Too-much-urban

S

shagboy

Active member
I don't know how everyone feels about this, but in my opinion ski movies as of late have included way too many urban shots/setups.

Originally it was sick; when someone cleaned a super gnarly urban rail everyone went off their rocker. But now, it's hard to get that feeling from an urban setup.

There is too many in today’s movies. You can only get horny off the same thing so many times.

Not to mention, it is probably ALOT cheaper/easier to film and urban setup. No lift tickets, no backcountry danger, no on-hill setup, just drive and drop. If you get busted, move on, nothing really lost.

What I really enjoy are the crazy park setups that rage films always grabs. Plehouse seems to try a good balance of park backcountry and urban. But when a skier bases his/her whole segment on Urban, I most definitely skip it. I think, is this really skiing? There is no snow! It starts to seem ridiculous once these things cross my mind.

I just read an interview with Michelle Parker. She says her next few segments can only be urban setups or backcountry shit, this was so that she can be on the same level as the guys.

I say, differentiate yourself. Do something crazy and completely different. Stop the URBAN SPRAWL!

 
I think urban stuff is sick, people are riding stuff that isn't meant for skiing. That just makes it so much nastier,
 
i agree to a point like when people are just doing small double kinks or a down rail straight. but there has been some good urban in this years flicks. olenick, hatveit, and carlson all killed it in ski porn, and frank raymond in skimatic had a short and sweet segment of all urban that i enjoyed. but yea, i can see where you are coming from, i would like to see raw park personally, and i think skimatic has the perfect balance of everything out of the films that i have seen so far this year.
 
I wouldn't say it's alot cheaper and easier to film an urban segment... There are so many different things you have to factor in.
 
i disagree. and especially that ski videos have too much. have u ever watched a snowboard video? compare the amount of handrails in that to a poorboyz video. theres gonna be twice as much handrails in the snowboard video.

another thing, handrails are ALOT harder to do tricks on. which is one of the things that are good about them. plenty of kids can 270 onto rails in the park, but not many can 270 onto a downrail thats surrounded by stairs.

freestlyle skiing is going towards a lot more stuff off the mtn. such as big handrails, urban drops, etc. go watch patchwork patterns by thinkthank.
 
Like what?

I see light setups, camera equipment, food, and generators and gas.

In a real skiing setting, I see light setups, camera equipment, food, generators, snowmobiles, cat hours($$$), helicopters ($$$), gas ($$), planning time (for big features etc...)

It is obvious that a big on mountain setup would be way more expensive to properly produce.
 
I didn't say that wasnt where it was going.

I realize what is happening. I'm merely saying it's going too far in this direction. Too far away from ACTUAL skiing.
 
Urbans is there to difference the boys from the girls. The girls can do sw up , 270 on on park rails but when it comes to urbans they can't. Thats why urbans is sick.

 
street is exciting, especially when you find something noone has ever seen. backcountry is killer no doubt, but street has so much room for creativity, im pretty sure there is only 2 ways to get down the mountain, switch or bitch. but i agree, im sick of seeing these 20 foot down rails being flooded in ski movies, lets see some 10 kinks.
 
go watch love/hate. it's a snowboard video from last year (kids know productions). it's like 80-90% urban.

here's the deal. they do it 'cause they like it. if they like it, odds are people like to watch it. if people like to watch it they will buy it. if they buy it then those that are doing it can keep doing it and get away with it.

if it's not for you - don't watch it. there's videos out there with every kind of skiing you want. go buy a tgr video if you don't want lots of rails, not a level 1 video.

bitch.
 
urbans sweet and it does add so much more terrain to where u can ski. But i think a good skier should be able to do everything, hit some nice table, rip a backcountry line, hit a bc kicker, and go to the streets for some rails
 
are you serious pros don't have to pay lift tickets you know what you think oh fuck some big name pro is riding at a certian park must be good i better get over there ski movies is one of the main ways hills advertise
 
except...

