What does NS think of skiercross?

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Dave_Marshak

Member
Well like it or not Racing is apart of our sport. A huge part in fact, but I am not here to ask about gate chasing, I think we are all on the same page as far as that goes.

BUT What about skiercross racing? Is it enough that they don't have to wear spandex webbed suits, or do jibbers find the mentality of skiing to win by time instead of style a bad thing?

I am just curious about some park rat opinions.
 
it would be way cooler if they threw stuff off of the jumps and got a style bonus or something. although that probably wouldn't turn out good because half of the people wouldn't even finish the race.
 
This reminded me when Lindsy jakabellis was a few seconds ahead of everyone in the Olympics and she tried to do a grab on the last hit and fucked up and lost the gold metal.
 
IMO it is a great idea, and probably super fun to participate in.

The problem I find with it is I don't find it all that interesting to watch(at least on TV). I try to watch it all the time and find myself changing the channel or recording and FF to the finals. At least 50% of the races are won from the Hole shot and beyond that it takes a hiccup or a mistake for them to be caught. Granted not always but enough I loose interest.
 
i think it is fucked because they always use the park at my home mountain to have racers and train. it always seems to be on my days off as well
 
I skied the trakc at Tremblant a couple seasons ago. Even if it wasn't the best track it was stil pretty damn fun. Railing berms and pumping jumps reminds me of riding DH
 
I have never been through a legit skier cross course, but I have been through some small public ones and they are tons of fun. I would love to go through a legit one and toss some 3's and 5's over all the bumps.
 
Skiercross is amazingly fun. Super dangerous though, especially when you get really competitive with it because people start t boning you. Did 3 fis races last year and the year before that i broke my back in a skier x race.
 
i fucking love it:) i did a couple races this past season and its such a thrill. i would deeff suggest trying it
 
yea they had a small kinda shitty one set up at valle nevado this summer. it was dope though to race my friend down it.. but i cant watch it for long it gets a little repetitive
 
i think it's sick. it takes a ton of skill, strength, and strategy. I have a friend who's ranked #1 in the US for snowboard cross and even that is fucking cool
 
Great sport. Tried it out myself a couple of years ago on a regional base and absolutely loved it. Very competitive (more than freeski contest, imo), very rough, pretty dangerous.

Btw, nothing wrong about ski racing. I'd rather watch Bode Miller crushing gates and racing sick lines than one of these recent city big air "double whatever" competitions.
 
looks exhilarating to do. if my mountain had a track, i would definitely take a few laps on it. I would prefer watching it to gs or slalom any day...
 
It is an alpine discipline and should not be a part of freestyle. The athletes are all ex racers who have been brought up through racing programs. I think the sport itself is pretty cool, it's just not in the right category.

Freestyle should have 4 or 5 Olympic events. Moguls, Dual Moguls, Aerials, Halfpipe and (maybe) Slopestyle. I can't even imagine how sick olympic dual moguls would be.
 
Skiercross is sick and def a lot of fun to compete in. I do agree that it should be switched to an alpine event instead of freesyle. EVERY skiercross competitor is an ex racer in anything higher than USASA pretty much.
But, yes skiercross is so fucking fun. Got a chance to forrun the world cup when it was at my local mountain and it was one of the best days i've ever had.
 
Skiier cross looks awesome, but they should throw in time bonuses for pulling certain tricks in parts of the course or just add long rails that the skiers have to ride to be able to finish the course. That'd be crazy.
 
I think you should be allowed to taze the other competitors, they should add rails and you should get bonus points for running switch. ... but is pretty sick just the way it is now.
 
I raced ski-cross for 3 years after retiring from alpine. Did the Ski tour/48 straight, Nor-am's etc. Passing/hole shot advantage depends on the course. Courses like Cypress (Olympic course), X-games, and Sun Valley for the Ski tour had plenty of passing opportunities. European courses tend to be more like a SG course with pro-berms, whereas more north american events had massive cheese wedges, step up/downs and gaps. Cypress probably has more air time than any other course out there... there's no time to think because by the time you land you're already prepping for your next hit while minding the 3 other people on course with you.

Super fun, super ballsy event. Watch a few vids.

Olympic Men's final run http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq9LoeapvH0

Jeep 48 straight/Ski tour crash reel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxtfQ-LHdEM&feature=related

Mens x games quarter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLl_vdJ6Sxw

 
hopefully we'll see it blow up this year. i'm coaching at least one clinic here in ontario and probably racing the Telus Spin at Tremblant this year after tearing my rotator during training last year.

nadia, you should've seen the world cup cross at blue mountain ontario last winter. super tight, a massive hip and very little passing made for a very interesting race.
 
it is taking off in the US for sure

Skicross is so much fun i've raced the last fews years and am doing it again this year

Its starting to grow in the US too, being included in the Rev tour and the ussa holeshot series getting big
 
really really fun, cool to watch, although kinda bullshit that it got in the olympics before pipe and potentially slope - freeskiing is much more popular i think
 
skicross is more of a spectator sport with much less possibility of corruption because it's concrete (ie first across the line wins).
 
I don't really agree with this, all the other freestyle events (except slopestyle) you can see the whole thing much more clearly. It's like watching formula one, it's almost better on TV because you can see it all instead of just the finish. However I do agree that there is less possibility of corruption.

I am not hating on skicross at all. I have lived with the canadian team for a couple of weeks and they are very skilled athletes. I just don't think it should be a freestyle event. I am a little frustrated it made its olympic debut as a freestyle event, before pipe.

skiercross is clearly an alpine event. It's purley based on time, the athletes are all racers, the equipment is all racing equipment, the technique is derived from alpine technique, etc.

 
it takes a shit ton of balls. trust me. ive done it before. especially hitting some of those bigger jumps with other people right next to you in the air. even our small, relatively tame course with only one 15-20ft flat gap was scary as shit. i raced my friend and we were pretty much right next to each other. skierx, unlike racing, takes more than just carving skills. you have to be able to jump and have really good air sense as well.

bottom line: its legit
 
funny how every is talking about how ballsy it is.

I race skicross and sliding a rail scares me more than a skicross run
 
it's all what you're used to, I suppose. a lot of these kids hate on skiers but i'm willing to bet 80 percent couldn't handle themselves at even amateur racing speeds.

any time i mess around on banked skier cross turns i feel like i have no control at all. very weird.
 
I often laugh at how the people suck at the jump part, they lose balance so easily, not just on the tough ones but the ones with a straight run up where balance is perfect. I always wanted to race in one and trick off of the last jump. it looks fun though
 
I think it takes super skill, strategy, and the courses are fun to ski, but I don't like watching it for some reason. I'd rather watch a DH or SuperG race. If I'm watching a timed run, I want to see balls out speed.
 
running a course with your friends can be some very fun shit. I used to love doing that to break up the ski day back in the day at Mt. Snow on the run skiers left of inferno.
 
I've always wondered why they DON'T wear spandex race suits in skiercross... I guess they aren't moving fast enough for drag to be significant? I've run down a course a few times, and it was cool, but pretty slow. I assumed the low speed was probably just the course I was on. Obviously not rocking spandex looks cooler, but you'd think pro athletes wouldn't worry too much about looks.
 
Hahaha, even if you were allowed to wear one, it would be ill-advised. I'd want as much padding as I could get.
 
it would be cool if they actually built a reasonable course, i don't want to see people forced to take a 25ft table to 40ft because of speed and get blown up on the landing.

that imo is whack and shows the lack of maturity in the sport.
 
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