casualYeah.....for sure. Making jump turns on 210's is way cooler than smearing a 40 mph pow turn on fat skis....
Skiing was "lame" because it was overly beholden to tradition, slow to except change and evolution, anti-creativity and progression, and on and on. Skiing on the simplest terms and in the purest sense has never been, and could never be, "lame", but there's no doubt that skiing is much better nowadays.
I think you're both right. There's no such thing as "skiing." There are skiers, there are ski manufacturers, there are ski magazines, there are regulatory bodies, etc., but there is no unitary thing called "skiing." And once you break it down that way, it's true that the industry, regulatory bodies, etc. were stuck in a rut and happy to stay there, but I would argue that being a skier was better in the 90s. The scene in most parks today is like a high school quad. It wasn't like that on the mountain in the 90s. Also, skiers appreciated every little natural feature on a mountain. Now people go straight to the manmade features in the park and never learn how to make a decent turn. And everyone wants the experience of being a pro skier, rather than the experience of skiing. Look at the sequence on the home page. Some dude rolling hard in his hoodie throwing a tiny 360. There was nothing like that in the 90s. Skiing was 99% less self-conscious.
