The History of Freeskiing.... more than one way to look at it?

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Trennon

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Oh hi! So yeah, I posted the save FREEskiing thread because

I thought it sounded funny and might lighten the mood around here, but maybe

satire and/or hating isn’t really my gig, sorry ‘bout that. For those who

laughed at it, thanks, and for those who thought it was serious…. Sheesh, if

shit-talking Candide doesn’t convince you that something’s obviously not real,

I don’t even know what to say…



Anyways, I thought that maybe I would be better off to try

and write something real, about my own experiences during “the history of

freeskiing.”.



There’s a pervasive thought process within the Newschool

community that freeskiing was “created as a rebellion against the FIS mogul and

aerial regime”. I don’t deny that it’s a great story. It’s badass, and cool as

shit. However, in my opinion, as someone who was there, in the middle of it,

when it all went down, that’s not what actually fueled the birth of freesking.



That well-repeated storyline - we know it’s a big diss on

moguls, and aerials, and FIS, etc. However, I feel like it kind of disrespects

freeskiing too.



What the hell does that mean? Ok, think of it this way: Imagine

a day in the future, and somebody asks you what brought you and your wife

together. Now, imagine answering that question with “Well I married her, because

I really hated this other girl I that I was dating before her.”



What’s that saying about your wife? What’s that saying TO

your wife? Now consider this answer - “I married her because she makes me so

happy, because she is kind, and beautiful, and treats me like gold, and I’m

madly in love with her.” Isn’t that the REAL truth of what ‘created” the

relationship? Isn’t that also showing her a lot more respect and admiration

than the first answer?



I was there (yeah I’m old as dirt) when this newschool shit

was born, and trust me, the first time skiers pulled up to a halfpipe and

looked down it, nobody said, “hey guys, maybe we should drop into this thing,

because mogul skiing really sucks these days!” The first time a skier decided

to hit a cornice switch, I guarantee their motivation to try it had nothing to

do with hating some stupid FIS rule.



Freeskiing wasn’t created out of hatred of FIS, or disillusion

with moguls, or frustration with aerials restrictions, just as none of us

(hopefully) will ever marry someone just because we hate somebody else. In fact

the creation of what we do now was the opposite of hate. It was created by a

love of trying something new, by excitement, and interest, and creativity, and

“holy shit that felt so cool!”. (Which is what’s still fuelling freeskiing,

from the kid hitting his first urban rail, to the halfpipe skiers that I’m

lucky enough to be coaching today.)



People tried skiing backwards because they were challenged and

intrigued by the idea, they tried misty flips because they saw snowboarders

flipping and spinning in new ways, and wanted to figure out how we could do

that. They started hitting park jumps because they saw them and thought, “No

way! That looks soooo fun!”.



Of course in the history books, “I was being held down and

oppressed by the man, so I fought back!” sounds so much cooler than “Well, I

didn’t make it as far as I wanted to in moguls, and at the same time I was

discovering something new, that I liked even more than moguls, so I went that

route instead.”



Food for thought: In many ways, the “FIS Sucks” movement was

more of a clever marketing plan, than a revolution. It’s a proven social

formula; designating a common enemy is a great way to quickly unite people. And

here’s the other thing: it was primarily coming from people (most of them my

close friends) who had at some point tried, but failed, to make it to World Cup

teams and the Olympics. To be brutally honest, I always thought that gave the

whole thing a bit of a “sour grapes” vibe. (note: Jonny Mosely is an exception

to that, he legitimately had the credentials to voice personal dissatisfaction

with FIS World Cup and Olympic moguls.)



Sure, FIS was a bureaucratic dinosaur imposing dumb rules

that us mogul skiers didn’t agree with, and I was fighting against those rules

along with lots of others. But you know what? I skied FIS World Cups, World

Championships, and Olympic moguls from 1995 until 2002, and you have NO IDEA

how much damn fun I had doing it. I was traveling around the globe with a huge

group of amazing friends from all these different countries, partying like

crazy at times, working hard at others, and shredding bumps not because of

“what it might do for me” but because I honestly loved shredding bumps, and I

loved competing.



