T-Hall interview in BombSnowMagazine

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''A LOT OF PEOPLE THOUGHT THE OLYMPICS WERE GOING TO DO A LOT OF GOOD, BUT IN MY MIND, WE JUST LET A BUNCH OF 70-YEAR-OLD IDIOTS FROM FRANCE COME IN AND PUT ALL OF THESE RULES AND REGULATIONS ON THE STUFF THAT WE CREATED. THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE PROGRESSION TO ME; THAT SOUNDS LIKE REGRESSION.''

https://bombsnow.com/Article/the-tanner-hall-interview

 

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also this Quote:

''SHIT, BACK IN THE DAY, WE WERE SMOKIN' WEED AND THROWING HIGH FIVES IN THE START GATE WITH THE FUCKIN' CAMERAS RIGHT IN OUR FACE! WE WEREN'T GIVING A SHIT, DUDE, BECAUSE EVERY DAY WAS A NEW DAY. WE WERE CREATING THAT DAY. WE WERE CREATING SOMETHING.''

 

[BenWhit]

Please tell me how Gus Kenworthy adopting a bunch of stray puppies portrayed a bad image for freestyle skiers, or as Tanner says, "WASN'T GOOD FOR US"

 

[kemosabe]

Tanner hall was probably complaining- they don't judge enough on style man"

 

[Mr.Bishop]

Please tell me how Gus Kenworthy adopting a bunch of stray puppies portrayed a bad image for freestyle skiers, or as Tanner says, "WASN'T GOOD FOR US"

Mainstream media attention brings very little back into the core of the sport.

Now, the reason that is bad is because the core of the sport actually wants to sustain itself into eternity. When we have a nice solid base, where the entire system works and people who want to join can - its fantastic. When you get these massive interests that are only there for the big Olympic cash-in, it can really affect what is happening on a day-to-day basis. You see companies pulling sponsorships of movies, riders, and media mags/sites in order to dump it all into a fleeting every four year fantasy. You see tonnes of extra overhead coming in and soaking up those dollars... and you blunt the impact of the cool factor of what we're doing by having to polish it up so much for mainstream media.

Don't get me wrong, I have certainly noticed that my mother in law now understands what I do.... but she doesn't say "Gus Kenworthy the guy who rides Atomic. I really thought about buying Atomic Skis for my first pair when I start it up again." No - she says "Oh wow do you know that handsome young man with the puppies?"

No name recall, no sponsor recall, and no desire to start skiing again. Just a couple of cute puppies and some strapping young American boys she saw on good morning america. Sure she saw some Visa commercials with them in it - but nothing is going to happen out of it.

Sure, its great to be in the big show... but we were doing pretty good on our own before - and we were able to have a lot more ownership of the direction we went in. Now, we went mainstream... and being rad and mainstream at the same time seldom works.

Its easy to start sucking when you try to gobble that mainstream attention. Perfect example is the Black Eyed Peas if you ask me. Look at how different they are before and after mainstream:

Before:

After:

Sure you could give them a pat on the back for their success, and you could even argue that they appeal to a much larger audience and that is rad.... but if you think about their roots (or you liked their roots) its kind of disgusting. As well, most times people try to go mainstream they fuck it up and flame out of the limelight and then have nothing left of what was a solid foundation.

/rant

 

[kemosabe]

Wow mr bishop you are really smart, but why do conpanies spend money on marketing their athletes on the Olympics which is an event that has minimal sponsorship advertising because of IOC rules/regulations. Would companies rather support an event such as x games (which is pretty mainstream) than Olympics because no limits on marketing the athletes for that brand? What would be an ideal event for skiing that is mainstream?

