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A question for park kids in the west

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Rip
Posts: 1158 - Karma: 3

I live in tahoe and I have skied many resorts in the western USA and canada and I have a question for park kids.  Why do you ride in the park so much?  I am from the east coast so I perfectly understand park rats on the east coast because I used to be one.  But since I moved out west I just cant believe the number of kids who are still in the park when there is so much more snow and good natural terrain available to ski.  I know there are a lot like me who would rather go ski the mountain when its good and in the park when its not, but there are just so many skiers and even more snowboarders who cannot comprehend the wide world outside the park.  Can someone please explain to me why you prefer park riding so much?

May 13 2008 9:30PM
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yellav
Posts: 10056 - Karma: 1,217
what a thought provoking post!!!! you know, this has never been discussed before ever someone give this man a pulitzer!
May 13 2008 9:34PM
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~Joe~
Posts: 2631 - Karma: 57
because its more fun to me....
May 13 2008 9:34PM
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Rip
Posts: 1158 - Karma: 3
but why is it more fun?  i just cant understand.  explain please.
May 13 2008 9:38PM
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GetPitted
Posts: 3443 - Karma: 2,299
You're basically asking "Why can't everyone agree with my opinion?"
May 13 2008 9:38PM
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vzdz
Posts: 782 - Karma: 87
because the west coast parks are insane

the mountain gets plenty ridden on pow days
May 13 2008 9:49PM
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HeathR
Posts: 4359 - Karma: 1,382
everybody loves different shit. The diversity is what makes skiing so great.
May 13 2008 9:49PM
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holyDINOSAURS
Posts: 7038 - Karma: 639
yeah..cause we all like the same stuff you do
May 13 2008 9:54PM
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SnowMedic
Posts: 2132 - Karma: 25
there are plenty of kids who dont ski park all the time in tahoe, you just dont see them because they are in the good spots.
May 13 2008 9:58PM
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*Nefarious*
Posts: 1072 - Karma: 4,208
to each his own, and i think i love park just as much as the next kid, but shit man, my pursuit in life is to ski as much natty terrain and powder as humanly possible. Nothing on this earth beats launching a backcountry booter into a foot or two of freshy pow pow. i feel lucky as hell to have grown up in the west and gotten the opportunities to ski the beautiful snow that i have...
May 13 2008 9:59PM
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ghosfacekilla
Posts: 533 - Karma: 72
I love pow and i live in CO and probly ski pow and park equally. I dont really think of myself as a park rat but if there isnt new snow and its slushy and the park is nice thats where ull find me. Also there are alot of"park kids" who ski at places like keystone and breck where there isnt really much to do outside of the park
May 13 2008 10:04PM
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ski_DC
Posts: 1347 - Karma: 58
well you are from the east coast, and alot of the kids out west have lived there all their lives. they have always had powder, and its not that they take it for granted. they want to get better at skiing, just like everyone who does ski, and if they choose to do so in the park, thats their choice. Living in the mid atlantic, i basically only ski park here, but when i go out west i ski the powder and bigger mountains.  western resorts also have better parks than their eastern counterparts, partly because they have so much more snow. so when i do go out west, i try and ski backcountry and steep,technical stuff as much as i can, but i also love skiing the better parks and get much better than when i ski back east at my local "mountains". I dont think i am "wasting" my time out west, im just taking advantage of it the way i see fit, just as im sure every skier out west, or anywhere, does as well.
May 13 2008 10:07PM
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jack_weisman
Posts: 2310 - Karma: 169
once a park rat, always a park rat.
May 13 2008 10:08PM
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jca
Posts: 4171 - Karma: 6,311
i only ski park when nothing else is good
May 13 2008 10:13PM
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Piste.Off
Posts: 11586 - Karma: 1,860
bc on pow days
park/ some bc stuff on normal days
May 13 2008 10:14PM
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SlickRick.
Posts: 4329 - Karma: 300
seriously. west coast kids just dont understand how good they have it. if you were to come to ohio, you would realize how lucky you really are. are mountains are 6 runs that are not seperated by glades, and our elevation is equicvalant to the top of a house preety much. park is all we got, and the parks are nohting compared to out there.
May 13 2008 10:42PM
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sirskizalot
Posts: 4370 - Karma: 161
"big mountain" skiing is fun but so is park, after skiing outside of park for a while, i think that the park is more fun
May 13 2008 10:45PM
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huge-go
Posts: 1451 - Karma: 33
Why do you care?  All though I sometimes think the same thing, I won't criticize someone for it.  Everyone has fun doing different things.  And besides, it just means more pow for me.
May 13 2008 10:47PM
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jKutcher
Posts: 3936 - Karma: 4,260
but at the same time the parks out west are generally better than those in the east.  so of course we are going to be skiing the ill parks that we have.  some people just enjoy the park more and some people enjoy the bc.  to each his own eh?
May 13 2008 11:01PM
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Coalescent
Posts: 4871 - Karma: 2,063
he isnt criticizing anyone...he is just asking a simple question..i have thought the same thing all the time.. when i think about going out west, i think about sking the trails and pow..not skiing the park..although i would ski park..i would much rather actually "ski" down trails and rip switch turns and stuff rather than ski park..i guess thats because im from pa
May 13 2008 11:04PM
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PBraunstein
Posts: 1448 - Karma: 3,804
not to mention when we have 100+ day seasons, and more than half of them are pow days, we can afford a few days in the park..
May 13 2008 11:06PM
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Avifarer
Posts: 5926 - Karma: 598
Maybe they want to get good at park so they can win comps and what not.
More pow for me so i dont really care
May 13 2008 11:06PM
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SHastatahoe
Posts: 3414 - Karma: 20
Believe it or not, skiing outside the park gets boring too.  Unless there was a storm, or an inclination to just  go somewhere else, staying in the park happens a lot.  There is a large social aspect of it as well.  Most of us ski at our home mountains that we know better than the back of our hands, so weve been there tons of times before.  But you do only see us when we are in the park, and assuming that kids are always in there is a big wrong.  Some kids also stay in the park all the time becasue they think it is cool.  As far as my friends go, we all ride in the park a lot, but if there is a storm nobody will be in there unless it is booting off of a jump, flipping and spinning as much as we can into the 5 feet of powder on the landing. 
May 13 2008 11:09PM
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jason...
Posts: 9006 - Karma: 780
unless its pow i will almost never be caught out of the park, its just boring otherwise unless you just jib the sides of runs which is fun
May 14 2008 12:01AM
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charmander
Posts: 10636 - Karma: 370
alot of kids on here cant actually do alpine skiing correctly because theyre too concerned with flippididoodas
May 14 2008 12:23AM
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landonn
Posts: 2913 - Karma: 385
well i just dont understand why you wouldn't wanna shred park instead bc. the park is almost always good and if there is to much snow to ski park, its closed anyways so i just go ski steep stuff on the days when its actually worth not being in the park.
May 14 2008 12:32AM
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Alex_G
Posts: 11902 - Karma: 1,019
I personally like the park better unlesse there is a fat storm because its just wayyyyy fun to me i dont know why its just the way I prefer life and by life i mean skiing.
May 14 2008 12:35AM
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the420skier
Posts: 569 - Karma: 11