Some of those years I had some pretty good funding, support,

and sponsors, and other years I worked in a pulp mill to pay for my comp seasons.

Sometimes I dressed up like a freaking clown doing bizarre photo shoots for my

sponsors, and sometimes I held fundraisers to try and give myself more chances

to train. I formed super tight friendships with so many of the other

competitors, and to this day I have great buddies all over the planet from

those times. It was, quite frankly, some of the greatest times of my entire

life (and I have a LOT of great times).



Unlike what appears to be an unfortunately large segment of

the freeskiing community, I still completely admire and respect skiers like Mikael

Kingsbury (moguls) as much as I admire and respect people like Candide and all the

current and past legends in freeskiing. By all appearances, Mikael is also having

a ton of fun doing what he’s doing, he sure seems happy and stoked whenever I

see him. Who’s anyone to say that what Traveling Circus does is more about

having fun that what he does? It’s impossible to accurately state what fuels

somebody else’s enjoyment.



No, I didn’t agree with the FIS rules that didn’t let us

flip when we wanted to, and I don’t agree with the way mogul judging these days

encourages guys to do iron cross backflips when they’re capable of so much

more. As a “National Association coach”, I had to fight to remove the concept

of “qualifying tricks” from my program, and I hate that it’s still being

imposed within some circles of the sport. But hey, I choose to keep doing this

anyways, because despite the downsides, I still love what I’m doing, the

friends I’m making, and the experiences I’m having. I don’t like some of the

current FIS or National association rules, but it’s not like XGames or Dew Tour

or anyone out there is running events that are beyond critique either. Competition,

in any format, still manages to be something that’s highly enjoyable for certain

people.



I’m sure you could talk to an NHL player and he could give

you a list of things he hates about the league, or an ASP world tour surfer who

could tell you all the bullshit rules their association is implementing. But in

the end, they still have a 100% free choice to choose to do it, or do something

else. When Slater is getting barreled at Pipeline, with only one other person

in the water, he probably finds the enjoyment he gets out of doing that

overrides his dissatisfaction with some dumb rule in the ASP handbook. On the

other hand, Jamie Obrien burned the rule book and went freesurfing instead, and

I think that’s awesome too, but I do think it’s weak when he talks shit on the

contest surfers.



Despite it’s many flaws, I loved skiing World Cup moguls and

I‘ll always be stoked that I did it. I still loved moguls when I got into park

and pipe, I just found myself eventually loving park and pipe and MORE. I love

freesking only because of what it is, not because of what it isn’t.



So yeah, saying that “our sport was created because of lame

stuff happening in moguls and aerials”, seems a bit like telling your wife that

you only married her because of something lame your ex did. Personally, I think

freeskiing deserves a better storyline than that.



That’s my (biased) version of freeski history. As for why I

support the Olympics, and thoughts on what it will or won’t do to freeskiing, I

might try and write that down sometime later.



Peace

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My opinion is that Tanner, along with Sarah, CR, Candide, and Simon, built the sport of Halfpipe skiing, and I wish more than anything that they could all be competing in Sochi for the sports Olympic debut.
 
Trennon,

Thanks for the history lesson. As you know I am even "older" then dirt and this is my second time around in the "is the Olympics good for freestyle/Newschool" discussion.

What is different this time around is the internet and the opportunity websites like, NS, brobomb, TGR, SBC give all different skiers to share the love of what they do and to find a community that supports it.

You hit the nail on the head with your comments. There are people who love to compete and find it "fun" to do that there are others the ski for different reasons. The Olympics are for those that like formal competition at the highest level.

I have enjoyed the lively discussions on the forums in the last week and the effort everyone has put in.
 
To go with the wife/girlfriend references.

Imagine if you broke up with your girlfriend (moguls) cause even though she started off really fuckin cool, some stuff happened (Olympics) and she became a total bitch. Now along comes this new girl in town (modern freeskiing), you guys hook up, and shes the best, shes cool down to earth and lets you express yourself. Now if that girl became a total bitch for some reason (Olympics) do you think you would break up with her too? I probably would. And thats why i dont want stuff (Olympics) fuckin with my true love (freeskiing).
 