 

[BenWhit]

I get that, I do, but there is far more harming skiing's image and "rad" factor than Gus adopting a few puppies. If freeskiing didn't want the mainstream attention, then no one should have pushed for it to be exhibited on such a monumental, mainstream platform. I understand your (& Tanner's) POV and argument, but it's been an argument that has likely been raging on since the birth of freeskiing. Your mother in law isn't the target demo of any core brand or freeski company, so I don't think whether or not she recalls Gus' name and ski sponsor is relevant. What's more relevant is the 13 year old kid that sees freeskiing in the Olympics, decides that's something he wants to do, finds this forum, buys twin tips, and so on and so forth. So to say that Gus adopting dogs and bringing them home, or Wallisch going on Good Morning America has harmed the image of the sport or inhibited its sustainability is kind of a stretch. I love Tanner as much as the next guy, but his argument TODAY is the same as anyone who looked down on freeskiing years ago when segmentation began between mogul skiers, racers, snowboarders, etc. Same argument, different times, different variables. So long as the competitive aspect is there, people are going to chase it. There's money in it for sponsors (Ad rev and exposure). There's money in it for the riders (sponorship dollars, gear, travel comp). There's glory in it for the riders (medals! representing your country). So long as that exists, filming is always going to be what the CFL is to the NFL. It's cool, people go and watch, athletes are funneled to it because they are uniquely skilled. But the big money and biggest name competitive athletes always land in the NFL.

 

[Mr.Bishop]

Wow mr bishop you are really smart, but why do conpanies spend money on marketing their athletes on the Olympics which is an event that has minimal sponsorship advertising because of IOC rules/regulations. Would companies rather support an event such as x games (which is pretty mainstream) than Olympics because no limits on marketing the athletes for that brand? What would be an ideal event for skiing that is mainstream?

Because those companies decide to shoot for the mainstream instead of supporting the core. Plain and simple. Shoot for mass marketing to a big audience vs. a targeted small one. Without the Olympics that wasn't a decision to be made.

What's more relevant is the 13 year old kid that sees freeskiing in the Olympics, decides that's something he wants to do, finds this forum, buys twin tips, and so on and so forth.

Yes, but what does that kid do? The mom that saw the puppies wants him to be an Olympian. So he's not allowed to go hang out in the park with his friends and just shred, he's got to join a competitive freestyle program and TRAIN. That program - with the wrong people running it - will follow our past and make it all about winning. Skiing wasn't fun in the '90s. It was super boring, lame and all about being super competitive.

The part that the younger people forget is that this has already happened once. Hot dogging was exactly the same free-spirited vibe that Newschool brought to the table when the founders started it. It shifted into classic freestyle (Moguls, Aerials and Ballet) - becoming every bit as competitive and restrictive as racing.

The real danger is in going back to the old culture of skiing where its all about training and winning. Skiing should be about going out with a crew of your best buds and having a super good day on the mountain. Competitions are fine - but allowing the system to swallow it up and make it all about winning gold medals for the country and nothing else is a real danger to the sport. The Olympics gives this a platform to happen.

And I'll say it again - Skiing in the '90s (at least if you were an east coaster and had no pow to shred) sucked. There's a reason that snowboarding took half of our people. It really wasn't very fun at all.

 

[BenWhit]

Yes, but what does that kid do? The mom that saw the puppies wants him to be an Olympian. So he's not allowed to go hang out in the park with his friends and just shred, he's got to join a competitive freestyle program and TRAIN. That program - with the wrong people running it - will follow our past and make it all about winning. Skiing wasn't fun in the '90s. It was super boring, lame and all about being super competitive.

The part that the younger people forget is that this has already happened once. Hot dogging was exactly the same free-spirited vibe that Newschool brought to the table when the founders started it. It shifted into classic freestyle (Moguls, Aerials and Ballet) - becoming every bit as competitive and restrictive as racing.

The real danger is in going back to the old culture of skiing where its all about training and winning. Skiing should be about going out with a crew of your best buds and having a super good day on the mountain. Competitions are fine - but allowing the system to swallow it up and make it all about winning gold medals for the country and nothing else is a real danger to the sport. The Olympics gives this a platform to happen.

