Quitting

Drail

Drail

Active member
I've been a skier my whole life. When I was 4 years old my parents put me on these crazy wodden sticks and sent me down a snow covered hill. In my 18 years of skiing I have experience a whole lot, in fact - I can credit skiing for literally every aspect of who I am as a person right now.

Up until the whole park industry came around I was a weekend warrior with a distant dream of maybe going to the olympics for mogul skiing, but it was only a dream, never taken seriously - even to myself. I still just skied because skiing was fun. After the begininng of park skiing though, something changed in not only myself, but in a lot of skiers as well.

Becoming a professional skier (and having the opportunity not only to make it as a name, but also make it as a living) acutally seamed doable. For three years of my life I competed every chance I got, traveling as far as vermont, colorado, and british columbia to fight for a chance of having a career in our sport called skiing. By the end my my highschool life I came to an understanding with myself that I do not have what it takes to become successful in the ski industry (at least as an athlete anyways - as for my future, it is unknown to me)

What this thread is about (and maybe it should actually be a blog, more then a thread, but here it is) is about a select few of my friends who like me came to the realization that they do not have what it takes to become a professional skier. But unlike me - to them it ment the end of their skiing life. Quoting one friend "I realized that there is no future in skiing for me, so I had to understand that and move on with my life" He was 19 or 20 when he said this. Since then he has lived in Toronto, living life like the rest of society says life should be lived, only going skiing a few days a year, if that. Not because skiing was no longer fun - but because skiing was no longer viable as a carear path.

Now, I haven't been around for very long (born in 84') my knowledge of the world is very limited. But I feel confident in saying that until the park world came around making enough money to make a living from skiing was a huge rarity that more happened to the lucky few (schmidt and plake for example) then something that someone could set out to accomplish and do so like it's possible now. And this is another assumption, but back in those days (you know - any day before 1997) people wern't skiing to become a professional skier. they were skiing because it was fun, and therefor it was good.

Why did everything change? With the creation of the ski industry as it is today (using skiers to sell products instead of models and tech jargon) we now seam to have a ever growing number of teenage kids who are debating weather they should quit because they can't get a 270 on and therefor suck and not only give up the dream of ski stardom, but also give up on skiing and move on with their lives.

As to why I think this might be more appropreate as a blog is because I think threads are more of a discussion and blogs a statement, and I'm not sure how to open this to discussion. What I guess I'm writting this for is to make you all realize that being able to do a switch 10 isn't more important then having fun. Don't lose sight of WHY you started skiing and why you still ski. If you take life to seriously you will die full of regrets (at least I assume so anyways).

 
yup i ski for the fun i dont care if i dont go pro or anynthing, thats why i started and i plan on skiing my whole life even if it isnt park skiing. good thread
 
great thread. i felt it in my chestal section. i always make sure i ski for fun. and i will until the day i die
 
wow, well written, these are the types of threads Ns has been missing, keep up the good work my friend. I agree with you My only goal is to keep my body in good condition so I never have to quit skiing.
 
Very well written. Skiing I believe is something you fall in love with. The best skiers out there are the ones who love it. The ones who still ski even though they can barley keep up in their older age. Skiing shouldn't be about the money we can make, or the free shit we can cop, but it should be about the love we have for it. Those days we drive an hour on opening day just to ski ice. Those days we can't stick that landing and are enraged as a result. Long summers full of powder dreams. We stick with it regardless of how much it dissapoints us sometimes. The greatest skiers have that fire burning inside them for all time. You don't need to be a pro to have that fire, just passionate.
 
wow one of the best posts i have seen in a while.. yeah.. i used to have dreams of working in the ski industy and shit.. but i learned to hate the beast that it has become.. i never ever wanted to become t-hall. not my steeze.. i just do what i have done since i was 3... ski and have a good time.. im not saying im gonna stop progressing... its just im dooing it for myslef,,, and 16 year old girls in the summer
 
great thread, that was really sad when i read the part about your friend who was a huge skier and now only goes a few times a year
 
great thread man.

For me skiing is a hobby not an occupation.

I feel like if skiing was my job, it would loose some of the careless fun it has now.
 
wow you would have to be really gay to quit skiing because you dont think you could become professional. your friend said that when he was 19 or 20? to me that seems like a good time to start trying to become pro if anything, not a time to quit. shit you could start skiing at 19 with no previous experience and get really good by the time your 23. pussing out is so gay.
 
i agree... i used to thinnk about quitting cuz some ppl out there are better than me at park..bt skiing aint just about park its about the whole atmosphere of chilling with ur frends and pow and all that shiz
 
i still dont know who all the pros are, dont know who won x games last year, dont watch any ski movies. i skik cause its fun. you are a smart man. awsome post. kudos
 
you know...i felt the same way. i thought i really could be a pro if not amateur paid skier. this year...i realized its not worth it to try to be that pro skier if youre not hvaing fun doing it. now i ride surfaces, wear jeans when i ski, and do nose butters off of logs. i am having fun. and i wouldnt have it any other way.
 
sweet post, i agree with it all and since park really hit, ive just lost my drive to ski. dont know why but it sucks, born in 85 skiing since like 90
 
i hate people that ski to be a big name. i much rather be unspanserized and have fun every day than having to compete and shit.
 
