Serious discussion..how far can freeskiing go?

Silence

Silence

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Ok so I just got home from a massive night out, 15 beers or so..near 2am - so excuse me if this is doesn't sound right.

I'm writing this because I thought about it tonight after a few ales and I think its definitely a concept worth talking about..

How far can our sport go?

When I say out sport - I'm talking about newschool, freestyle skiing - park stuff. Massive rotations, ridiculous pipe tricks, insane x-games runs, amazing movie segments like nothing you, I, and the rest of the world had ever seen before.

Where is the line drawn?

We all (well some of us) remember back in the day of state of mind, fade to black, degenerate, propaganda, happy dayz...

Shane szocz, vinnie dorion, mike nick, JF, Mike Douglas, Mosely..these guys would throw down 3's and 5's, maybe a 7.. kangs and japans..clean grabs, X games golds would be taken out, and kids would be super stoked..then a year later someone would throw a rodeo or a misty in there and it was unbelievable - NS would have 100 threads about it.

The young guns come along.

Not dropping names but guys would pull 7's 9's out of the bag and the crowd goes wild..and they still do. e.g 2001 winter X big air - from memory T-Hall pulls out a sw rodeo 720 for gold..crazy shit at the time. super stoked.

Fast forward to today - I look at X, USFO, random edits from some great NS members and some of the J.O Super Sessions entries and we have skiers absolutely NAILING double corks, double flips, 10's all 4 ways, 12's even 14'ws with some style..and this has all happened in the last 5 or so years...70-80-90++ ft jumps..chads?.. it's amazing.

My thoughts tonight were that if we look how far we have come in only the last 5-10 years, then how far can we go??..The progression we have seen in the last 10 years has been absolutely phenomenal, but is it sustainable?

What I mean by that is, are we going to have to make jumps that are so big that we end up having deaths in the sport for the sake of progression?

Resorts are simply not going to put 120+ ft jumps in their parks for the sake of liability - which is understandable.

After thinking about it I can't possibly imagine what skiers (and many of whom are members on this website) are going to be doing in 5 years time. There are already guys trying to get sw triple flips down..are we getting to a point where there are jumps that are needing to be so big that there are fatalities - a few examples of close calls - Look at Derek Spong & Mike Wilson gap crashes. Then there are the T-Hall and Simon bails. I could go on with names but this is a dangerous sport and that is expected - (props to CR for killing it again).

I'd love to see style as the main driver towards competition results and that the smoothest sw flat 7 takes it, but I don't think it will happen - skiers need to keep stepping it up and thinking of something new!

This is a question of sustainability of our sport. Where are we going to be in 5 years time and can we keep progressing at the same rate as the last 5 years? Personally looking back, it's been mind blowing what some kids have done.

What will win Winter X Slope 2013? Because after coming so far, keeping the popularity of out sport means that our athletes need to keep progressing because the spectators will naturally expect new tricks, year-by-year.

Any thoughts?

Cliff Notes: 7 Years ago a misty 7 wins X games Big Air, Now its a perfectly executed double with a mean grab. How far can this sport go - do we need 180ft jumps in parks to be able get that triple? - Will people die? Is freeskiing competitively sustainable, or is there a limit to what is possible?
 
it really is amazing how far skiing has come in such a short period of time. we are really the first generation of freestyle skiers and look at how much progression has been made since its conception. when you watch contests now, you almost expect to have your mind blown with some of the things that guys are doing these days. double fronts/backs, double corks, its rediculous. it feels more like your watching an olympic arial competetion than say a big air contest. im not hating on the rediculous things that people can do these days, beleive me, im all for the progression of the sport, but i personally would rather watch slower, more styled out and clean spins than someone hucking themselves into oblivion...

thats my 2 cents
 
Off Course we will get limited by physics somehow.

But there will be a lot more progression in style and also in creativity i think.

Doubles will have sicker grabs, things like handdrags and butters will develop.

 
well if you look at where snowboarding is going i think that is were we will go. There will still be jumps and stuff but i think we will turn to more creative stuff like urban jibs, and creating things that have never been seen before, we will move into more techy tricks, maybe not as dangerous as a 1440 but just little jibs. Plus powder and pillows and styley tricks will never get old.
 
word.

i think that a line will be made rotational with both flip and spin. but as he said, creativity and style are almost endless progressions. so i think that at one point that rotations will be come a constant and never change, but the style and creativity you can have with them will just progress us as much as a 7-kang has done.
 
