The name "Park rat"

Breckbomber

Breckbomber

New member
What is a park rat, a park skier?, I get called a park rat, and I am one, Im proud to be one, and If you got to diss then diss me, but this is a big debate, park or big mountain.
 
what is a park rat?

a) doesnt know how to ski other than park

b)spend all their time in the park

c)someone that skis park after a 3 foot powder storm

d) all of the above

answer:

d
 
who cares. if someone likes to ski park all the time, they shouldnt be beaked for that. its their choice. if you judge people for that, you should stop caring what other people are doing and go fucking ski.
 
I still throw the term "park rat" around.

Mostly to the calgary or kimberley friends.

and i'll call the kids that go to my school park rats if they are skiing park on a perfect day.

I dont like the think of it as an insult, but more of a "hey! you! go skiing somewhere else and enjoy your mountain"

and thats coming from a kid who skis big mountain all day

me=big mountain goat
 
it's just someone who likes to ski park and does it a lot. Someone who kayaks a lot is a river rat, someone who climbs a lot is a rock rat. it's a term that's been around for a while and simply refers to people who spend a lot of time doing what they like. although this usually ends up with living in a truck and eating a lot of beans and rice
 
living on the east coast doesn't mean that all you have to ski is park. mountains like loon and smuggs have plenty more to offer than just park. get your head out of your ass.
 
i think if you live on the east coast, you can still be a park rat, but I wouldn't consider it a derogatory term in that case.

If you live in the west and ski park all day after a storm, you are a park rat. that's the general idea. If that's what you want to do and how you have fun then fine... but I don't understand it.
 
in my mind a park rat is the kinda kid who is more concerned with his new tall tee then he is with learning new tricks...
 
im on the east coast and its about 50-50

-most days i ski all mountain and actually ski until lunch, then head to the parks and just play around on the

trails doing butters and skiing switch

-other days i just mix it up throughout

-shitty days is pretty much all park and hiking rails

-powder days is maybe 4 runs through the park because the landings are soft and i can try some new

things

if you think you cant ski on the east just go to sugarloaf in the early spring and hit the backside... best skiing i have ever done has been done there after just 4 inches of fresh (its even deeper because the wind brings it over from the front
 
yo buddy.. don't forget that 'East Coast' doesn't just mean New England. Please suggest where those of us in the Dirty South should find worthwhile all mountain skiin. I'm pretty much stuck with park or green trails
 
being a park rat isnt a bad thing, people just call us that cause they suck at park and they are jealous. you dont see us calling backcountry skiers, bc rats, cause we dont give a shit what they do since we have so much fun in the park.
and a park rat isnt always bad at skiing the whole mountain, i skiied backcountry and shit all the time for like 8 years before park skiing became cool when i was like 10, then i started moving to park. i still ski backcountry on a pow day cause its fun as fuck, but on a normal day ill always be in the park.
 
you don't make fun of backcountry skiers because backcountry skiing simply demands more respect. Also, the ratio of cocky ass, claiming, annoying, care way too much about their image skiers in the backountry is much much lower than you'll find in the park.

a park rat is a derogatory term that implies someone sucks at skiing outside of the park, chooses to stay in the park when pow is aplenty, and may even have a bit of one of those disgustingly huge park skier egos (as seen above).
 
i really dont think it demands more respect at all, it gets just as much respect from me as park skiing, racing, mogul's, aerial's, etc.... no single one is harder because each one has different limits and its just as hard to reach them, you will never see people doing kangaroo flips and switch 14's in the backcountry because its much harder to do/land stuff in the backcountry, so an equal trick to a kangaroo flip in the backcountry in terms of how hard it is would be something like a switch cork 7 or something similar.
and the same with big mountain skiing, a really good line in AK would take as much skill as a top 3 x-games run.
and maybe its just because i dont spend as much time in the backcountry as the people who are way into it, but if you would ask me id say i see a much shittier attitude coming from bc skiers than park skiers. you always see alot more people with the tough guy, gotta earn your turns, football player attitude. like last month i was in steamboat and me and my buddies were skiing around the east face area, while we were hiking, me and my friend stopped to wait for my other friend cause he was way behind us, and some guy behind says to us "you can get in other peoples way, but not mine" in a pissed off voice, and this was in the middle of the day on a path cut out by a snowcat, so its like 20ft wide. and there were mabye 5 or 6 people on the whole path.
while in the park i see a much more positive attitude, im always taking laps with people i met that day, people are giving eachother props, etc.
this could be because im more used to it and i simply fit in more in the park than in the backcountry, while a backcountry skier fits in better in the bc, and they arent used to the different vibes.

id definatly label my self a park rat over anything else, but i still do quite a bit of backcountry, ive had a little over 100 days this season and id say 15 were powder days spent entirely in the bc, and like 15 more days where i spent half the day in the bc and half in the park.
and quite a few of the people you would think are total park rats, i ski with in the bc and they kill it.
none of my "park rat" friends would ever ski the park on a pow day. i know those people exist, but i dont let that get to my feelings, if thats what they have fun doing thats fine by me, im not gonna cry over it.
so yeah i do really enjoy backcountry skiing alot, but on a nice sunny non powder day im always gonna choose the park over skiing bc. not cause i have anything against bc skiing, but i just have more fun skiing park on that type of day, and having fun is what skiing is all about so stop bitching.
 
i think the world would be a much better place if god would place hand rails and gnarly kickers in the middle of giant big mountain runs then you could get a taste of both plus it woul be dope
 
i wont deny that backcountry skiing is more of a risk and does take more knowledge, but when it comes to just plain athletic skill everything equals out. no type of skiing is better than another, it all depends on what you have the most fun doing.
 
wow everyone need to clam down who cares if your a park rat or not u could be anything as long as your skiing have fun while doing it were all a part of the same family so we shuld all love eachother even though we have our disagreements, once we all learn to get along we can push this sport as far as possible without slowing down.

Just my 2 cents...
 
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