Question for older guys/girls

PAGE! Keep chiming in, old people.. I have a cult if you would like a place to post a nagging question or whatever. I don't want to take away from the main forums so mad props and ++karma for those that are in there twenties and posting.

Message me for an invite to The Over The Hill Gang

 
I am 23.

I've been following freeskiing since the late '90s. I never advanced much, and since my shoulder injury (sever dislocation), I have slowed even more, perhaps going backwards as jibs intimidate me bigtime now.

I will always ski park sometimes though. I will stick to basic stuff and work on making basic stuff look really good.

I do get more enjoyment on all-around skiing more than I did before too.
 
im sorry but there seems to be something wrong with this thread. ppl who are 25 are talking like they are 45. come on guys. the top pros in our sport like Jon,tanner,candide are all that age and killing more and more each year. anyway....im 21 years old and every year I get stronger,faster,and better.
 
im 24 and love it! but my dad is 52 and hits rails i wont touch! he will try any rail pretty much! not a big fan of jumps...but he loves rails! hes crazy tho! we even sent him to whistler to ski camp for his 50th birthday....so no worries!!! you are all set!
 
i'm a 34 year old park rat. i ski 95% park then ski bumps the other 5%. i live in the midwest so backcountry and pow arent even choice. but even when i travel the first thing i look for is the park when i go to another ski area. this was my day today. this is MY house that i own with my wife and daughter. never stop doing what you love.





and my 5 year old daughter helped me shovel my inrun and drop in-how cool is that!

 
damn! mad props dude! best thread in along time! im still young (18), but i can say that candide is like 26 now? no reason to be giving up! and mike douglas is in his mid/late thirties i believe.
 
Wow, when the heck did 25 become old? I'm 24, and ride 100+ days a year, every one of them park. I live in the midwest so backcountry isn't an option. I find freeriding boring. Being an athlete in HS makes me feel that I need to progress myself and push myself as hard as I can. We have many 25+ year old locals at our hill. Of of my buddies is 32 and just landed his first 9 last year. Another buddy just turned 30 and is still throwing inverts. Riding with all the younger kids at our hilll makes me want to push myself just as hard as them.

Remember... You don't stop having fun because you get old, You get old because you stop having fun.
 
Well, 25 gets old the second you have a ring on your finger. As soon as you are responsible for someone else, you cannot afford to go snapping a ligament or bone. That is the biggest thing. I don't really ride park much any more because I cannot afford an injury both financially and because that is selfish and puts my wife in a difficult situation if something happens to me.

But the other thing is one's body type. I am built more like a wrestler or football player than a lankey skier. Played three sports a year and kept in good shape, but now that I work everyday without being able to exercise like I used to, my body can't stay the same slim way it used to. I was just like every Gumby kid out there, until I was about 22. Then I went to the hospital 3 consecutive years with seaon ending, long recovery injuries from falls that weren't bad at all.

Anyway, everyone should consider the pros and cons of it. To be honest, if I weren't married, I would still be hucking myself over big tables. But, the trade off of my awesome wife is well worth it :)
 
Ha, you guys kill me 25 is just getting started. I've skied for 23 seasons. Gotten a least 100 days all of those and maybe close to 200 5 or 6 times. A lot of those days were mogul skiing and landing on icy as shit mogul course landing. No chopped airial type landings like they have now. We landed in moguls. If you really love skiing and being on the hill you never get sick of it. I love learning new stuff. I feel as if i got a second ski career when twin tips came around. I've been lucky that i've never had a serious injury, and even shitty days are cool w/ me as long as i can get on a lift somewhere in the world and make some turns. Oh yeah, don't  be afraid to go to they gym. Working out in the off season has def  kept me strong and able to take the shots
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I am 22 and just started in the park this past season, so I'm reeeally bad at it. I don't plan to stop because I'm getting older though.