Pow Pow all the way, pow is free, fluffy and perfect

May 14 2008 12:55AM
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levistewart
Posts: 3360 - Karma: 111
b/c i live in colorado
May 14 2008 12:58AM
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fsscott
Posts: 4684 - Karma: 114
The reason most of us do this, is because our home mountains aren't big at all, so the park is the best thing to ski.
Than when we go out to the mountains, we don't go outside of the park cause that's what we like to do.

It's not that we don't want to ski anything else, it's that we want to ski park.
May 14 2008 1:01AM
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dowalibeast
Posts: 3339 - Karma: 207
we go in the park when the snow is bad elsewhere. otherwise we're mobbing everything else.
May 14 2008 1:30AM
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~auddie~
Posts: 757 - Karma: 24
Because I cannot drive to the mountains on the weekdays, however I can drive 25 minutes to the nearest 22ft superpipe and sick park. Variety is good. All big mountain all the time is no fun, neither is all park all the time.
May 14 2008 1:32AM
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BEARS.
Posts: 5380 - Karma: 696
well, i have a three ski quiver, and mainly get creative on groomers and such. but the quiver is park skis, pow skis, all mountain skis. mainly i ride my punx because i enjoy buttering.
May 14 2008 1:46AM
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InfernoHits
Posts: 4755 - Karma: 192
lots of days are PARK DAYS. The snow is old and crusty, the snow is tracked, there isn't fresh pow, its super warm and the hot pow is slushy and not that fun to ski in. So we ski park. Rails are fun, jumps are fucking awesome, I dont see waht the problem is. If it snows 2 ft and you are in the park maybe you need to take a step back and think, but like otherwise I love aprk and think park is the best thing to ever happen to skiing
May 14 2008 1:48AM
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DangerToes
Posts: 1042 - Karma: 33
lets face it, being good at park looks way cooler than being really good at skiing. I can say I skied a 60 degree coular and beat my sluff to the bottom, or I can say I did a backflip today and people are like, wow you must be a twin tipper. Plus, all the kids in the park can be found jumping off bridges all summer long, its more of a natural transition for a winter sport.
May 14 2008 2:06AM
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Ryanvdonk
Posts: 12811 - Karma: 1,971
well i from washington and now live in colorado, so what you east coasters are stoked about in colorado, i could really care less and would rather hit rails than get core shots on snow that will be tracked out by 11.
May 14 2008 2:52AM
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St.Steezy
Posts: 4228 - Karma: 20
because we've grown up with all that terrain. Its nothing new to us. The park is just like any other run. If I want to go shred some lines then I will and if not then I'll session the park. The powder and dope terrain aren't going anywhere.

Basically, we just see powder and other terrain the same as the park. Doing the same big mountain line can get sorta boring just like the park..

