alright, so I was on (in?) the thread that's active right now talking about Reasons, and it turned into a thread about this years movies. Which were good, which were bed, and why... People started asking why people have a hate on for Claim (and those people were answered). But as far as the reasons as to why people hated Claim, I didn't quite agree with.
Right now in the skiing world there are so many different types of skiing you can become professional for. Racing, Park, Big Mountain, etc... If you happen to become pro in one venue of our sport it seams as though (by the followers) that person is stuck in that venue. I have always strongly agreed with Nicolas Muller's philosophy towards the sport as a pro. What is expected from a pro? Is it to land the next new hard trick (if so, what is that trick?), is it to put a certain grab into your tricks (if so, what grab?), is it to ride a certain type of terrain in a certain way (if so, what terrain, and how?). As soon as you become a pro skier you then start to become judged by the masses for every little move and turn you make on your skis. If you're a rail skier who just wants to ski the pow all the time without loosing your sponsorships, how can you go abouts doing such a thing?
Let's look at Claim. I believe someone in the other thread (the one I mentioned earlier) said they didn't like Claim because, although it had some very strong skiers who can rip any mountain thrown in front of them, they found the movie to be monotonous and boring, other than the odd park jump segment thrown in to switch things up. Well, I hate to break it to you, but MSP films big mountain videos, so it's content will be almost all big mountain. Now, what would MSP have to do in order to make itself more appealing to someone who finds a whole movie of big mountain skiing boring? Change their thinking and start making jib flicks, even though the people that make the movie (and the skiers featured in it) have the biggest passion for big mountain? That seams like it's against the mentality of freeskiing... If you aren't a fan of big mountain skiing, why would you expect to like a big mountain video? Instead of wanting MSP to change their ways so they can make a video that you will like, perhaps you should think about what you like, and buy a video based on that.
With the freedom we have with this sport, there will be people with different mentalities for as long as we remain free. Now, while I could just go to the other thread and bitch and complain about how rail heavy videos are repetitive and boring, I won't go that route because I do enjoy rails, and although watching a video on the internet of some dudes hitting the same park rail for 3 min seams extremely repetitive and unnecessary, I won't. Although I may find that there are more fun things to do, and watch, on skis than spending the day hitting the same rail, it's the fact that there are people that do that make this sport so good. I think it's important for us to remember that freeskiing is free, and that goes all the way up to the pros and the media.
A movie like Claim is the representation of that collection of people doing what they find is the most fun thing they could have done on skis for that year. That's the bottom line, and there's no way you can argue that. There is no one better way to ski, there is only skiing.