Great thread though, I guess I have a lot to look forward to.

but I don't feel old or 22 and probably don't act it either. so sometimes I wonder where the time has gone.
 
wait wait wait!!!! what? since when was over 25 old? are you kidding? thats still very young, thats the prime of your life, maybe when you get over 30 you can start slowing down a little, but 25 is definatly not old, some people on here are saying 21 is old? what the fuck? isnt tom wallisch 21? and he practically seems like a kid.
look at seth, he's like almost 35 and doing double fronts off 100 footers.
maybe its just cause newschoo skiing is so new, we dont really have any older pro's but look at skateboarding, there are pro's well into their 30's some even in their 40's
sorry this is just depressing, im only 19, but that would suck if i was considered old in 6 years. you guys are crazy, your 25, seriously, dont pretend to be old, you still got like 10 more good years of being young, then you can start worrying.
 
I am 26.

When I go into the park it's still pretty much the same as a few years ago, I'm still getting better and pushing it, and crashing hard, and not really feeling it. I guess it depends on the person. I have 26-year-old friends who never do sports and have the bodies of a 60-year-old. I'm a little bit more cautious than before, I think mostly because I've seen so many friends get injured and I dont wanna miss any skiing days... but this year I'm definitely better and more consistent at park than I was before.

However, and I don't know if it's because I got over a 100 powder days last season, or because I've been watching so much Idea and Hunting Yeti, or because I've riding a bunch with these kind of skiers, but I get SO MUCH MORE STOKED about riding creative lines in the powder. It just gets me so much more pumped and I push myself way harder.

Regardless, I had some of the sickest days in the park last winter and summer.
 
I'm 23 been skiing since 6 and still want to be progressing in park for the next 3-4 years, or atleast until my body fails to much. in terms of backcountry i could see myself pushing myself to mid to late 30's. maybe longer.
 
Hi I’m 33, and I have been a ski instructor for 6 years. I started Jibbing 2 years ago because all the young dudes I had for lessons wanted to go to the park. It kind of gave me a new thirst for skiing. Now skiingdays for me starts with giving lessons in the morning – gaper style – then hanging at BC jumps or the park later in the day. I feel that my body is over the hill and it is little by little getting harder to take the punches, but I love it. I been into elite sports (triathlon, biking, mt. biking, running, inline skating, adventure races and things like that.) all my life, and I can’t wait to bring my son (3 months old) to the hills in the winter and the single tracks in the summer time. – So anyway remember that when the body grows old keep the mind young. Stay stoked for life.

Morten.
 
I'm 28 and still throw down in the park. I don't really notice that much of a difference in my body. The only thing that has really changed is that I don't try new tricks when the conditions aren't that great.. just because I don't want to miss part of the season due to injury.
 


I'm 28 and ski way less park than I used to. Like many posters above, I started throwing 180s before twintips were around, and I still have a pair of the original 1080s.

Damn, reminiscing is fun. I'll never forget the first time I saw a mute 3 in-person. Almost shit my pants.

I now spend more time in the BC or seeking pow/cliffs, but still take the occasional park lap. I'm fortunate to live in CO though, so the park isn't as necessary here. Plus, my crew is older too, and they don't venture into the park as much.

And no more rails for me...leave that to the kiddos...
 
I'll be 23 this February. I've been through 2 knee surgeries in the past 2 years (one of which significantly more intense than the other), and am still pushing hard to progress in the park and don't have any plans of slowing down. The only thing that will discourage me to the point of quitting park is if I ever go backwards in progression. Even after just me knee surgeries I've noticed my ability to land big tricks has diminished a little bit. If there becomes a point where I physically cannot cannot do a nice big floaty cork 9, toss me a pair of GS skis and a race suit, cause im done. My doctors say I'll probably have arthritis in my knee by the age of 40, so, I probably won't be skiing park at 40 I guess.
 
after tearing my ACL and MCL it really made me mellow out because that shit affected my daily life so drastically. Not being able to walk without crutches for months and not being able to lift because of that shit was so frustrating and it took over a year to recover fully from. so yeah i just enjoy myself now instead of pushing for new tricks like i used to.
 
