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You know my big question has to do with the history of freestyle. Does anyone here know much about it?
Apparently back in the '70s there were jump parks at mountains, and huge pro big air competitions. The Wayne Wongs of the world all threw down, partied, had big sponsors, and everything was fairly akin to what freestyle is today, albeit the tricks were classic freestyle, and there was moguls and ballet.
It was a giant free-for-all and everyone was just having a good time. However, in light of progressing the tricks further and further, one backflip wasn't enough so people did doubles. Doubles weren't enough, so they went to triples. However, once the pros were doing doubles and triples, things came collapsing down. You see in a single flip or a corked spin, screwing up and over/under rotating usually lands you on your side or back or something. You break a leg, get a concussion, maybe fuck yourself up pretty bad, but a bit of time in the hospital, maybe some surgery and you're good to go.
However, the concequences of screwing up double and triple flips lands you on your NECK and you DIE.
All of the rules we love to hate on FIS for were created because skiers started to die everywhere. There were a bunch of deaths, and slowly mountains began plowing down their parks, water ramps were built and the water ramp qualification rules were brought in.
I'm not saying that going to doubles is bad, as yes progressing the sport is good. However, i saw a thread on here just today of a kid asking "How do I do a kangaroo flip?" and frankly if the wrong people try that trick they're going to die eventually.
Snowboarding never had this problem, because double flips never really got cool. Maybe once in a while you'd see it but overall smooth style is cooler than gnarly multiple flips.
Doubles and triples killed freestyle once... will it kill it again?