Depending on the amount of snow, you have to set that up, then you have to set lights up, where are you gettin the electricity from? oh maybe from eiher a connector in your car, or a generator. Its not quite drive and drop, and when you get busted you dont just move on, my friends in park city were all charged $300.00 sitation tickets for trespassing, criminal activity, and snowboarding down rails. Also its not like you just find the perfect rail immediately, its usually something that you hear about if its that incredible, or it can be a local rail, Have fun trying to listen to some directions to find a rail, that can be a mission by itself. Also urban is alot harder then reg park rails, and alot different and less repeditive, would you rather see the same dfd in 6 skiers segments, or 5 different dfd in 5 skiers segments, sounds more intresting to me...
 
in my mind we are already way far away from actual skiing. to me actual skiing is making turns and carveing down big mountain or in the trees. actual skiing is super fun when theres some pow but its really not that entertaining to watch. park, urban, BC thats all freestyle to me and i seperate that from regular skiing. different sport with different goals, similar equipment but different ideas. So in my mind if you want a real skiing movie warren miller is the extreme tgr blends a lil park and BC in, MSP about 50/50 and so on. so just choose a movie that has more BC or big mountain in it. but if u get a east coast movie or a low bugget film you will likely see more urban and less BC booter heli shoots.i think freestyle is going towards all urban and all BC like snowboarding. after all park is an artificial version/ replica of whats actually in real life. rails were put into parks because someone decided they liked hitting urban. jumps were put in because people wanted a more controled air time as opposed to cliffs. park is where everything is perfect urban and BC theres alot more that can go wrong and its usually much harder to stick the same trick on a urban rail. we are only starting to see BS sw ups on urban even though ppl have been doin double sw ups in park for a couple years now. urban and BC are the pure forms of park, the hard forms of park and in my opinionthe sickest forms of freestyle.
 
i defnitely agree with you. im sick of seeing double kinks over and over again in movies and people just hucking their skis on the ground when they dont get it. i definitely appreciate the occasional huge, crazykinked out rail, but im hoping it doesnt start to dominte skiing
 
i used to be a park a rat but over the last couple years i have seen park evolve from the park to the streets. it is becoming rediculous what park has evolved into. i know this is not a problem for pros but i know for people like me doing rails was putting me out a pair of skis every year and doing urbans and concrete jibs was not helping. i guess what i am trying to say is i would like to see more pros throw down on natural elements on the big mountain or even off a backcountry kicker. it is starting to get old quickly the way all these guys are doing is urbans and switch 1080's
 
yes, seeing the same thing over and over does suck. it doesn't matter if its park, back country, or urban, nobody wants to see the same shit over and over. its not that there is too much urban, just not the right urban...an innovative urban section like JF. JDs. CTF's. in LSS or hornbeck in photoplay on the other hand is absolutely what skiing needs as far as urban goes.

and on top of that alot more work goes into urban set ups than you make it out to be. yes its free, if you never get ticketed. its not as effortless as it seems in the movies, concrete is gnar, its more and more difficult by the year to get away with an urban session w/o getting busted, its difficult to find new sweet rails, the skiers actually put in all the work to make the settup possible, and its a fuck ton harder than park rails.

your park setups however are more often than not tailored to perfection for skiers when they show up, and then get pulled all over on snowmobiles at their leisure. and no they don't have to pay for lift tickets at these park extravaganzas.
 
I have to agree to some extent, if some guy's seg is all urban ill prob watch it once along with the rest of the vid and prob never watch that seg again. I do like jibs tho but seriously skiing sucks on rails and as much as I hate roller blading I think rollerblade-esk grinds will add some diversity to jibbing, cuz I dont care how crazy the rail is the dude is just sliding sideways every time and if hes good he might jump on the rail do a 180 and keep sliding sidways.
 
if i agreed in any way id be completely contradicting myself because one love and state of mind, even though they are snowboard movies, are probably my two favorite snow sports movies and are almost all urban.

i think you cant really compare one urban to like a BC kicker, in the BC a lot of the time shit looks the same, its trees and snow, but with urban the surroundings are always unique, given the fact that with people hitting the same rails year in and year out it kinda defeats this point.
 