I can see skiing heading more and more into the creative direction, along with backcountry. I really think people will start putting real tech jumping tricks into big mountain lines. If anyone saw Sage's segment for Lost and Found this year, the guys can spin both way threes of 30 foot cliffs in the middle of a huge line and ride away like its nothing. I really see backcountry being the future and the possibilities of urban is pretty epic as well. I know its nuts but I seriously think people will eventually be doing rodeos and shit onto urbans. There is a handful of kids on this site that could probably do shit like lip 4 onto raponda rail.... crazy.
 
as far as rails, i think urban will get a lot more creative. look at the shit the I Hate NY kids are doing... andy perry's rail tricks are super creative and all those true switchups are definitely gonna take over

imagine a blindside true switchup on an urban dfd- that's the future
 
the sport hopefully will end up with lots of style. I mean thats what i really want some crazy style i just try to steeze my tricks out. So i have style days and just getting new trick days. But there not just gonna make huge jumps to pull crazy stuff on they will probably make different obstacles to hit and pull some of the different non crazy tricks on them. If they dont the sport will die because it will get to complex and complicated
 
just look at snowboarding, theyve got the guys who are pushing the sport still... making new shit up all the time.

But there is also many many many different factions doing many different things. Some guys wont spin a back nine because it isnt fun to them. Some guys just do crazy urban, some guys are quebexican and well... thats enough for them. Some guys start robotfood, and then quit cause it got too big. some other guys are from Europe and look like ladies, some of them are ladies. Some sell out, some stay core, some have red hair and act like babies when they lose, etc etc etc etc etc right? I think skiing is starting to go in that direction, instead of the one guy who can specialize, now there are crews that are doing certain things that they find fun... then slowly branching out and bringing their style to other parts of the sport.

Look at tanner... he started out winning everything with misty sevs, then branched out and became one of the first guys from the west to become an urban jedi, then decided to win everything pipe at will.... now he does all that with a crew, makes his own movies, his own skis, etc. Guys in snowboarding have been doing that forever. Its not just tricks and comps and big jumps that drive a sport, the industry has to grow and prosper. Boronowski.... with joystick, ec headwear, 4frnt, armada, line, all the little companies you have never heard of, all these people have helped take newschool, or freeskiing, and helped it just become skiing. Moment is one of those companies 99%^ of this site hadnt heard of untill about september 07, admit it, you had no idea, no clue! Bam, they blow up, if not for the environment created by the guys who have been around to show the regular joe how to do it, or not do it... (calling out the copy cat companies trying to be way to gangst or way to angst instead of just having fun doing what they're doing, you know who you are) they wouldn't be able to do the things they've done in a short period of time.... November 11th my hill opened, no one knew what I was riding, (moment rockers) no clue, now everyone there wants a pair. I don't particularly make the skis look good... so go figure.

No one comes up to me and asks if I "newschool ski" or if those are those funky new freeski double tipped skis anymore...(maybe just why are the tips all square, lol) they just recognize the super turbo and say nice skis, or you suck, or how come you ride with so many snowboarders? Or holy shit, lets go get it!

I think personally that the emphasis has to be taken off what tricks are being chucked... no one likes them till they become mainstream, then everyone changes their tune. If we focus on the sport as an industry, and if everyone goes and does their own thing, has fun, keeps it real.... there is no limit at all.

Haha, that kind of turned into a little corny speech, but there is a successful model to use to become a bigger better sport. there is no need to copy it, or follow another industry, but it worked for people who share the hill with us, so its something to look to when it seems like weve hit a wall right?
 
IMO skiing will get alot more creative, like think thank, it is so so sick. there will always be the new double flips and the bigger and better tricks but style and different grabs will be a huge effect on them. we won't to see the new hucked as fuck double or even triple flip, we will wana see a steezy as trick e.g jon's flat 7 truckie. we will have to get more creative in this sport and get crazy tech on rails and jibs. the city will become more of our playground always looking for new things to hit and it won't just be a urban rail, we will open eyes more to everything else, wooden crates, playgrounds, cones, haybales even, etc like snowboarders have done.

 
as far as park and pipe, it will keep progressing, but it can only go so far. but shit will get SO much more creative. powder lines, tech tricks off cliffs and bc stuff. and awesome urban.
 
i think another thing is gunna be what charles gagnier is doing... new grinds

right now everyone is so focused on jumps and doubles that they are lacking in quality on the rails...

