^ This is so not your party – its not mine either. Jodi found that it wasn’t hers either, and that’s ass, cause things like this should be ours, cause we are the ones that are out there skiing and making this sport the way it is, right?. The thing is though; we are the guys that live in the apartment downstairs from the party that gets to come along cause we live nearby. Don't think that for even a second that you or folks like you were in mind when this event was created.
The WSSF is here for one reason and for one reason only - to make money and that money is going to make your life better, but not for the party.
The WSSF and all of the festivals like it that are popping up like spores here and there this season are designed to drive business – business to the resort during the festival, to retail shops during the festival and to restaurants and hotels and all of that short term stuff. They are also designed – and this is there they may your life better – to attract mainstream folks and non-skiers into the sport. They are designed to get folks whom have never skied before to give it a try, to get folks whom have not skied for a decade to get out and try one of “them new shaped skis�, or to get someone who is using cruising skis now to go back and get some twin tips, mid fats, back country skis, and new clothes to be a part of the scene. They are designed to get folks at home who are reading magazines (yes, you out there in Kansas or Manitoba or wherever) to go out to your resort and give it a go.
What does that do? It puts money in the bank of resorts, retail shops, and ultimately manufacturers. Bastard companies – what do they want with our money? Well – things like capital improvements to get a new zaugg groomer, budget changes to have staffing increased to make a bigger or better park, R and D money to make better skis, boots or bit of bling do NOT happen when companies don’t have a fat bank account. Better resorts and better gear come around when the companies have dollars. Companies have dollars when they are in a growth phase of more people buying their product, people buy new product when they are excited about what is going on, when they feel a need to be a part of something, when they are stoked about a sport, and they get into things like that only when they find out they are going on – large scale events are a major – and very typical – way of bringing new participants into the fold.
I am with you on the angst though – I feel no love at all for this week. If I get asked to sample hair product while I am wearing a helmet or a beanie one more time, I am going to start swinging my poles at folks. Its fucking ASS that I can’t go for a drink where I want to for a week (of course that is the same as Christmas, Martin Luther King weekend, President’s Week, March Break and Easter to some degree…) This time though, its not only because the bars are full, but because I am not cool enough to go. Fuck that.
'The money's in the medicine, not the cure!' Harvey