And we can't forget that the PNW skiers are pickiest for conditions.. If it bluebird then fuck it! :D
May 14 2008 3:08AM
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ja.
Posts: 1705 - Karma: 144
powder sucks.
May 14 2008 10:17AM
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Freeskier83
Posts: 192 - Karma: 24
Because outside the park is where the monsters live!!!


For real though, my home mountian is pretty much a park from the top to the bottom.  So I dont have much choice. 
May 14 2008 10:57AM
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BEARS.
Posts: 5380 - Karma: 696
[sarcasm] who needs that shitty stuff anyway? [/sarcasm]
May 14 2008 12:53PM
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ECfreeski3
Posts: 12019 - Karma: 126
.
May 14 2008 1:09PM
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Literature
Posts: 13673 - Karma: 3,085
You should be happy we all apparently live in the park. Leaves more pow for everyone else.

Personally, the BC is my new favorite place to ski.
May 14 2008 1:26PM
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panojibber
Posts: 3382 - Karma: 216
I skied park alot for the last 2 years because it was the thing to do, and I enjoyed it, but next year I want to get out onto the mountain more, do more cliffs and lines, stuff like that. I think part of the reason is that I ski at Panorama, and it doesn't get the most snow, so you have to work for your turns, which I never really did until recently. In addition, I have a weird knee problem, which prevents me from doing anything that constantly stresses my kness, ie moguls or crud, and powder too after a few runs. In the park, I don't really have to do much work with my knees except landing, and if they're only taking some stress 7 or 8 times a run, I can do that all day. This knee problem isn't due to poor fitness, its something I have to grow out of, so there's not much I can do. All in all though, I agree, we should get out into the mountains more, its what the pros are doing now, and its more fun than it gets credit for. Watch Steep.
May 14 2008 1:29PM
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Squirrel_Murphy
Posts: 2195 - Karma: 1,165

It seems to me that there are more people that would rather NOT ski the park.  I see more people outside the park at Alpine Meadows and Squaw.  It's a different story at Flatstar since they don't have the steap and cliff terrain that some of the other resorts do.

It seems to be that people that wanna ski serious terrain go to places like Squaw, Kirkwood, or Alpine.  Although, Squaw's park is fuckin huge, it just takes them longer to get it up and running.  Yes Squaw is known for their huge jumps and jibs but I think they are more well known outside of the "jib scene" when it comes to their gnarly terrain.  I mean, just look at the Resort Issue of Freeskier.  The most famous lift is Kt-22,  any run you take off of that chair is steap terrain mixed with cliffs and tress.  Not jumps and jibs.

When I want to ride park early in the season, I go to Boreal or Northstar.  When the real snow comes I'll ride Alpine or Squaw for their terrain.  When the season slows down and all the parks are dialed in you really can't go wrong with any park in Tahoe.  Except maybe Homewood.

May 14 2008 2:16PM
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LineGhettoBlaster
Posts: 774 - Karma: 11
snows not always perfect you gotta ride park west coasters dont wont to ride chopped up pow or shitty snow like eastcoasers do on vacation becase its the best there going to get all year while for kids on the west that the worst so park it is
May 14 2008 2:30PM
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danbrown
Posts: 11939 - Karma: 21,826
Who the fuck thinks fat girls are fun? I don't understand the logic in this at all. And if your comparison did make any sense, some people's "hot girl" is park skiing. Just because you think fresh powder is the "hot girl" doesn't mean everyone should have to think she's so beautiful. To others, a fresh cut pipe and hundreds of rails and booters is more appealing than three feet of fresh snow. This isn't necessarily my opinion, but like most people in this thread have said, to each his own.
May 14 2008 3:11PM
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Billy_B
Posts: 1019 - Karma: 185
i live on the east coast in new york. and i think skiing pow is way more than skiing park. buy maybe the west kids have so many pow days that they want to take a break from riding pow. maybe if people that dont ride powder a lot (like me) want to get in it before it all melts.
May 14 2008 3:33PM
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t-rent
Posts: 3038 - Karma: 63
im from pa near harrisburg and when ever i go to different mountains in like vermont or when i went to canada all that i wanted to do is ski the mountain (and obviously hit up the park) but when your out there its just mind blowing because of the skiing that is out there. but when im at my home mountain all that i do is the same run all day long going through the parks. but what im getting at is some people dont appreciate things in life, also they have probally skied most of the mountain so they just do park
May 14 2008 3:37PM
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Squirrel_Murphy
Posts: 2195 - Karma: 1,165
there's something wrong with people that will take park over 3 feet of pow.  I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking this.
May 14 2008 4:59PM
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dowalibeast
Posts: 3339 - Karma: 207
Definitely not the case.  During my Christmas break here in Montana it snowed pretty much every day and I skied powder pretty much every day.  The only time we went in the park was when it was skied out at the end of the day or if it was bad snow. 
May 14 2008 5:04PM
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inactive
Posts: 4772 - Karma: 97
why would you ask for other people to agree with you. It is more pow for you.
May 14 2008 5:08PM
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