Dude, 1984? I agree with what you said for the most part, but tonnes of people give up what they love.....because they don't see "a future" in it.

I'm friggin' 28 yrs old (try 1978 bitch!)and I dropped my first 7 in the park last year. Seeing as I could've fathered half the midgets in the park that day at Blue (or any other day for that matter) didn't make it any less of a great feeling. Skiing is fun because you can constantly challenge yourself and learn something new EVERY day.

Skiing's like playing the guitar or piano or painting....if you love it, and keep pushing yourself in new ways, there's no limit to how much fun you'll have. It doesn't fade no matter how good your are. Keep the fun....keep the challenge....stay young.

I'm no Candide or T-Hall, but there's no way that they enjoy skiing more than I do. Maybe the same, but not more. Quitting is for quitters.

Hell, I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to senior discounted lift tix.
 
I know I'll never be pro or anything, I just have a lot of fun skiing, I just really staryed park and stuff this year. I know stuff doesnt saty fun forever, like me kind of stopping bike riding after doing it all my life, but Im having fun now so whatever.
 
i am with you darryl. i am too old to try and keep up with these youngsters that are killing it out there. i am out for myself and my friends i am in it to have fun. i dont get the days in i would like anymore because of school but that is life and we all have to make those decisions. With this past weekend at the rail comp i went out not to win but to have the best time i could with my friends and that is what we did. none of us won but we put on a good show for the crowd and left with smiles on our faces.
 
im 15 years old and came to the fact i wouldn't go pro last year its no big deal to me i still ski for the fun and i wouldn't have it any other way i love the sport and ski as much as i can, i still try and learn new tricks and try and get better, i still compete in competions but its just for the atmosphere and the fun
 
yeah well im not giving up but i dont want to give myself false hopes and stuff but im definatly going to keep working at it
 
i was thinking about this kind of stuff last weekend, i was hitting jumps for the first time all year, doing 180s and trying zero spins, then i over shot and really hurt my shins. i started thinking "what the hell am i doing here? im not having any fun" so i went and skiied some steeps that had a thin layer of ontario powder, carved the hard pack, and skiied switch as much as i could...

i came to the realization that the pressure to impress is really alive and well in skiing today. falling on a rail, flailing off a jump usually means getting mocked. its terrible but its true.

we need to realize skiings more about enjoying what you do rather than who can 450 off the rail.
 
yo werd like it sucks when u fall and get mocked. like i try to tell epople what they did wrong and shit but most people take the shit so seriously that it turns the beginners away from even trying
 
yeah man i have so many kids that come to me and ask for tips because most the guys are to much of dicks and they just make fun of the kids cause they are trying something new and fall alot, well everyone starts somewhere
 
truthfully if i were to see no possbile future in skiing, id still ski. but when i am 20, and a ski bum with no money, and (god forbid) 0 sponsors, that is when i call it quits, or atleast agree to slow down and start a life
 
It's funny that you should post this-I've been thinking about this alot lately-I just got back from competing at the USO...I'm pretty disheartened by the direction the ski industry seems to be taking these past few years...it's a cut-throat industry like any other but it seems like now more than ever it's all about "attitude" and who you're "rollin" with--being the right marketable product. a battle of money and egos. Pretty laughable.

and Yes, I am pursuing pro skierness but not for the money, fame or recognition.

I'm doing it cause I straight up love to ski. To be able to be paid to ski would be a dream come true. Just to be able to travel-to ski all over the world-maybe hit up some places no-ones even skiied before. And spread the love. If it's really in your heart quitting doesn't even cross your mind. You're dreaming of the feeling/of powder/of stomping it/of going where noones gone before...man, let's not lose track of that.

 
sick thread this is what ns is all about. yeah i ski for fun and i when i get pissed because i can't do something i just ski some runs or backcoutry and just have fun in general
 
i like those words they mean alot. I know that i will never be doing double flips and cork 810's onto rails. So i like looking up to andy mahre, eric pollard, and pep just to name a few. There keeping it real.
 
so word. I was thinking about this last weekend. I had more fun just carving than I did in the park. So I didn't ski park for the rest of the day. I'm going so far as to not even ski on my twintips this weekend. I can get so caught up in everything, and be like I need to learn this trick now, when in reality, that's not fun to me. I'll ski what I want, when I want, and if I ever quit skiing, or even think about quitting skiing, I will seriously need some help, because skiing is the one thing I've ever truly loved to do and would rather do more than anything else in the world. I can't imagine ever wanting to quit skiing.
 
There's a lot more to life than skiing. Quitting skiing isn't the end of the world. There are lots of other things to do that are fun too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top