A Doomed Ski Industry?

i was there

WillKikernow find myself, a freshman in highschool

I smoke pot and appreciate style.

Sick.

WillKikerRecently, on a weekend trip to Whistler/Blackcomb I witnessed a small class of most likely 8-10 year olds throwing down some pretty stellar tricks in the park. At first I had the upmost respect for the little shredders, However later on, I saw the students talking to their instructors fairly aggressively, and when I put it all together, I realized that these kids, suited up with Helly Hansen and next years skis, were very wealthy, or atleast came from wealthy enough families. They had rude attitudes towards the people being paid thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars a year to make them good.
I grew up skiing occasionally with my family and now find myself, a freshman in highschool, finding a friend for a ride up to the mountain to work all day and freeski at night. I smoke pot and appreciate style over every other aspect of skiing. Watching edits from the beginning of park skiing til now. I’m convinced I’m making the right decision by playing into the ski industry this way. And after witnessing the same scenario with kids in Sun Peaks a month or two prior, I have come to the conclusion that money is playing into the ski industry like never before. Parents pay for their children to become good at throwing tricks and in this way I believe the ski industry will die. The appreciation for style and the ski bums that truly love the sport is deteriorating and eventually I belive that the concept of style, steez and individuality in skiing will die. I would like to offer up this discussion topic to maybe the greatest group discussion website on the internet. What do you all think? Will the ski industry fail to include the true ski lovers who have unknowingly been keeping the great sport alive?

Money being pumped into the sport is not going to lead to the downfall of the sport, but it's definitely changing the culture of freeskiing. There used to be more of a unified way of thinking throughout the community, and to be a part of the community you had to follow a distinct set of unwritten rules, or be too good for anyone to care. Now different people have different priorities, and there are multiple communities within the sport, which I don't think is the end of the world, and definitely not the end of the sport.

It's also interesting to see how as freestyle skiing has become a more legitimate sport in the eyes of the public, you get a migration of the wealthy, spoiled kids that would have been racers 10 years ago who are now getting formal training in the park from coaches. When you watch Like a Lion and see the struggle Tanner Hall went through to get his parents on board with his ski career, it's kind of sad to see kids with tons of money taking it for granted and getting all the resources without showing respect to the community, their coaches, etc.
That being said smoking weed as a freshman in HS doesn't make you more of a freestyle skier than anyone else, and the fact that you bring that up is kind of hilarious.

Good day young sir.

no u

WillKikerI smoke pot and appreciate style

Wow you smoke pot AND appreciate style?!

I know you think you’re unique OP but you’re just another dime a dozen “style skiers” creating another dime a dozen “lol fuck comp jocks” thread. The fact that you think style is dying out despite there being more different styles than ever before and a whole god damn “new wave”. Yeah some kids have more money than you, tough shit, but guess what? You can be a good skier without breaking bank.

OP 420 blazes, FUCKING LIT.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/901382/weed-is-tight--weed-is-tight

**This post was edited on Apr 17th 2018 at 2:24:52pm

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/901380/DOOOOOM----

WillKikerRecently, on a weekend trip to Whistler/Blackcomb I witnessed a small class of most likely 8-10 year olds throwing down some pretty stellar tricks in the park. At first I had the upmost respect for the little shredders, However later on, I saw the students talking to their instructors fairly aggressively, and when I put it all together, I realized that these kids, suited up with Helly Hansen and next years skis, were very wealthy, or atleast came from wealthy enough families. They had rude attitudes towards the people being paid thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars a year to make them good.
I grew up skiing occasionally with my family and now find myself, a freshman in highschool, finding a friend for a ride up to the mountain to work all day and freeski at night. I smoke pot and appreciate style over every other aspect of skiing. Watching edits from the beginning of park skiing til now. I’m convinced I’m making the right decision by playing into the ski industry this way. And after witnessing the same scenario with kids in Sun Peaks a month or two prior, I have come to the conclusion that money is playing into the ski industry like never before. Parents pay for their children to become good at throwing tricks and in this way I believe the ski industry will die. The appreciation for style and the ski bums that truly love the sport is deteriorating and eventually I belive that the concept of style, steez and individuality in skiing will die. I would like to offer up this discussion topic to maybe the greatest group discussion website on the internet. What do you all think? Will the ski industry fail to include the true ski lovers who have unknowingly been keeping the great sport alive?

Honestly no there will just be way more people in the dub club, like there will always be those skiers who just see stuff and make it their own i mean yeah sure rn the game is alot of the same shit but when magnus and the bumvh started their thing they were hailed as amazing and whatever because it was different that will never die there is something beyond pure ability that majes legends great