i think the new thing is going to be a slopestyle course that is longer, and that has many more rails which factor more into what they score on the run
 
i think that it will go as far as people are willing to take it. i say let it be on its own and contribute to what yoou think should be right for the sport
 
it will go as far as the people pushing it, people like wallisch are pushing the style factor and technicality on rails, people like andrew taylor are spinning like crazy and people like pep fujas and andy mahre are taking skiing in a different direction entirerly
 


physics will limit us eventualy but we will find away around it, we already have by adopting kiteing into our sport. maybe some time in the future we will fill ourself up with helium ang really float that switch 18 mute to octo to tail tripple cork.
 
ski for yourself and watch the others. it is insane what these young kids are doin but im more worried about if ill even be skiing in 5 years. for all you 15 year olds out there, eventually your knees give out so take it easy. shit they do is sick as hell and it will get sicker, prob not much bigger but sicker
 
well look at it this way.
freeskiing is a relatively young sport. tanner, dumont, TJ- all of todays pros grew up and learned how to ski like this without many resources. for instance, they couldn't exactly log on to their newschoolers and read how to do a misty 5, or find a youtube video of a handplant in slow motion- ect. these guys learned to ski in parks that weren't nearly as equipped as todays. they were writing the books in a sense. however, our younger generation has had many more resources and opportunities , because the sport has developed much more in the past decade or so. imagine if simon was ten years younger, how many more freeskiing resources he would have been able to use while growing up and how much better he might be. which goes to say, todays generation of skiers will be that much better by the time they reach professional levels.
anyway, i think the sport has hope because of that.

whew

 
lol, watch the style go into really tight stuff in a few years. that would be soo ugly but the style right now is gonna have to change at some point
 
haha my parents are cool about the big huge stuff the go out andbuy me stuff like that. Like a huge coat and my new jersey thats like xxl
 
How far it can go?Freeskiing is probably the fastest developing sport at the time.I mean,how many sports got in the olympics just 10 years after that sport is made.Yea,even 2 years after WX 01 in ski movie 3 Tanner was dropping 7's just like today Tanner Rainville does right side 10's with dublegrab in it.Someone's complaining about ski companies are not enough in freeskiing.How can they be any more further when freeskiing is in the scene for only 8 years,and alpine racing is 100.And freeskiing is going on better for shure
 
that is one hell of a good point you have there. Jon can throw double flips, and he is getting close to 30. i've seen guys at the age of 16 doing the same flips. I don't know if these new guys have what it takes to develope new tricks, but they sure have the balls do do whatever the pros are doing.
 

welllllll if all else fails, we have this option:
once we find water on mars, we make snow on mars, and jon sets up his invitational jump with like a 40 second airtime, because he's a stud like that and would do that.
think about it- crater halfpipes, baggy spacesuit steeze, asteroid jibs.... c'mon this sport is far from dead.
 
hot lava and spike pits under rails and jumps. maybe great hoops of fire you have to jump through... or progression will reach a level of stagnation, aroused by the limits of human potential and style will be the ultimate mediator.
 
If progression keeps up at the same rate it is today, then it could very well be the standard.
 
i think it will progess to the pros throwin 3600's and the newbs just learin how to ski park will be throwin 1440's i cant wait to see how this sport progresses
 
think of progression like a population curve. Right now we are in the exponential growth stage. Soon enough, however, physical boundaries will establish the progressive "carrying capacity" and things will begin to level off. After a while people will get bored and the sport will die.

well....that.....or global warming will just end us....
 
i think as long as there are people out there thinking of new and more imaginative way to do things i don't think it can end. Although people may think that something is stupid, as long as its new and creative it will been deemed progression and so i don't think there is a limit to our imagination and where it will take us as well as skiing in the future.
 
Personally, I would rather see it go more in to creativity direction but I know its most likely going to keep progressing in the double flip realm. This is another reason I love the Level 1 production vids, it goes more in the creativity direction other than just huge ass jumps and lots of flips. They have creative rail features, and occasionally some cool snow features (like the giant snow tower thing that was used for a stall in realtime) also, I bet its going to go into the progression of urban too. Urban lines will hopefully come into play some point in the future.
 
jumps will get scarily bigger and people will go bigger. bigger cliffs will be dropped and stomped (not bigger than 250 but people will stomp cliffs and ride away) and more difficult rails are gonna be tackled. shit is gonna look better and continue to look better.

but realistically-if you dont know about something, then you dont know it exists and therefore its not in your realm of understanding. just like an invention. you didnt know about it before but once someone invented it, it was in your knowledge and then its a regularity in your mind. this is stupid, i make no sense.

but seriously, new stuff is gonna happen that we dont know about, because it hasnt happened yet. its kinda like physics, its cyclical. new stuff is gonna happen and its gonna blow us away.
 
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