And I'll say it again - Skiing in the '90s (at least if you were an east coaster and had no pow to shred) sucked. There's a reason that snowboarding took half of our people. It really wasn't very fun at all.

I think that might be a bit of a generalization or placing too much emphasis on extreme cases. Maybe this is because of my parents, but I think a rational adult has reasonable expectations for what is attainable in sports. I think my parents recognized very young that I wasn't Tom Brady nor was I ever going to be. Sure, the sample size of young, competitive freeskiers is small and there are going to be a disproportionate amounts of parents like that, but I think what you pointed out is somewhat of a stretch. I can say that the reason I'm a member of this forum, a freeskier, is because of the back and forth between Dumont & Tanner in X Games Pipe. In more than 10 years of freeskiing, I have competed in one rail jam and one end of the year competition.

The inverse of my argument is also true. So long as there is a segment of freeskiing that is dedicated to the big mountains, the crazy urban, the mind-blowing films, and maintaining the "mahalo" (I've seen that word tossed around a lot here lately), that will forever be a thriving segment of the sport. The CFL still exists and thrives as a shadow of NFL because there is a segment of people that are dedicated to it. They're mutually exclusive but one would not exist without the other (to a certain degree). Because freekiing is in the limelight, we are having this discussion and we put a huge emphasis on what is bad and what could go wrong. We think it's such a big problem because it's in the limelight (kind of a catch 22 there). The base of this sport are the kids that are out there having a great time every day. They vastly outnumber the competitive athletes that show up on the big screen. I don't foresee there ever being a time when the inverse is true.

 

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Yes, but what does that kid do? The mom that saw the puppies wants him to be an Olympian. So he's not allowed to go hang out in the park with his friends and just shred, he's got to join a competitive freestyle program and TRAIN. That program - with the wrong people running it - will follow our past and make it all about winning. Skiing wasn't fun in the '90s. It was super boring, lame and all about being super competitive.

I totally agree, the danger is not the olympic Itself, but the way the Olympics are run, through baseroots competitions programs where you start to train as a 2 years old first and they keep you out of the class if you don't perform enough and don't have the same access to the installations than the good ones. I feel moguls is like this, in Quebec all the good bumps with jumps are not allowed to public acess, just like race courts, it's only for the Team of the mountain. It's total bullshit, I want to do bumps and gate, even if I'm not on the teams. I guess with the cost of maintaing a snowpark, it will be different, but if gvt puts the money in to have development teams and snowparks, you'll see the same thing coming again.

I feel there is no hate on M. Kenworthy there,(atleast on my side) whoever it would be the same. The problem is the dynamics the FIS and the olympics or international competitions brings to a sport. Moneywise as doug showed and also by the kind of attitude it brings to a sport. That is what I remeber back then when everyone who left the freestyle scene for newschool freestyle skiing. It was not about only about the tricks or skiing backward. It was about the freedom of having fun with friends, competitors and the community. I feel we're loosing this again, already, and I think it's quite sad. We need to call on this bullshit before it's too late.

Even if X-Games had flaws, it is still, atleast to me, have a core root that Olympics will never have because it is individuals competing and not nations competing for a gold medal to win the medal count and look good to other countries.

The base of this sport are the kids that are out there having a great time every day. They vastly outnumber the competitive athletes that show up on the big screen. I don't foresee there ever being a time when the inverse is true.

That is true for now, but wait 5-10 years, when the Gold Medal rush will be the main objective it won't. My syster has been competing up to he the national level in Gymnastic, and I can tell you, you DON'T want freeskiing to be this way. It's total crap. Freeskiing is not about having a coach looking on you 24/7 because you need to have the best results to move the local team up the ladder to the inernational level at 5 years old. Freeskiing is about giving a chance to everyone to push themselves from true love of the sport and personnal engagement. it gives the opportunity to have crews developped based on personnal preferenes/lifestyles/whatever you want other than having national teams because you are from a country. That is what brings creativity and style to the scene. This doesn't mean we have to kill the comp. circuit around the world, but I think it means it needs to stay out of the Olympic comitee and FIS hands.