I get what you're saying, and probably talking in metaphors doesn't really help with clarity anyways.

But, the thing is, none of the people who left moguls for modern freeskiing were affected by whatever changes the Olympics caused in moguls. Moguls didn't change at all from the time that skiers like JF and Vinnie started, to the time they left to pursue freeskiing.

It wasn't like moguls all of a sudden changed radically and got worse in the mid 90s, it just stayed the same while something else new and exciting came along and drew a lot of people over to it.

if it had been guys from the pre-Olympic mogul days (early 80s) who had left when the Olympics came into the equation, to start modern freeskiing, then your analogy would be bang on, but that's not how it went down.
 
I was a couple years behind you in getting into freeksiing and probably can't claim being around 'for it's birth', but I was the first generation of youngsters influenced by it. I'd argue that it was born more out of emulating snowboarding then anything else. The MOVEMENT of freeskiing may have been born out of a bunch of mogul / comp skiers who were really good and somewhat of their rebelion against the FIS / conformity, but skiers started hitting jumps and u-ditches the second snowboarders started doing it and would've continued to do so with or without an organized movement because, as you pointed out, it's fucking awesome and tons of fun.

My 2 cents.
 
I think you missed his point. Trennon didn't stop skiing world cup moguls because of the olympics, he started "freeskiing" because it was different and rad as fuck in other ways.
 
That was a great read, thanks! All of these threads offer great food for thought. I thought the other one was hilarious but as a young skier it is great to learn my history
 
Also, to be honest, even though I just put down a novels worth of viewpoint on freestyle ski history, I don't actually think that looking at mogul and aerials history even makes much sense when talking about ski halfpipe.

Halfpipe (snowboard) has been an Olympic discipline for 16 years now. So if there's anything to look at in regards to where the Olympics might take halfpipe skiing, snowboard halfpipe is probably a much better reference point than whatever happened to moguls or aerials or nordic or anything else that's not halfpipe.
 
Seeing as I was only 6 years old when snowboarding was introduced into the olympics I have no context on what was going on in that industry at the time.

What was snowboardings general opinion on it being added to the olympics?
 
Hell ya Trennstar!! I mean who started the dub backflip grabs!!!! 12 years ago i was just a kid at SMS heading down a shitty road in life. Philou sarahs rory and you guys showed me such an awesome positive active lifestyle that i cannot thank you enough for. Although my last comp was over 5 years ago at boreal for the WSI qualifier and your freshly assembled halfpipe team came through and kicked ass I still find lots of joy skiing for myself and pushing my boundaries in mountaineering. Thanks for everything Trennon!
 
As much as anyone hates to admit it, snowboarding had the biggest influence on freeskiing, they showed a different way of doing things.

As much as any of you may hate snowborders (i don't know why), it is the reason newschool skiing has progressed so much.
 
What was said kind of sounds like what it is to be a regional airline pilot...you aren't paid for squat...treated like a slave...but in the end, you are still flying! Better than working in a maze of cubicles.
 
They were divided about it as well. Terje, who was the number one pipe rider in the world at the time, boycotted it. I guess the other question is what has the Olympic effect been on snowboard HP over the past 16 years, not saying I know the answer, but it seems to me that ski and snowboard halfpipe have been in pretty similar situations for the past 8 or 9 years, which is why I don't really expect too much radical changes to happen to HP skiing because of it. But hey, I could also be way off.
 
While driving to work this morning I was thinking a lot about the subject at hand and here is my opinion on all of this.

I remember a while back during the NS radio days Bishop was interviewing JF Cusson and JF said something along the lines of "if you ask every pro skier what they would do of they weren't pro an they don't answer with 'be a ski bum' they are in it for the wrong reasons". When I heard him say it than I thought 'fuck yeah', and it still holds a lot of weight (if not more). I get why people in the industry are so passionate about the sport, but comp skiing is comp skiing. The rules are set, the bigger the trick, the better the score, its simple. As long as we don't put a cap on the tricks or make people call their tricks pre run, it's not going to change into something we don't want. The motive behind the 'why' isn't as important as the drive for the 'what'. Was it a rebellion? In a way, yes. Was it a natural progression of what can be done on skis? Most definitely. If fis didn't suck, park skiing probably would have happened anyways.

