The Younger Generation is failing skiing.

207

207

Active member
This is just my two cents/a warning about the upcoming epidemic as freestyle skiing grows more and more mainstream.

Ten years ago, you were either born skiing, or if you were going to pick up a winter sport in your teens, become a snowboarder. There was undoubtedly a lack of "coolness" in the freestyle skiing sport. The only people doing it were dudes who had been on skis since they were fetuses and ventured into the terrain park, there weren't people just becoming park skiers out of the blue. With the X Games and extensive media coverage of skiing in todays world, for teens, picking up skis and becoming a freestyle skier is equally as attractive as becoming a snowboarder. What has me in distress is those 13 year olds who are picking up a pair of twin tips to be like Bobby Brown do not learn how to ski first. I've seen it all too much, these kids learn how to make it down the bunny trail and call it good as long as they can ski to the park. From then on only their 270's on matter, not their bowleggedness or pizza-style skiing to the park matters. It's a disgrace. To add insult to injury, I see these kids hiking a jump in the park on a pow day in the east coast, a rarity. While they should be taking advantage of the faceshots, they're in their true park rat form hiking a shitty jump so they can do they stupid penciled 360s on their undersized skis.

I have no clue what's it like out west but I'm assuming this is lesser of a problem as more people tend to start skiing early on there, but this new group of 13 year old wannabee's is destroying this sport, and our reputation as skiers.

Kids, learn to ski the mountain above adequately and then go to the park, you're creating a bad image for yourself and frankly are doing it wrong.
 
cant agree with you more man. i have some younger friends who should be skiing ATLEAST rocking 170's they all got from 155 to 165's i am about there hight and i ski a 172. now there calling me shit cuz i cant spin as fast as them or some shit. +K to you,
 
i remember a couple years ago this was debated WAY more on newschoolers. it was pretty common.not so much anymore, which kindof supports your argument since the more members that join newschoolers, the more kids who are into pure park. (ie theyre taking over)
 
i can agree with this! most pow days i have school, unfortunately (hopefully that will change with my 2 off campuses). but on the rare days it is both pow and a weekend, i love to get out of the park. skiing is fun no matter what type of terrain you are riding
 
tell me why do you care?

let them do whatever the fuck they want to do, if you want to be a good all-terrain skier then so be it but don't insult kids who just want to have fun in the park.
 
Since I was three my dad had me out skiing and taught me how to ski from pizzas all the way up to parallel skiing. now at 14, and skiing park since I was 12, I can charge down a steep,deep line through the trees,moguls,glades,rocks,powder and what not yet still kill it in the park. So i'm pretty well rounded but some of my friends only went as far as to learn to turn good then jump straight into park which is unfortunate but they still hit those same steep,deep lines I do.
 

I'm glad you're aware of this. Should have just left it there. Instead, you felt the need to critique the technique or the path that these people have taken into our sport.
Thankfully, your opinion has zero bearing on whether or not these kids have fun when they go skiing. Who cares what they look like or how they got there; I'd rather see more people sharing the stoke that comes from strapping skis to their feet.
Skiing doesn't need sport wide mandatory lessons. It shouldn't all look the same. People love to do different things on skis, and if the park is what gets your jollies, that's wonderful. We don't need your jerkoff attitude to tell us how to go about skiing.
Technique for getting down the hill is unnecessary, but those kids you're hating on have way better technique in the fun-having department. You should probably ask them for a lesson.
 
I work in a ski shop and see this every day that I work. Just last week a kid came in, probably 150 lbs, and bought a pair of 186 chronics. His friend was there telling him to get the biggest ski he could find because "Itll be so much more stable!". I tried telling him that they were way too big for him, and too much ski since he was a begginer, but he listened to his dumbass friend and not someone who is in the industry. He called up right after taking them out the first time complaining about how we sold him too big of a ski and he wanted his money back and blah blah blah. Then today I was skiing and I saw this kid pizza-ing the whole way down the terrain park. After a few good laughs my chair got closer to him and I noticed he had t-wall full tilts and t-hall armadas. Like seriously? I understand that this kid wanted to get into the sport, but youre getting a set up that is going to hinder your ability to learn how to ski in the first place! Quit being a trend whore and buy equipment thatll let you progress. I not going to lie I think part of the problem is NS's itself. Every new skier gets on here and sees all these brands and doesnt get good advice on where to start if you want to get into skiing. Not saying that no one on here gives good advice, but a shop full of experienced people is going to get you in a set up more suited to your specific skill level /endrant
 
truer words have never been spoken. Given, there are a handful of younger skiers who know what's up, but most are failing for sure. KEEP IT REAL
 
I don't see why needing to be able to arc super clean turns is needed to slide a rail. I mean I still lol at kids who go into the park and can barely turn and and ride with that "I just learned how to go down the bunny hill" style. I don't disagree that learning how to actually ski first is a good thing either. Cause you should. So many kids go down with the super wide stance wide turn thing that you do on your first few days on snow. Like arms held out wide, everybody has definitely seen this.