Having newschool skiing in Olympics and FIS program is total crap because it will kill the roots of our sports. It's not about winning for a country or whatever appartenance you have, it's about pushing ourself through athletic performances and creativity for ourselves. And if you are good enough then put your sponsors on the map and promote them. It's a totally different approach, in the olympic world, if you are not good enough, you quit and that's it. And that's the problem, I don't want to see this happening to my sport. I'll do park until my body won't let me do it. I'll suck but I don't care, cause the most important thing isn't about winning, but having fun, that's to me the spirit of newschool freeskiing.

 

[Blurst]

"THAT'S THE REASON WHY I QUIT COMPETING: BECAUSE AT THE LAST CONTEST I DID, X GAMES, ALL I SAW WAS KIDS GETTING YELLED AT BY COACHES. NO KIDS WERE LIKE, DRIVIN' OUT WITH EACHOTHER, NO KIDS WERE THROWING HIGH FIVES TO EACHOTHER."

This quote is kinda bullshit to me because there is a segment in a ski movie from X games during the height of the Tanner/Dumont rivalry, maybe it was Reasons I dont really remember. But in the segment T is just getting yelled at by his coach talking about "getting the double" or the "12" or whatever fucking trick was big back then.

 

[BenWhit]

That is true for now, but wait 5-10 years, when the Gold Medal rush will be the main objective it won't. My syster has been competing up to he the national level in Gymnastic, and I can tell you, you DON'T want freeskiing to be this way. It's total crap. Freeskiing is not about having a coach looking on you 24/7 because you need to have the best results to move the local team up the ladder to the inernational level at 5 years old. Freeskiing is about giving a chance to everyone to push themselves from true love of the sport and personnal engagement. it gives the opportunity to have crews developped based on personnal preferenes/lifestyles/whatever you want other than having national teams because you are from a country. That is what brings creativity and style to the scene. This doesn't mean we have to kill the comp. circuit around the world, but I think it means it needs to stay out of the Olympic comitee and FIS hands.

Having newschool skiing in Olympics and FIS program is total crap because it will kill the roots of our sports. It's not about winning for a country or whatever appartenance you have, it's about pushing ourself through athletic performances and creativity for ourselves. And if you are good enough then put your sponsors on the map and promote them. It's a totally different approach, in the olympic world, if you are not good enough, you quit and that's it. And that's the problem, I don't want to see this happening to my sport. I'll do park until my body won't let me do it. I'll suck but I don't care, cause the most important thing isn't about winning, but having fun, that's to me the spirit of newschool freeskiing.

Dude, come on, this is a massive generalization.

The competitive segment of freeskiing is about having a coach in your face, pushing you hard at times, but guiding you. The same with any sport. Coaches everywhere yell. yeah, sometimes it's not fun, but sometimes it lights a fire under an athletes ass and brings the best out of them. Whether you push yourself the competitive realm or not, you still have the opportunity to, so I don't know how you can say it doesn't. Look at all of the "production companies" that are "approaching skiing with a new outlook and style" that post edits on here. most of them are no names. People that will never have big name sponsors or get invited to X. You could even argue that the "market" for these edits is becoming saturated because everyone is bringing a "unique style" to their edits. everyone is unique. no one is unique.

Pushing ourselves through athletic performances - I would tend to argue that the competitive side of freeskiing has accelerated the rate of progression. Would we be where we are today in terms of doubles and triples without the X-Games? I can't say for sure, but it plays a huge role. Remember when TJ Schiller won with like a switch 10? If you can't switch dub 10 both ways now, you won't be at the pinnacle of the sport. A few years ago we were arguing if doubles were stylish or not. Today's dub 12 is yesterday's cork 9.