I've ha this mentality for a few years now, and now that half pipe and slope style are in the Olympics it has even more weight - we need to drop the 'free' in free skiing. It's skiing. He'll, j lev said it too and he was one of the people who started the whole damn movement. We aren't this little punk movement anymore, we are a legitamite part of the sport as a whole. Will the Olympics bring money to the industry? Yes. Most people in the sport won't see a dime of it, but those small few lucky enough sure will. It doesn't really change anything for everyone else. Film skiers will still be broke ass, but that doesn't stop them now, so why would it change anything post February? As long as we are all out there skiing because we love it and are enjoying ourselves, the sport can't go wrong. A handful of comp jocks aren't going to ruin the whole industry and I honestly don't think 'we' will let fis do the same shit it pulled 'back in the day'.

Of course, if someone dies on live national tv, it could change everything and I could be wrong, but hopefully we never have to cross that bridge.
 
I hated competing, sitting up at the start area forever to take like 2 runs that day, fucking boring. Once I turned 16 and realized I could simply go to all those places that the comps were at and make edits with my friends skiing 60 runs a day I never competed again.
 
Thanks for taking the time to write this Trennon and I really enjoyed the read. I always loved competing and found it a good way to meet other skiers and better my skiing.
 
but if you look at freestyle skiing as a whole who went through the breakup, it would be spot on is the thing.

I dont have a problem with halfpipe, it doesnt really speak to the average kids who go out and do this stuff. I dont know a lot of people who casually lap pipe, pipe is something that I feel should be in the Olympics and will likely benefit from it.

I am worried about slope, and the training ground for slope, our terrain parks.

What happens if that gets fucked up?

As Erik Olson said in a powder interview earlier this year

"I wouldn’t be surprised[/b] if in 10 years to hit a big jump line, you have to be part of a team with a coach. Just like the aerialist jumps and bump courses, all the big jumps will be closed to the public."

 
Very well put.

I am kind of undecided about the whole Olympics thing. Part of me says "It will destroy the small time community feel there is among NS, and anyways all they do in the Olympics is just spin to win." but on the other hand part of me says "It is cool our sport may get some mainstream attention and that will pump money into it which will hopefully lead to more progression..."

So I really don't know. Regardless I will certainly watch the Olympics and cheer on all the guys who are representing our sport and showing it to the mainstream media...

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That was an excellent read. I love hearing about the history of the sport, and that was written so much better than the terrible attempt at satire and lampoonery. Though I did laugh at it, but really just because you couldn't figure out to get the fonts the same size. It’s okay, I know old people aren’t the best with computers.

So many people are missing the point of my rant. When I say, "I fucking hate what the Olympics are doing to us." I'm not referring to any sort of hate for those that want to compete, or the institution of competition. Sure, future Olympians seem to be bearing the brunt of my comments, but I would have made those comments to any skier if they had dogged on someone for doing something they were guilty of, begged for money to gallivant around the world, or made a fucking ridiculous hair product commercial. Though I do have a separate argument for why there shouldn’t be a “governing body” in skiing, that has played no role in any of my arguments, and I tend to keep that one to myself.

When I say, "I hate what the Olympics are doing to us," I'm referring to this obsession with the idea that it's going to bring exposure to our sport, which people think will translate to bringing in buckets of money. It’s such a fucking cop out. It’s so easy to say, “Yeah man, we put this shit on NBC for three years and what do you know, sales have gone up!” Our sport is young and growing, and sure there’s no way to prove it, but I would be willing to bet that without national TV slots we would have experienced the same exact growth. That cop out alone is sucking money away from the arena that I think has the potential to draw infinitely more skiers in to start skiing backwards and dropping cliffs and hitting handrails. I feel like all it’s going to take is one forward thinking company to sponsor the right film and give it the right PROMOTION budget and all of the danger and passion and stories that you have in film will win people over. That will get people to fall in love with skiing, rather than the one night stand that is televised competition skiing.

