Replying to When did everyone get so serious?

OK... I've been looking through some of this seething hate against the B-Devine videos, and some of the stuff that the FD wear guys have done.

It also brings my mind back to when Tanner Hall jumped off the balcony at IF3 so many years ago... and the thread on here was "Tanner Hall is a classless idiot".

I've seen this happen many times over on Newschoolers... and I'll totally admit I'm super fucking confused.

When did the youth movement in skiing become so strict and conservative?

I mean shit... when I was younger this whole action sports movement was about doing crazy shit. Breaking rules, being a punk... bringing down the establishment. I know that my friends and I partied a whole shitload when we were skiing. That was a huge part of it. We'd rip hard on the hill during the day, then party hard at night.

It was this youthful energy that made it exciting. There's lots of drug tests, serious competition and training to win that has been in our sport forever. I'm sure the US race team doesn't jump cars in NZ on the way home from training camp.

The problem for me, is that is what was boring about the way things used to be. It was all no fun and just be serious and train all the time. I quit racing to get away from that so many years ago.

Now here I am, actually a parent now (I have a kid now for anyone that doesn't know) and for some fucked up reason I now more than ever like watching the crazy stuff that these guys do. I mean, I was always a smart enough kid to know that I shouldn't do things that were illegal, and I had a low tolerance for punk behavior... but that didn't stop me from enjoying the old Whiskey videos in skateboarding.

Most other action sports have their punks who do reckless shit... and people love it. Hell look at shit like Jackass and Nitro circus... people love it.

I'm completely confused why us as skiers, free spirited and seeping with teenage energy... all of a sudden are criticizing some of our pros for being wild and having a good time.

So lets hear it - why so serious?