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DeebieSkeebiesditto on progression parks assuming your hill/mountain is capable of handling it and has a budget and management willing to fork over money for that budget. Definitely a huge demand for park riding right now but its just getting resorts to see eye to eye on that topic. How is a park gonna improve their bottom lines and stuff ya know
elliotfitzgeraldObviously different mountains have different parks, but what do you think is something that a lot of places are lacking in? What would make you happier?
kim_jong_illI think most resorts could improve the creativity in their parks, don't just do a cookie cutter rail garden
Tcraig13I ski Granite Peak and the last couple years our park has been getting worse. I feel shitty complaining about it because it is better than most places but it could be wayyyyyyy better. Around 10 years ago we were voted one of the best parks in the Midwest by transworld snowboarding so I know we have the potential. I think our main problem is our park crew is lazy as shit. We have so many sick features sitting at the bottom of the hill that never get put in. It’s halfway through February and we still don’t have nearly a full park. And the shit that they put in stays in because they are way too lazy to change anything up. A run with 3 jumps on it that is usually open by Christmas is sitting there with huge ass mounds of snow waiting to be pushed into a jump but they are too lazy to hop in one of our brand new cats and do anything. We have plenty of snow, features, and staff and we could have one hell of a park if they would get off their asses.
DominatorJacquesMore than likely, it's not lazy folks, it $$$$$$$ to do the work.
theabortionatorIt depends a lot on the size of the mountain and the people riding. If we're going most mountains then that's probably the sub 30 rail and a few jump type joints.
Making sure things are setup right goes well for anything. Nothing makes you want to ride a park more than a clean setup. Nothing makes you want to get the fuck away more than a janky setup, wonky takeoff, gansta leaning box, death cookies, etc. Making sure the staples are there and set up well. flat and down boxes/rails aren't the most interesting or creative, but they get the most traffic. People hiking them or trying new tricks going through the line. People might say they want a left right up down loop de loop rail, but most people ride the flat and down features. If it's not getting hit it isn't worth it, especially if you only have a few features. Same goes for combo features. I love combos and plaza make me wet, but if you have 6 rails in your whole park, having 4 tied up in one challenge feature that nobody rides is kind of pointless. Even if it looks cool, if you're short on features and nobody is hitting it, might be time for a redraw.
As mentioned progression. If you have a few flat boxes different sizes, set them up in the park so the smaller ones are lower and mellow, and maybe grow the deck a bit, but make them similar riding so that it's a smooth progression. The box is 4" higher and 4' longer but the take off rides the same, so you can easily move up from one to the next. Same with down rails. Same with jumps. Jump styles change a bit from the progression jumps as they get into the actual proper jumps, but make a clear line of progression. You don't want people to get bored on the 8' progression table and then have to say "Fuck it I guess I'll send it" to the 45' step down that's the next size up. That just doesn't work. It kills peoples momentum progressing and leads to injuries. Keeping things uniform around the hill is helpful too. Similar jump angles and rail take off styles.
I think a lot of places just don't know what the hell they're doing. You can tell a good park when you ride one, but a lot of people can't seem to replicate that. A lot of small mountains are built by well meaning but clueless people. They don't ride it so sticking a rail or two in the ground and pushing up a snowbank = a park. Also why you see some ridiculous angles on rails. Like 40 degree kinks on stuff or just weird dimensions in general. It looks like a dfd rail, it kind of is a dfd rail, but it's a piece of shit and won't ride well.
Finding people who ride the features but even more so are actually down to work. I think a lot of places struggle with that. People half ass a rail to get it done and say it's good enough, or good enough for now. Once it's in the chances of them ever fixing it are usually slim. It usually just stays fucked. Taking the time to set things right the first time. If it's pointing toward the trees instead of the next feature reset it quick. If it's leaning fix it. Build a decent take off for it. Then when she sets up it'll be good to go.
Realistically the small mountains everywhere could have massively better parks without really investing any additional resources. Rails are cheap af to build. Small parks son't take a ton of time to maintenance, and drop the liability by a ton.
Seeing weird rounded takeoffs that look like shit has been frown on for 15+ years. Idk what some places are doing. Sure the cat time, crew size, and feature budget makes a big impact, but most places have some features. It's really not that hard , or shouldn't be that hard to set them up decently. Somehow a ton of mountains still flop completely or run massively under their potential.
On the plus parks used to suck a lot worse at most mountains. Things have gotten more standardized and generally decent. The internet connecting people to different parks. Maybe somebody works in MA, but they can see a park in CO and get ideas. Print off some pictures to show the owners or cat ops of what a jump should look like. That helps a lot but some people don't have time, or simply don't give a fuck.
As far as making me happy. Seeing small mountains with clean/crisp looking parks. Well spaced out features set up correctly, and errbody having a killer time riding them.
MaimHelpTussey Mountain in PA needs to take notes. You stairs after or in front of every feature and random corrugated tubes everywhere are not very pleasing to ride. You have tons of nice rails. Build decent take offs to get onto them and set them up as down and flat rails. Only the park crew manager can hit anything there and it leads to the younger kids not progressing at all
Staticmore stuff in a row, not connected to form a franken rail, just line up every feature they own top to bottom
Tcraig13I think a ton of rails put together is sick even if a few people hit it. It is nice to have separate rails in but I don’t want to just hit flat tubes and down rails.
snowfinderskate pool park style needs to be the future.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/955091/B-E-INVITATIONAL-2015-6MIN-HIGHLIGHTS
TOAST.Fuck that shit, maintaining it is impossible unless your groomer is a god. Those types of things are usually good for like 3 days and then they're fucked.
SnickleFrizLanding maintenance. Smaller park crews and smaller hills tend to focus on the lips and let the landings go to shit.
extravertRopetows next to rails. 7 springs is the only place I've seen with this and its so much more fun than skiing all the way down and waiting in base lines
FinitoBy stopping global warning. My home mountain is barely open this season because there is nearly no snow. It is also not cold enough for snow cannons.
Dan-ManSTEEPER LANDINGS.
elliotfitzgeraldCity hills have mini parks with rope tows, at least west canadian cities do. Usually two or three lines composed of one or two rails and a jump, and if you're just looping you can get 30+ lines an hour. Not great for big tricks, but super convenient for technical tricks.
Edit: yes I totally agree, mountains could do with parks like these, just bigger.
**This post was edited on Mar 3rd 2020 at 3:40:35pm
