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well obviously since i go to school here, grew up here, etc, its really easy to move away, especially since all i care about is competitions, which should obviously dictate my skiing.
A bit synical, however, thats not the issue. There has been a time when skiers, still not receiving a good amount of recognition, were getting great prizes and the ability to compete in competitions at many mountains. One such year, stevens hosted a slopestyle, and 1st place was $1000, snoqualmie held a slopestyle, and even on a rainy day they gave out $500 for first. In that same year there were something like 2 other slopestyles, plus some various other competitions, as well as two pipe competitions (and considering there were only two pipes, thats saying a lot). It wasnt ideal, nor were the parks better, but the potential was there.
But since that time, most people just don't do comps, and so why should there be any reason for skiers to compete? What is most unfortunate now is it will be damn near impossible for there to be any reason to hold skier competitions, now that they are dwindling away. Snowboarders, even if they fucking suck, turn out. Most rail competitions host around like 60 people. There are more snowboarders in the park than skiers, but proportionally, there shouldn't be like 10 people showing up. When people actually turned out, the comps were there and were hooking it up for the most part.