Maybe the competition aspect isn't great for the "roots" of freeskiing. But it's a necessary evil. It's integral to the success of skiers inside and outside of that realm. The more budget a company allocates to a ski team, the better the entire team will be. Their allocation between competitive athletes and film athletes is their discretion.

Park rats will ALWAYS outnumber competitive athletes. Simply impossible to have otherwise.

 

[Schoellkopf]

"THAT'S THE REASON WHY I QUIT COMPETING: BECAUSE AT THE LAST CONTEST I DID, X GAMES, ALL I SAW WAS KIDS GETTING YELLED AT BY COACHES. NO KIDS WERE LIKE, DRIVIN' OUT WITH EACHOTHER, NO KIDS WERE THROWING HIGH FIVES TO EACHOTHER."

This quote is kinda bullshit to me because there is a segment in a ski movie from X games during the height of the Tanner/Dumont rivalry, maybe it was Reasons I dont really remember. But in the segment T is just getting yelled at by his coach talking about "getting the double" or the "12" or whatever fucking trick was big back then.

I didn't read the article, but from the quote you pulled, maybe Tanner experienced this bullshit and it has now really sunk in for him. Since I didn't read the article maybe he said, "that never happened to me." Which would make him a hypocrite, but if his point was just to say, "Hey! Look at how shitty the vibe and atmosphere of comps are now. I know! I've been there!" Then he's got a serious point.

 

[Mr.Bishop]

Because freekiing is in the limelight, we are having this discussion and we put a huge emphasis on what is bad and what could go wrong. We think it's such a big problem because it's in the limelight (kind of a catch 22 there). The base of this sport are the kids that are out there having a great time every day. They vastly outnumber the competitive athletes that show up on the big screen. I don't foresee there ever being a time when the inverse is true.

I completely understand what you're saying - and hell I hope you're right.

The problem is the last statement "I don't foresee there ever being a time when the inverse is true." - literally man - this literally was happening 20 years ago. So there is massive precedent for the idea that literally the exact same players who took a budding awesome thing that was super fun and made it suck - will do that again.

This is what the argument is between the old guard and the young folk. Its easy to think its not a monster when you haven't already been through the bad parts of it once. I sure hope we can do it differently this time around, but you absolutely can not say that you can't foresee a time when it could be true when more of history than you have currently experienced has been the wrong way vs. the right.

 

[dylhole]

I completely understand what you're saying - and hell I hope you're right.

The problem is the last statement "I don't foresee there ever being a time when the inverse is true." - literally man - this literally was happening 20 years ago. So there is massive precedent for the idea that literally the exact same players who took a budding awesome thing that was super fun and made it suck - will do that again.

This is what the argument is between the old guard and the young folk. Its easy to think its not a monster when you haven't already been through the bad parts of it once. I sure hope we can do it differently this time around, but you absolutely can not say that you can't foresee a time when it could be true when more of history than you have currently experienced has been the wrong way vs. the right.

But isn't the whole point of this movement or whatever people want to call it to evolve, and morph, and continue to grow. Who is to say it can't grow to be more competitive? That doesn't mean you, or me, or anyone who doesn't want to compete has to. Just go have fun with your friends, whether in the park, on big mountains, in the park, etc. etc. I spend most of my time in the backcountry chasing powder while my wife is a coach for a competitive slope and pipe team and spends 40 hours a week in a terrain park, halfpipe, waterramps, or tramps. I have a blast cruising with her and her kids and we never seem to but heads on the "direction" of the sport, because at the end of the day, as long as we're all having fun, that's the important part.

Everyone seems to be afraid of change, but why does anyone really cares where the direction of "their" sport goes. Just like tanner said, individuals can choose how they spend their time on skis. In my opinion, the most important reason to ski is to have fun, so as long as you're smiling and sliding, life is good. I don't give a shit about competitions, but I sure am stoked on my friends that had the chance to be in the Olympics.