I can’t remember and don’t have time to look it up, but somebody had presented numbers after 1998 when snowboarding halfpipe was in the Olympics (after people had the same exact conversation we’re having now) and showing that nope, sorry, but there was no spike in snowboard sales. If I just stuck my foot in my mouth with that, that’s fine, but I could have sworn I saw those numbers a year or two ago, and will try to look them up later tonight. Sure, Shawn White is rich as fuck, and he gets TONS of fucking exposure, but the money he makes on a Goodyear ad doesn’t trickle back to the other people on Burton, much less the people on Signal or Rome. It goes into his pockets and the pockets of whatever people handle his contracts. Now let’s say Chevrolet sponsors a ski film and tour. That money reaches so many people! The people watching the movie see tons of different skis, different outerwear, different people and can make their own choice as to who or what they want to support.

I know, I romanticize this shit but I believe so strongly that the film industry needs to be given the chance to eat at the table, but in order to do it we gotta get some fucking food on our plate. Just an Egg McMuffin will do.

 
Unfortunately this is already the Case at Fernie thanks to RCR (however this is a actually an improvement as they had none before slope was accepted and this is still the case in kimberley)
 
Yeah, there are a lot of different speculations on what could happen. Personally I WOULD be surprised if that happened, and disgusted too, and ashamed. I do however doubt that anybody in support of the Olympics is in support of something like that happening, so I guess that's why I think it's not too likely to happen, or if it ever did, I don't think the Olympics would be the reason behind it (insurance and liability laws potentially could cause something like that though.)

As I've said, I could also be way off, nobody really knows what it all will mean, we are all just guessing to some extent.

I also think you're right in that the potential effect on slopestyle is a bigger unknown than for pipe, because it's not something that has been in the Olympics for a long time already like pipe has. One of the biggest reasons that I initially got behind the Olympic ski pipe push was because it seemed so unfair that there was an existing huge Halfpipe comp every 4 years and even though we all wanted to go to it, we weren't allowed. Slope is a very different scenario, so it will be interesting to see what goes down, but I figure the ones competing should be ones that have the most say in where there sport goes, so since they were for it, I back that.

I don't think that anyone can say for sure that it will be good, any more than anyone can say for sure that it will be bad. It is going to be interesting times though, that's a for sure.

Even everyone hating on the Olympics is doing so out of a genuine love for freeskiing so that's pretty cool too, in it's own way.
 
I'm liking you more and more by the minute.

Your passion for the sport is awesome.

Like I said, I want to write something at some point that really outlines why I support the Olympics (It will likely be really long winded). But the short answer is that sales, the sport's image, athletes making money and fame, and all the usual talking points actually have nothing to do with my support of the games. My reasons are pretty much based on the emotional affect it has on anyone who experiences it.

It says press any key to continue, but dammit I can't find the "any" key....

 
doesnt freestyle mean not limiting what can be done? fis develops rules and trick lists, just like the olympics will have a standardization of tricks for "freeskiing." this type of contest is not freestyle.

for those of us not involved in a ski circuit when ns skiing began, we saw the snowboard only park and were ready to rip it, we pulled trees out of the woods and grinded single tip skis down it. and before snowboarding, the beginnings of manmade parks, and ns, there was a huge world of "freesking, warren millers movies were the shit, and people like glenn plake. who shredded 200cm ski like they were his bitch ruled,

when the twin tip skis became reality(i have pics of 1970s twin tips), it was like the heavens opened and there was a new direction to go. ski blades kinda paved the way, but for anyone not wanting to be limited to hitting a jump in the middle of a bunch of bumps and hollows, ns skiing was the ticket. moguls is still as lame as it was in the 90s, the reason they need to introduce slope and pipe into the olympics. the standardization of the sport makes it some what presentable to the public, but in reality the comp. is bullshit cause its who can do the same exact run the best, there is no option to do something freestyle like a trick thats not on the standard list, or landing the second jump switch in a mogul run...