I agree, some urban is ok to watch but it gets boring when you see an entire segment. If you want to see urban done properly watch Mack Dawg - Follow Me Around, they have crazy urban that is actually impressive e.g. huge disasters, crazy nose/tail press (obviously way easier on a snowboard). But the important part is they mix it into segments with a lot of jumps, powder and BC lines as well, not 5 min of watching people hit the same rail over and over.
 
i like urban shots the best when snow doesn't have to be imported to hit the rail. 90% of the urban that i do happens at night around my ski area village after the lifts close, so that's what i relate to. Snow on the ground makes it feel more like skiing.
 
didnt read the replies above so i dont know if anyone has agreed to this, but i disagee. urban is taking skiing somewhere new, and something new is always good in some way.. personally i like it, and to what you said about you can only like it so much, dude, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and new things introduced. You said you watched skimatic, look at JF on that DFDFDFD WOOD urban, tell me thats not impressive. Tell me raymonds 270 on wasnt impressive, and his down flat RIGHT down kink rail isnt impressive, this is just several examples..

i think its great.. hands down.
 
Urbans are ok. They're definatly not my favorite part of skiing. Infact I'd say they're the least favorite thing that I would acctually bother doing. I dunno if I'll really end up doing many this season not. I do like watching some urbans but I dunno. Skiing is what you make of it, do what you like and don't worry about what other people are doing.
 
This post has a level headed idea going, but It can be applied in the same way to big mountain or even park skiing. Doesnt it all just get repeditive? In all honesty ski movie are just different people doing alot of related type things on those snowy slopes. It comes down to peoples interests. Some people like burly cliff drops and/or fast/tech lines in the back country. Some people like huge jump set ups and amazing feats that involve flipping and spinning over enormous man made features and/or general park skiing with lines on consistant flow and fun in the park, and last you have urban rails and venturing into the "backcountry" that is the city. There are so many film companies out there doing there own thing that you dont even have to skip around just one movie to get what you want. Some one out there is filming that kind of skiing that gets you going. so dont hate ( im not saying you are) on urban skiing, or any skiing for that matter....just appreciate that sking is there for all to interpret and enjoy the way they want

let my quote a line I once heard from a happy african american munching on a burger on T.V. "Have it your Way!"
 
I dont see what people mean when they say something like doing urbans isnt skiing. you have skis on your feet, and you ride down a dropin, and even with no snow, its still skiing. Look at snowflex, not snow, but skiing none the less. I can most definately see how you dont see it as a respectable aspect of skiing, but I disagree. I think they take huge balls and skill. I love to watch a quality urban segment, perfect example=andreas in skiporn. His urbans are unreal. He has unbelievable balance. But I do agree that too much gets played.
 
as i do like the crazy park rail setups as mch as the next guy seeing someone 270 onto a park rail still gets me pretty damn randy!
 
yo, on the east coast the only cool thing to do is urban.....so some are restricted to this...it's all dope, i do agree there needs to ba a balance fo sho ...
 
i dont mind urban stuff, but i like to see the creative stuff, not just the same rail everytime or same grind, but maybe trying a different set up or anything new
 
i agree, urban used to be sooo sick cause there wasnt too much, i remember seeing 1242 for the first time and my jaw just dropped at that triple kink concrete ledge and the 6 kink rail, now i look at that and im like meh and even the craziest urbans dont get the wow factor out of me now like Session 1242 did
 
im gonna agree, i miss the days of park jumps being a huge part of videos. granted natural bc stuff is amazing, i would just like to see park footage again. the bonus keystone segment of shanghai six was one of the most fun to watch parts of any video in a long time...id love to see more of that kind of thing.
 
i loved some of the stuff cedric and liam did in LSS. i have a ton of respect for someone who can do a super tech trick on an urban rail.
 
I think in my eyes anyway, that its fine. I mean I think it really has to do with the fact I do urban whenever I can. And when you know how much it can hurt and the concequences that go into urban, even a straight rail thats urban is pretty legit. I still get stoked on urban and I like the fact that theres more urban. HOWEVER I do agree there need s to be balance of all aspects of skiing. not just urban
 
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