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The future of skiing

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RyCo19
Posts: 365 - Karma: 503
So somewhat in response to the ridiculous number of updates from summer ski camps on the NS homepage, I've been thinking about where skiing is going. To me, it seemed like it used to be a sport that people would do just in the winter, then move onto other things in the summer... but now, it has evolved into a sport where practically any 15-year-old who is serious about progressing not only owns a trampoline and a summer setup of some kind, but spends HOURS on them. On top of that, the attendances at the summer snow camps out in the PNW show, if anything, that people are able/willing to go to those as well.

If that sounded like a rant, its not, because it really got me thinking about the future of skiing. We are already the fastest growing sport in the world (cite: Schmuck's article on sessions x scullcandy), but it really seems like skiiers are more dedicated to practicing the necessary skills to really progress quickly.

Take, for example, lacrosse. You can condition/lift/train all you want, but you aren't going to be any better of a LACROSSE player unless you get out on a field and shoot the ball, practice dekes, etc. You'll just be a better athlete in general. With skiing, I'm not going to make a claim if people are by and large lifting/conditioning or not (I'm sure pros do), but the amount of time spent perfecting skills is just raising the bar so much faster than in any other sport.

Example:
-True doubles only were really take up by a few pros a number of years back, but now nearly every pro skiier has at least one dub in their bag (yes there are exceptions). To try and compare this to any other sport -- or even any other action sport -- just doesn't find any comparison to be made. It's not like every pro in basketball is now suddenly going triple-double in every game.

I dunno, I was just reading one of the summer skiing news articles on the NS homepage and just got to thinking: with the ridiculously high level of skiing already, compounded with the rate it's advancing, where will we end up? Are quads really in the future? Because if the past repeats itself, most pros will have triples down in the next few years. Not to mention style -- think about watching winter X even 4 or 5 years ago (I'm thinking 2006 specifically). Grabbing mute for a left 10 on the money booter at the bottom was the go-to trick, iirc. Now, if you don't have some kind of unique grabs with immaculate style in your run/even in your video segment, it isn't really up to "average". THEN think about outliers like Casabon or Wallish who seem to have perfected "style", and my mind blows up. Thoughts?


Anyway, I'm stoked. Skiing is going places, and its happening at a visible pace. /rant
Aug 2 2010 11:21AM
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Oreos
Posts: 1207 - Karma: 38
an average poorly constructed rant which doesn't take into account the age of freestyle skiing, the lessons of progression that can be learnt from older sports or the innate difference between adrenaline sports and "regular" sports.

nonetheless stoke for the coming season.
Aug 2 2010 12:03PM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
i just don't understand why some people think that "park skiing" is any different than any other aspect of this sport we call skiing.

skiing in the summer has been very much a part of skiing at all skill levels, in all aspects for a very long time. There have been training camps for the Canadian racing team set up on various glaciers around BC (Jumbo, Bugaboo's, Whistler, possibly more) for a very long time. mogul skiers have been using Whistler as their summer training ground before skiers even thought about grabbing or going switch.

And as for your comment about "true doubles blah blah blah", well I'm sorry, but even though it IS different than what the ariels skiers are doing as far as STYLE goes, you can't say that park skiers are really doing anything new. Same shit, different pile - that's all.

I'd say the only thing that is truly new about this "new" movement in skiing is, well, this - the internet, and Newschoolers.com specifically. This is the future of skiing.
Aug 2 2010 1:40PM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
how is park skiing NOT a judged sport? and what does Shaun White have anything to do with it?
Aug 2 2010 1:42PM
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T.Hartman
Posts: 277 - Karma: 53
Why can't we all appreciate what's being thrown down now? People are always too worried about where the future is going. Skiing will progress. And it will still be "steezy" or whatever adjective you want to describe our sport.
Aug 2 2010 1:49PM
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Tonetti.
Posts: 733 - Karma: 1,311
i just dont see summer setups and summer skiing as "training"... i see it as a way to do something you love even if there is no snow on the ground to ski on
Aug 2 2010 2:12PM
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Chubz.
Posts: 13918 - Karma: 25,661
or to like practice a trick you couldnt get down in the winter. I think summer set ups are just for fun you shouldnt use it for training? unless your a pro?
Aug 2 2010 2:54PM
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Blake.P
Posts: 9894 - Karma: 3,585
I see things like summer set ups and ski camps as ways to continue doing a sport we love once the ski season is over. Kids spend hours out there because they just love to ski, and in that time, they inadvertably become better skiers. They will keep trying better tricks because they have mastered the tricks they already know, and want to progress themselves
Aug 2 2010 3:25PM
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.peter
Posts: 1222 - Karma: 63
dot worry double-flip mania will be over in a couple years... it just happens that way... if you want to see the future just look at snowboarding and skateboarding and add in a little bit of rollerblading's goofiness and you'll get the picture. Personally I'd like to see more people look away from the goofiness of the past (the 90's) because nobody is going to want to see that as the community expands and doesn't get every single inside joke that all skiers understand today. There's always room for that but we can't all be Chuggs... I hope the future is much more diverse and can include new creative tallent as well as old pros in an environment that benefits everyone and makes skiing something that people are awed by (like skateboarding and snowboarding and surfing) if average people aren't impressed or at least interested in what we're doing, then we're not doing it well enough. I hope that the NS community will mature as the 15 year old internet thugz age and hopefully growup a little bit, and become a positive and encouraging place for new ideas about skiing; rather than a fashion/style hate blog. I hope that people will realize that they all can't be as technical as Tom Wallisch, as goofy as TC or as gnarly as the guys in the X-games and begin to crate things that represent themselves because if it's copied and not better than the original it looks forced and that's just awkward... so be yourself and make skiing more diverse so that it doesn't die out like our bastard cousin rollerblading.
Aug 2 2010 3:54PM
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Keith_M
Posts: 795 - Karma: 771
Agree. Lets just enjoy the sport. It will go where it goes, we don't need to stress and argue over it.
Aug 2 2010 4:21PM
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Emma_Watson
Posts: 4491 - Karma: 6,796
agreed.
Aug 2 2010 4:47PM
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RyCo19
Posts: 365 - Karma: 503
I totally agree, I didn't mean to stress or argue about it at all -- I was just saying park skiing is taking off and appears to be progressing ridiculously fast. Bottom line: I don't care where it goes, I'm just excited to see it... go.


Aug 2 2010 5:05PM
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