Skiing is very difficult and progresses very quick. The parks have to get better because everyone's skill level is always rising. It's like anything else in life...if you want to be good at it, you need to put a lot of work into it. Can't not be serious about something for 5 years then expect to come back and kill it.
 
exact, I only see 8-10 different person per day hitting the jumps. If our maths would be good we could say that there is about 95% of the skiers/snowboarders that watch the other 5% throw down on jumps. + There's a huge size difference between the small jump (about 10 feet) and the big line (50-60).

Also, I consider myself in the 95% said above cause I suck at jumping, I dont really mind but it would have been dope to see an ''in between''. Anyway, the season is almost over and Avila had jumps about 3-4 weeks ago, which I think is stupid If you compare with Bromont.

+ People on facebook are really funny to read.
 
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