But who cares, it's not like there's a right way to learn. I learned to ski first, then ride park, these kids aren't doing it that way. No big deal. At least the video didn't sue one of the 100000 rap remixes of that song.
 


I feel like this video needs to be in this thread. I always get a laugh out of it. The kid went straight to the park and never learned to ski.
 
I'm fine with them doing whatever they want, that is until I wait 15 minutes to hit a jump because the 5 kids in front of me all got yard-saled from landing back seat.

I just don't want them to crowd the parks, which they already do, but that is a whole different issue.

 
see, this is exactly why people need to learn to ski well. As much as I agree with the sentiment that "as long as they have fun it doesn't matter," it does matter. This kid could progress so much faster, learn better tricks and look better doing them if he just learned to ski right. As well, it kinda reflects badly on everyone else who chooses to ski park...
 
These guys looked like they were having fun. Not sure about you, but I like to see people having fun even if they suck. It makes me happy.

I say, bring back the stupid hats, girls in spandex, neon pink one piece suits, and snowblading.
 
Well said. My response goes something like this...'ya I was going to care, and then I went skiing.' Everyone OP is complaining about is pushing more money into the industry making it more viable for people who care to keep on keeping on.
 
It's seems like out west there's less kids pizzaing to the park and more kids that just recklesslessly straight line without knowing how to turn very well.
 
I don't know about everyone else but I had a start in racing and skied a shit ton of pow as a kid here out in the PNW. I cant imagine doing it another way! Gave me so many fundamental skills. I probably would have died skiing park without taking that kind of progression.
 
I agree people should be able to do what they do to have fun. I also believe firmly in becoming a good skier before you become a park skier. Not only does it help progression and style a ton, but it makes everything way safer both for you and the people around you.

You are only going to progress to a certain point without learning how to ski properly, and then you are going to hit a wall and start getting hurt frequently because you will run into the same technical problems over and over.

 
First rule of retail - it's their money, let them spend it how they decide - no matter how dumb. That's capitalism, yo. I made lots of commission back in the day off of old rich dudes who worked for Chevron Oil (my shop was across the street from their HQ) who would come in and throw down American Express Black cards on 2000$ ski and boot setups. Did they need to throw down that much? No. Could I have found them better deals? sure. Some people just like to have the Rolls Royce - even if they'd be far better off with an Audi.

I remember the toughest bootfit I ever had was when I had to figure out how to fit some Lange race boots on a dude with more bunions than Paul Bunyan.. The shell ended up looking all lumpy and fucked up, but he was absolutely intent on that boot, and was willing to pay for it to be custom fit. Would it have been far easier to fit him in another brand or model of boot? Probably. He wanted to spend the money on the top end shit though, so whatever.

 
Seems to describe tons of the pussies on here.

I love to hit a 40-60 foot jump and will dip through the park once or twice in a day to do so but I don't want to slide on fucking rails all day thats gay as aids.
 
This is it. THe idiots who suck but can grind a rail and think they are hot shit just pizza through the pipe and often ruin the lips.

I don't really throw tricks in the pipe but there is nothing more fun on a crappy snow day than pushing the limit and seeing how high you can get out of a pipe. You need to be a damn good skiier to do be able to get 10 feet out of it. And I just concentrate on getting air and not skiing out of the thing I am hardly gnarly.

I don't know how anyone can take skiing seriously and not be able to ski powder or a steep mogul run well. Or carve GS turns on steep icy trails. Its like being able to wipe your ass.

Furthermore when I ski a real mountain on a powder day you better believe I huck at least one cliff/drop/cornice per run and get more time in the air than I would hitting almost anything in the park.
 
thank you! i see this over and over again wherever i go, nutsack kids decked out in there whack bright gear and shit, going time after time to do a kfed on a box when i do not think they can ski. the good news is the youngins slaying will stand out and eventually we will see a decrease. my advice is ski during the week if you can the mountain is so much more peaceful and isnt filled with the 13 year old park rats
 
i agree with the fact that it can be damn annoying that kids are going up and falling in front of jumps because they catch an edge but honestly who cares? isn't it better that they ski than not? and by strapping on a pair of boots and getting into the park and seeing guys that have been skiing for a while they pick up how to carve and learn how to ski and then eventually learn to appreciate all types of skiing.
 
I left snowboarding behind and strapped on a pair of skis last winter. I'm 21, and I get about 10 days a season because of where I live. Am I a good skiier? No, I'm certainly not as good as I want to be yet; I spend about half my time skiing the whole mountain and trying to work on my technique. Should you be trying to hit the park if you're still using pizza to speed check? Probably not. That being said, you kids complaining that everyone should have grown up in a race program or something pisses me off. When I was snowboarding, the best feeling in the world was stomping a new trick. First 3, first 5, first hucked 7...you're all crazy if you think I'm going to let that feeling go because my turns aren't perfect. That's the attraction of winter sports for me.

I would rather spend all day skiing with kids who taught themselves to ski, are bombing jumps and are just super stoked on life than spend a second with some elitist who sits at the top of the drop in and tries to preach about proper turns.
 
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