snowfinderMoney, skiing needs money again. Sponsors don't pay athletes their worth any more, if they do its just a small % of athletes.
Yes money, and truthfully everything has changed. On the money side you have huge corporate sponsors dipping out of skiing/action sports in general (Ahmet had an UA contract, Dumont had a Target contract, even the big energy drink companies are definitely sponsoring less skiers). Even at the top levels in skiing, the ski/boot/outerwear/helmet sponsors don’t pay nearly what they used to. Probably more saturated with riders. Probably less comp and video viewership.
On the consumer side, that’s of course combined with dwindling attention spans which mean less consumption of full length ski films. But there has to be more to it than that.
At the resorts now, terrain parks do seem to being getting less emphasis. Of course we enjoy the fact that our discipline of skiing is pretty underground. But do you remember when resorts would host park shoots for film companies/brands like frequently? Even that seems like it’s a thing a past. Unless it’s Strictly, the Faction team, etc. I see content from a big park setup now like twice a year.
It makes me a bit sad. I’m probably just drawing too many comparisons to the time when I started getting into skiing and so I’d love to hear what younger people think about what the culture is now compared to what it once was.
