swagburgtbh I don't think it is the fault of the individual judges. I know a handful of the guys who have been in the judging booth over the years at these big events and I would vouch that they are as knowledgeable of skiing as you can find (they are all either former pro skiers or people who rode at the level of a pro skier and were part of the industry in whatever capacity). So I don't think the issue is the judges themselves.
This may sound weird but I think comps should be judged in a similar way to a ballet/ice skating contest. Technique and style have to be considered much more heavily in the future or else we might as well just start calling it wonky aerials with rails inbetween. I know style is 'subjective' but bad style needs to be treated in the same regard as bad technique, I don't think that is a crazy idea. Like how can you not look at how effortless ferdi and Colby flow through the rail section and not understand that the technique they have is simply harder to possess. You can train your style the same way you train dubs and rail tricks. Some of these guys have rail runs with lots of hard tricks but theres 50+ guys who could replicate it, but you aren't going to find anyone who can replicate Ferdi's rail run because his "style/technique" is so unique (not to mention insane trick selection). Just frustrating that they're isn't way to identify this in judging because "style is subjective".
Never really thought about potentially judging like Ice Skating, but that format probably makes the most sense when it comes to scoring style. I think there is a lot you could judge within style. How people set, flow between features, how forced something looks vs not forced, uniqueness, etc etc.
I think triple grabs are rad, but I still enjoy watching ahall lock in a buick grab more than someone flailing in the air to get three separate grabs. For me it comes down to "Does it look just as sick without super slowmo?" There is a lot of stuff that you can't really appreciate until you see it in slowmo and I don't like that thats how it works. If I'm watching the boys in the park or in the street I'm not gonna be able to immediately see it in slowmo, thats not what skiing is about.
Idk, but the ice skating judging style could be interesting.