 

[notspoicey]

Damn good interview. Cheers

 

[All_Alpine]

I appreciate Tanners candidness. It's hard for me to get on board with most of his opinions; but, that's the beauty of opinions. It's "freeskiing". Ski as you fucking please. Comps , cool. Olympics, cool. Hucking, cool. Dropping insane pillow lines, cool. At the end of the day the vast majority of us give less than a shit about the noise and ski because it's pretty the best shit around. Tanner, you slay harder than most and have been getting paid for it before it was even "cool." Fuck it. You put out content and we'll watch it all because it's rad as shit - even without the puppies.

I'm done, too long.

 

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Everyone seems to be afraid of change, but why does anyone really cares where the direction of "their" sport goes. Just like tanner said, individuals can choose how they spend their time on skis. In my opinion, the most important reason to ski is to have fun, so as long as you're smiling and sliding, life is good. I don't give a shit about competitions, but I sure am stoked on my friends that had the chance to be in the Olympics.

Just to balance the true meaning of what I said. Personally, I have nothing to say agains't freestyle competitive teams. I mean, in the mountain where I was skiing,10 years ago there was already a freestyle team. And I never complained about that, I think it's nice to give support to like that and it creates good jobs for ski bums. The coaching part of the sport is not, to me the mainproblem, it would not be consistent with the do whateveryouwant attitude. What I want to defend is the same as M. Iberg pointed it out. Coaching and competition needs to stay one of the ways to get acess to freestyle skiing By adding too much of a FIS approach to the sport, it is a real danger. It might get the only way, because that is what happened in the past. My parents at that time would have never put me on such a ski teams, it was way too expensive. Also, I want my small public park on blackomb in the summer. I want an easy acess to show my ''future kids'' freestyle skiing even if I can't afford to put them in a ski team program. I want the sport to be as accessible as It can(It's still skiing $$$$$).

 

[Blurst]

. and then, even though we were on a team, we could still not go upside-down. you had to go to a water ramp and spend a shitload of money and do the same fucking backflip 100 times perfectly in order to be able to do it legally at a contest or a sanctioned site. there was about 7 places in 1995 that you could flip legally in the states (NON IN THE MIDWEST!). This actually slowed down the progression of the sport.

This shit is happening now!

I don't know exact details because I'm not around it anymore and dont compete in Ontario (or at all for that matter) but I've heard that to compete in Freestyle Skiing Ontario events (these are really the only slopestyle events in the entire province) you:

1. Have to be a part of a team

2. Every trick that you do in your run has to be "certified" in your trick passport and to get tricks certified you need to land it on an airbag x amount of times and then land it x amount of times in a row off of a real jump.

This is devastating to progression! I remember at contests growing up people would get fired up and toss some huge new trick they had never tried before because they were at a contest and wanted to shred hard and were feeding off of the energy of every other competitor who was there. This shit cant happen if everything already has to be "certified" at that point you know who is going to win before it even starts.

 

[.Hugo.]

Lol wasnt tanner training to try and make a comeback a year or two before 2014 for the olympics oringinally? Then when he realized he couldnt keep up he started all this hate tiwards competition?

Someone can correct me if im wrong but if my memory is correct than hes just a giant hypocrite.

Not to mention he pretty much paved the way for all of this with his competitive career

 

[BenWhit]

Lol wasnt tanner training to try and make a comeback a year or two before 2014 for the olympics oringinally? Then when he realized he couldnt keep up he started all this hate tiwards competition?

Someone can correct me if im wrong but if my memory is correct than hes just a giant hypocrite.

Not to mention he pretty much paved the way for all of this with his competitive career

I love Tanner and respect everything he has done for this sport. For him to still be skiing after all the hurt he put on his body is nothing short of a miracle. But he was a pioneer of competitive freeskiing. He had a competitive fire that we saw for years. And now that injuries have pushed him out of the competitive sport, this is his stance. To each his own.