 
Getting better at the sarcasm too :)

I havent spent as much time on newschoolers in the past 4 years as i have these past few days reading these debates. Keep it up.

Not that I was ever much of a contest skier, but I certainly would have jumped at the opportunity to represent my country on such a grand stage as the Olympics. I'm a supporter after reading Trennon's read.
 
There will always be room for both competitive and recreational sports period. Curling is in the olympics and the rinks were never closed for my grandpa :p. In the terms of parks being closed to the public, thats up to the resorts and how they perceive the public's interest. Sometimes at Whistler the Xl park is closed for a comp, or one jump is made for a private air bag. Some hills have private air sites, but thats up to the club to make them not the hill. So I don't see that ever being an issue.

NS in general had really over analyzed the impact the Olympics will have. Sure some people will get funding. Maybe increased sponsorship, but it really won't change the sport for me and the average population. It just means I'll have a sport that I relate to during two weeks of sports on TV.
 
Great read Trennon. I really enjoyed reading your perspective on how Freeskiing evolved, and would agree with it. Freeskiing was the result of riders continued fascination in trying something new and unique, and it will continue to recreate itself. Who knows what's next!
 
I actually really liked his "terrible attempt at satire and lampoonery." Sure, it was a little over the top, but that was the point. This whole goddamn debate about the Olympics is over the top, personal I'm excited to see something new happen to the sport. But in the end, every has to remember that even though competition and film may be opposing and important aspects of the sport, it's all one sport and however it ends up I'll be happy if I'm skiing.
 
"Sure, FIS was a bureaucratic dinosaur imposing dumb rules that us mogul skiers didn’t agree with, and I was fighting against those rules along with lots of others."

In the paragraph before you claim the "FIS sucks" movement was just a clever marketing campaign. I'm confused. So the FIS didnt suck? Yet it was a dinosaur imposing dumb rules that you guys didn't agree with. humm, sounds like it fucking sucked.
 
Actually, shane mcconkey did backflips at a mogul competition that banned them. There is a rebellion streak in ns skiing. To think otherwise is silly
 
Another post that I agree with wholeheartedly, top to bottom.

I sort of thought this whole debate had run its course and that everyone sort of said what they felt they needed to—god knows I wrote enough both here and elsewhere—but clearly there was a lot more for everyone to say. I think it's good.

I feel like this whole issue has become like a Y2K parallel where there's this mass hysteria and so much apocalypse forecasting about just about every facet of the sport from financially to even creatively, but come March....I think we'll all come out of the basement and look at the dozen cases of bottled water and 100 cans of Campbell's Chunky and sort of just look around and awkwardly shrug and laugh like, "haha...maybe went a little overboard, huh? Hey, did the new Traveling Circus come out?"
 
Last thing I really feel compelled to say about this: there's this atmosphere or assumption on many people's parts that you're in one of two camps regarding the Olympics and those are "The Olympics will inject a boatload of money and exposure into the sport and will make the sport more popular and will indirectly make the niche non-competition aspects stronger as well" and its counterpart is "The Olympics will cause companies to drop their film athlete budgets and put all of their resources into selling the network tv watching sheep groomer cruisers and making a half dozen skiers filthy rich".

Well, there's a third group, and I fit into it. That group is, "The Olympics is going to have some positive and negative impacts for different people, but in the end it isn't going to send skiing into the stratosphere nor to the grave, and it definitely will not really change much of anything for me and the other 90% of people who really, really love to ski and have even built their lives around being able to do it constantly but don't really eat off of it."

I just don't think this is a cataclysmic event, but that doesn't mean then that I think this is a slam dunk boost either. I also don't really believe that there's this either/or mutual exclusivity regarding growing competitions or grow filming and the more "artful" aspects of skiing. I think as one goes, so goes the other like we've largely seen in the other most comparable sports. I agree with what others have said, I think it was Logan, that skiing is booming and gaining popularity and was/will continue to do so with or without the olympics, and I'm excited to continue to watch that happen.
 
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