im only 16 and me and my dad will go up to the mountain for the day and ill go to tell him all these tricks im trying to learn and i always think he has no idea what im talking about but all of a sudden he'll tell me exactly what it is and gives me advice haha. props to everyone still shredding thats awesome
 
I am 26 and teach 4th grade, and am in grad school as well. My students / coworkers would shit if they knew I skied. I have been jibbing since I was 15 and I still try to learn new stuff when the situation is right, but have realized that learning something new is not worth any injury. Mike D is in his mid 30's?? and still throwing down, but not being stupid. I have started snowboarding a little more just because it is fun to just ride around a mtn with less than a thousand vert. Its funny how many people stop riding over the years, but if you love it there really is no reason to stop.

 
I'm 26 and have been obsessed with skiing since the video 13 came out. I'm still riding as hard as ever, I just think a little more about what i'm doing and take little less risks. As I've gotten older I just concentrate more on style, perfecting tricks, all-around skiing ability, and having fun with friends. The last two years have been the most fun I've had on snow my whole life so age means nothing. Oh and yes I still ride park all the time, that's what you do out East, especially in PA.
 
dear young whippersnapper,

i have replaced all the indestructible rubber with ligaments and bones that will soon break. and i will heal them slower and slower each year. you will wake up sore in the morning for no reason and wonder why. you will start cursing me.

forever yours,

your body
 
im about to turn 27 on sunday and since my hill isnt open, im gunna hike into the park, set up a rail with some buddies and jib the shit outof it.

oh, and im a physiotherapist by profession, and in one of my hills jail jams last year i was competing against one of my 14 year old patients. that was trippy.
 
It's true. And when you are just a casual skier, not getting paid to do it, it becomes less and less worthwhile to wake up sore as hell the next morning.
 
I'm 25 and last year was the first year I really got into park skiing. I've always been around extreme sports like MX, Snocross, BMX, DH MTB... but after a trip to Park City I was hooked... big time. In one weekend I went from the biggest gaper to being absolutely hooked (sorry to all of the PC park rats I pissed off crashing in the park). I've always been in good shape but I was huge. I played linebacker in college, but now since the days of needing mass are over and I have new sports to concentrate on, I have worked on my agility and fluidity. This summer I started tramping and learned corks, rodeos, mistys, flat spins, a ton of grabs etc just to get used to the body motion so that there will be a little less of the painful learning curve. I have no plans of slowing down... and if I ever do feel old I watch Seth, Jon Olsson or Mike Douglas rip it or else watch what some other pro athletes go through day in and day out. I guess to make a long story short, I don't feel old at all and I'm going to keep on learning and keep on ripping until I physically can't.
 
sweet ... I am "older" never thought that day would come. After 3 years out of the park due to knee problems I was lured back in by even older friends. We are holing our own, and keep getting pushed buy young kids, its great. But I still prefer a big cliff to a big jump any day.

 
I know 2 guys that are way older and are still killing it. One guy is 31 and learned flat 5s and 7s last year. The other guy is 28-29 and placed better than Danny Kass at the London Freaze event (he snowboards)
 
29, and i'm kinda in the same boat as this guy except i'm a bit older and I have a toddler son (4 months), so there is much more to worry about now... wouldn't wanna screw my self up and not being able to teach junior when he's old enough to ski. so i just try and stay within my limits but I still push my self and try to learn extensions of tricks i already know.

but yeah, whenever i'm out there i just get so pumped and feel like a kid again. it just hurts more whenever you take a hard fall and you try to be more cautious..
 
Im 24, getting married and still goin strong in the park. My buddy that I ski with is 27 married, and has 2 kids and he is still truckin along too. We have both been doin it since the original 1080's as well. Im sure we would switch to back country if we could, but the east coast sucks ballz for powder. So park is what we get.
 
That's funny. I can too. I'm even trying to hit 'em sideways now. I don't know if I'll be able to hit one of the skinny rails though!! BTW I'm 36.

Check out the posts in my signature if you're interested in an old guy's view on newschool.
 
Damn - 98 posts before someone admitted being older than me (Papasteeze exempted). How about that for making you feel over the hill?
 
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