[getting cut off by weird html bug] I have to wonder how many 20 year olds go skiing and they call their parents saying they are in hospital with a broken ____ and the parents had no idea that the son/daughter was in a terrain park, or even knew what that was. This matters when the parent is bankrolling the ski holiday and medical bills - why? -- because families will just end up keeping away from skiing.
How many of these injured folk knew that their ski heroes (that they saw in the Olympics) wore back and hip protection under their ski clothes? How many of these terrain parks have warning signs or coaching available? Perhaps surveys could be run at skiing hospitals to get information on the how, why, what of injuries.
Even NS could run an injury survey. All these top freeskiiers have significant injuries (Candide, Hall, Gagnier, Dumont, Dadali, Mahler..and these skiers are just the well-known ones... how many people know that??)... terrain park is like living in the hood... just a matter of time before death or jail, or rather the hospital and season-ending injury with a nasty debt pimp on your back and a pain in the groin.
Even the snow hoes, sponsorship and fame is not guaranteed in any way - and who would do it for that anyway?? Are the risks worth the benefits??
Imagine if NS had a large matrix of ski injuries vs skier name. People would wake up to how dangerous this Tanner Hall era is.
I don't know why I give a f### so much. I guess it's justifies my own skiing approach more, and it also irritates me when (good) people get (bad) injuries.