Why are there so many MTB youtubers but barely any skiing ones.

bogust

bogust

Member
over the summer I got into mountain biking and started watching lots of MTB youtubers like Seths bike hacks, skills with phil and Jordan Boostmaster. however with winter coming around I started looking for skiing youtubers that had similar content to people like Seths bike hacks but I couldn't find any. I know theres bag o tricks and stomp it tutroials, but unlike mountain biker channels most of there videos dont really tell an interesting story.
 
It's because mountain biking has become way more mainstream these days than any form of freestyle skiing ever will be. I've just been really getting into skiing over the past year from a mountain biking background and it's been interesting learning to be part of a smaller community.
 
14079438:clindblomskier said:
It's because mountain biking has become way more mainstream these days than any form of freestyle skiing ever will be. I've just been really getting into skiing over the past year from a mountain biking background and it's been interesting learning to be part of a smaller community.
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What's interesting though is that by the numbers more people ski than mountain bike (at least in the US), so I wouldn't necessarily say that skiing is a smaller community, but I do think that skiing is a less tight community per se. For a tighter community in skiing you'd probably need to go into the different disciplines at which point they become smaller. I also feel like skiing in general is more known of than MTB. The two communities are definitely very different which is interesting given the amount of overlap between the two.

I feel like if someone started a channel with the right content there could be a decent viewer base in the skiing community. I guess no one has really done that yet.
 
topic:bogust said:
over the summer I got into mountain biking and started watching lots of MTB youtubers like Seths bike hacks, skills with phil and Jordan Boostmaster. however with winter coming around I started looking for skiing youtubers that had similar content to people like Seths bike hacks but I couldn't find any. I know theres bag o tricks and stomp it tutroials, but unlike mountain biker channels most of there videos dont really tell an interesting story.
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Idk man I guess it's just more popular, I race and ride mountain bikes but I feel like there is more people out there that ski.
 
I think part of it is, for lack of better term, the "risk factor".

Yeah a shit ton of people ski, but take out all the people who are really sending it or pushing themselves and you have a very small fraction of that.

When it comes to mountain biking, it seems as if even when you are a casual rider you have to be more "in the game" because (with exceptions) even a low-impact crash it is going to be more painful than the equivalent ski fall (like just tumbling over on a groomer).

So part of this, perhaps, is you have a ton of these skill building videos (Seth's bike hacks, GMBN, etc.) that are perhaps a bit more essential than what you would need for skiing. Probably 90% of the ski population doesn't need a tutorial on how to hit a rail because they have no interest. Maybe some people would watch something about hucking a cliff of something but in my mind that is more intuitive then hitting a steep double on a MTB.

Also, IMO I enjoy watching POV mountain bike videos (e.g. Jordan Boostmaster) more than I like the equivalent when it comes to skiing (with exceptions).
 
Most MTB videos on youtube aren't shot in bike parks, they're shot in the 'backcountry' on trail systems. For that reason, there's not much risk in a mountain bike channel showing their viewers how to get to certain trails and creating "adventurous" content. The reality for skiing outside of a resort is so much different. For one, a skier attempting to make that kind of content might get stuck in a weather system where it's too dangerous to even go into the backcountry to film. Perhaps the bigger issue is the ethical concern, if a skiing channel were to show how to get into zones from trailhead to summit that could potentially put people in danger. While backcountry skiing's growth is an overall positive, there's still people who don't fully understand how dangerous it can be.
 
Man I just really fucking hate all the MTB youtubers and i'm glad we don't have that type of shit in skiing. The exception is pinkbike, I will watch some of their vids but thats about it.
 
14079481:CLQ said:
Man I just really fucking hate all the MTB youtubers and i'm glad we don't have that type of shit in skiing. The exception is pinkbike, I will watch some of their vids but thats about it.
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They're mostly all the same californian/washington/bc dude with bike sponsors that are solidly average riders. I like skills with phil and jordan boostmaster because they're actually good riders
 
Mountain biking has a far lower cost of entry and if you can ride a bike, you can ride a mountain bike. I see a lot of people on the trails I ride start on shit department store bikes, but end up buying a real bike in a couple of months. The cost of entry for most new-bs in skiing though will include at minimum a hefty lift ticket fee and unless you get loaned some gear by a homie, your'e going to be shelling out for rentals or a new set-up at a shop. Skiing isn't like biking, it takes a lot of practice to just learn how to carve.

What does this mean?

