Some of the comments about the new Candide video made me realize something. A bunch of people seem to think that butters aren't important. This made me realize something a little deeper than that though, it got me thinking that people seem to only respect those who do crazy stunts and perform them cleanly on a massive scale. One comment was bashing "Newschooler's favorite athletes" and basically I felt a bit aggravated. Here's why.
This new style of swerving around and buttering everything has already been established as the predominant style of freeskiings "underground" communities, and pages like drink butter, the bunch, and a handful of other people brought that style to the limelight. Now people like Bmack, Magnus, Hackel, etc. have pretty big followings off this style. As much as it pains me to say this, I think that's realy, REALLY, important.
Why? Because it's the most accessible style. To ski like candide and eder, you need access to huge mountains, big crews to set up jumps, helicopters and snowmobiles for transportation, huge film crews, and lots of time. To ski like Magnus, you need a park bench and an iphone.
I've never liked that style, but I've never hated on it, and it's because those weird tech maneuvers are essential for helping kids break out and make it. If you live in North Carolina, you will never be able to make it if the only way to get famous and showcase your skiing to the world is by flying to the top of the Alps and sending a fat kangaroo flip off an 80 foot windlip. If that style was all that existed, we would be actively destroying the dreams of many talented individuals.
Skiing isn't just done on huge mountains that require a helicopter ride to descend. Skiing is done on skis. And all of these midwest and small mountain skiers need to have an equal chance at blowing up. The best way to do it I guess is to just keep validating that what they do is sick and keep bumping them higher and higher. Candide doesn't need to butter because he is not only one of the greatest athletes of all time, but also because he has the resources not to. Some random kid from a tow rope park where the biggest jump is 20 feet needs to be MUCH more creative. And fortunately, that creative small feature technical style is what's in right now. And I think that's the direction I want skiing to go.
For me, I ski in Vermont. I've never skied anything deeper than 6 inches, I've never actually ever touched "The backcountry". I wasn't able to blow up because I'm not talented. However, a friend I used to ski with at Mount Snow, Garrett Whaley, has actually broken out and is now a pretty respected skier. It's because the Newschoolers community as well as other communities were able to appreciate "working with nothing and making something". His crew Child Labor isn't known for going big and getting pitted in the deep snow of Japan, they're known for doing dangerous shit wherever they can, and working with what they got, while having a cool and unique vision for what kind of tricks they do and spots they hit.
I'm glad Newschoolers is on the same page, but don't say butters aren't important. Don't say mini spot tech isn't important. Don't say rail skiing isn't important. IMO all of these things are probably the most important features of skiing, because unlike big mountain skiing, we ALL can jib side hits, we all can hit rails, and we all can do some flat ground carves, butters, and other tech wizardry.
TL;DR keep bumping those homies with weird style hitting small features and getting famous for it because that's the only type of skiing EVERY SKIER has access to. Bring up those rope tow homies because it opens the door for skiers who previously never had a chance....
**This thread was edited on Nov 14th 2021 at 5:29:52pm
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