I would say a much bigger problem is that lift tickets for single days have gotten so out of hand. Skiing is more affordable than ever for serious skiers, season passes are cheaper than they used to be, but 95% of the skiing population skis fewer than 5 days a year, and the cost of a day ticket is now prohibitive for even upper middle class families. It may get to the point where the only people who can ski are those who are serious enough to buy a season pass or those that are very wealthy, and that is a problem. Powder did an article this fall where they said that the ski industry produced 6 million skis in 1990 and 1.8 million last year. Obviously a big chunk of that is due to snowboarding, but the industry is not really growing. When you have lift tickets at 150+ that is going to drive away lots of people. I started skiing casually with my parents when I was 9. Tickets were cheap and I never skied more than 25 days in a season until I got to college. Going to college was the first time I ever bought a season pass. Would my parents have gotten me into it if it was as pricey as it is now? Hard to say, but I think it will drive away lots of people. So while I love the fact that season passes are now so cheap I am concerned about the price of day passes. People starting out don't tend to purchase season passes, and with prices the way they are lots of people simply will never start. Skiing has always been pricey, but they are really pricing people out now. To get into it to the point where one can buy a season pass, at which point the per day rate is low, one has to first get into skiing. Unless someone has parents who love skiing and buy them season passes early that seems tough. My parents were both casual, intermediate skiers. I think lots of people like that won't ever introduce their kids to skiing with current one day ticket prices.

dan4060I would say a much bigger problem is that lift tickets for single days have gotten so out of hand. Skiing is more affordable than ever for serious skiers, season passes are cheaper than they used to be, but 95% of the skiing population skis fewer than 5 days a year, and the cost of a day ticket is now prohibitive for even upper middle class families. It may get to the point where the only people who can ski are those who are serious enough to buy a season pass or those that are very wealthy, and that is a problem. Powder did an article this fall where they said that the ski industry produced 6 million skis in 1990 and 1.8 million last year. Obviously a big chunk of that is due to snowboarding, but the industry is not really growing. When you have lift tickets at 150+ that is going to drive away lots of people. I started skiing casually with my parents when I was 9. Tickets were cheap and I never skied more than 25 days in a season until I got to college. Going to college was the first time I ever bought a season pass. Would my parents have gotten me into it if it was as pricey as it is now? Hard to say, but I think it will drive away lots of people. So while I love the fact that season passes are now so cheap I am concerned about the price of day passes. People starting out don't tend to purchase season passes, and with prices the way they are lots of people simply will never start. Skiing has always been pricey, but they are really pricing people out now. To get into it to the point where one can buy a season pass, at which point the per day rate is low, one has to first get into skiing. Unless someone has parents who love skiing and buy them season passes early that seems tough. My parents were both casual, intermediate skiers. I think lots of people like that won't ever introduce their kids to skiing with current one day ticket prices.

I one hundred percent agree

WillKikerRecently, on a weekend trip to Whistler/Blackcomb I witnessed a small class of most likely 8-10 year olds throwing down some pretty stellar tricks in the park. At first I had the upmost respect for the little shredders, However later on, I saw the students talking to their instructors fairly aggressively, and when I put it all together, I realized that these kids, suited up with Helly Hansen and next years skis, were very wealthy, or atleast came from wealthy enough families. They had rude attitudes towards the people being paid thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars a year to make them good.
I grew up skiing occasionally with my family and now find myself, a freshman in highschool, finding a friend for a ride up to the mountain to work all day and freeski at night. I smoke pot and appreciate style over every other aspect of skiing. Watching edits from the beginning of park skiing til now. I’m convinced I’m making the right decision by playing into the ski industry this way. And after witnessing the same scenario with kids in Sun Peaks a month or two prior, I have come to the conclusion that money is playing into the ski industry like never before. Parents pay for their children to become good at throwing tricks and in this way I believe the ski industry will die. The appreciation for style and the ski bums that truly love the sport is deteriorating and eventually I belive that the concept of style, steez and individuality in skiing will die. I would like to offer up this discussion topic to maybe the greatest group discussion website on the internet. What do you all think? Will the ski industry fail to include the true ski lovers who have unknowingly been keeping the great sport alive?

It's Whistler c'mon. The resort of the wealthiest one percent and you expect it to be a mecca for ski bums. It hasn't been like that since the 90s.

dan4060I would say a much bigger problem is that lift tickets for single days have gotten so out of hand. Skiing is more affordable than ever for serious skiers, season passes are cheaper than they used to be, but 95% of the skiing population skis fewer than 5 days a year, and the cost of a day ticket is now prohibitive for even upper middle class families. It may get to the point where the only people who can ski are those who are serious enough to buy a season pass or those that are very wealthy, and that is a problem. Powder did an article this fall where they said that the ski industry produced 6 million skis in 1990 and 1.8 million last year. Obviously a big chunk of that is due to snowboarding, but the industry is not really growing. When you have lift tickets at 150+ that is going to drive away lots of people. I started skiing casually with my parents when I was 9. Tickets were cheap and I never skied more than 25 days in a season until I got to college. Going to college was the first time I ever bought a season pass. Would my parents have gotten me into it if it was as pricey as it is now? Hard to say, but I think it will drive away lots of people. So while I love the fact that season passes are now so cheap I am concerned about the price of day passes. People starting out don't tend to purchase season passes, and with prices the way they are lots of people simply will never start. Skiing has always been pricey, but they are really pricing people out now. To get into it to the point where one can buy a season pass, at which point the per day rate is low, one has to first get into skiing. Unless someone has parents who love skiing and buy them season passes early that seems tough. My parents were both casual, intermediate skiers. I think lots of people like that won't ever introduce their kids to skiing with current one day ticket prices.

Damn, this hits hard and I agree. But i think that kind of issue is bigger than freeskiing and is a way bigger issue than the culture shift that OP is talking about. Personally i wanna teach my kids super young while passes are super cheap/free at the non-resort type of places, that way by the time they're older they will want to get the young adult or teen season passes.