All of the skiers I know started skiing when their parents made them learn to ski. All of the MTB'ers I know started because they heard about/saw it and already had a bike that could be ridden on public (free) trails. Skiing is just hard to get into, and you tube as a whole has grown vastly in recent years. This why mountain bike you tube has been popping off horn lately and skiing you tube although starting to grow a little just now, had been relatively stagnant for a long time. It's unlikely any new ski resorts will open in the next decade, but how many trails and bike parks will open in the next 10yrs?

Going back to OP's question, I do feel that there is an opening for a "seth's bike hacks" style skiing channel. And as long as the content is worth watching, there will be an audience.
 
I would watch a Seth's Bike Hacks style ski vlog. Get someone with a sick yard setup, build new features, and do an occasional trip, all done by a nice enough everyday joe. Yeah, I'd watch that.
 
Posted this in the other thread but my channel is based around informative ski videos with the occasional weekend edit. We try to spread the stoke of skiing as much as we can. We are not pro riders but we want to help grow the sport in any way we can!

**This post was edited on Nov 25th 2019 at 9:58:29am

**This post was edited on Nov 25th 2019 at 9:58:49am
 
14079509:clindblomskier said:
They're mostly all the same californian/washington/bc dude with bike sponsors that are solidly average riders. I like skills with phil and jordan boostmaster because they're actually good riders
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Yeah I agree, Seths bike hacks, single track sampler, etc, these guys have been average/bad for the longest time and yet they have a massive amount of subscribers. There skills have gotten better then a few years ago but I guess if your job is mountain biking you are bound to get better. Now every fucking dad with to much money to spend is trying to be the next big MTB youtuber.
 
14079509:clindblomskier said:
They're mostly all the same californian/washington/bc dude with bike sponsors that are solidly average riders. I like skills with phil and jordan boostmaster because they're actually good riders
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I guess because it's so easy to film MTB videos with a chest-mounted GoPro, anyone with a bike can do it.
 
14080528:CLQ said:
Yeah I agree, Seths bike hacks, single track sampler, etc, these guys have been average/bad for the longest time and yet they have a massive amount of subscribers. There skills have gotten better then a few years ago but I guess if your job is mountain biking you are bound to get better. Now every fucking dad with to much money to spend is trying to be the next big MTB youtuber.
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Yeah smh, everyone knows you need to be sponsored by redbull or have a nitro circus intro for every video. While single track sampler is kind of stale for my liking, most of Seth's videos are content not reliant on skill level for them to be entertaining. Also he guinea pigged an airbag landing to the fucking moon in the massive backyard trail system in his back yard.
 
The fact that for most people the ski season is like 4 months long, finding some content for the remaining 8 months is going to be hard if you have a skiing youtube channel. That isn't a problem for MTB.

Also the fact that you need to pay a lift ticket (or pay for some really expensive gear) everytime you want to go skiing is making it hard to produce content consistently if you don't have the money beforehand. And you'll only get to use your gear approx 4 months in the year.

And thirdly, you could be a bad MTBer, you can just put out your gopro shot of the beginner trail without any editing and it's going to be interesting because the POV is more visual. Now try doing that with a groomer run and that will be absolutely boring. The MTB trailS are all narrow and shaky and jumpy and there are trees and rocks going by fast so it's easier to make it look impressive. So in order to make interesting content in skiing, you'll have to be a lot better/creative than what would be required for MTB.
 
I think there's a lot of guys who sit at desks all day and/or go home and have to "watch" over children so they watch videos of someone else riding a trail they dream of riding some day.

I think there's a space for a vlogger to be like "oMg I sKiEd COrBeTts/BiG CoUlOir/fInGErs/sAUdAn aND yOU WOnT bELiEvE wHAt hAPPenEd!" but either they wait for a pow day which might not be relatable or regular or they take 10minutes skiing down ice moguls.

Once the channel gets big enough, it's probably not too hard to get the resorts to get you media lift tickets. And easy to see why Rossignol could be stoked to have some Soul 7's turning at the bottom of the frame. Oh, what's that, a shot of you clicking into your Leki grips? $$$
 
14080982:SPK_ said:
The fact that for most people the ski season is like 4 months long, finding some content for the remaining 8 months is going to be hard if you have a skiing youtube channel. That isn't a problem for MTB.
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This is the major problem. It's hard to sustain views over the summer. My channel is completely dead from mid-March until November. I could make ski videos using clips from the previous season and upload them in July, but nobody is looking to watch ski videos in July. It's hard to continuously build your following when your videos heavily rely on the weather.

That being said some MTB channels also have this problem, it's just their off season is much shorter.
 
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