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February, 2025

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What period is the prime to you in action sports or just skiing?

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theabortionator
Posts: 52303 - Karma: 170,427
I feel in the late 90s early 2ks things were blowing up but still felt new. There was money being thrown into sports, everything felt new and cool. Lots of core shops. Even Xgames felt more raw. They would ask some wild questions in the interviews and stuff. Idk, it obviously got more PG which is understandable.

That said I was a kid so was it just magical because I was in that age range at the time?

What's the best era to you? Curious if it's more based on that time when you were a kid getting into the sports, or if there's a consensus to some extent of a peak period for action sports.
3 years ago
19 3
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r00kie
Posts: 5238 - Karma: 59,590
From a numbers perspective the early 2000s was the peak. X games was a massive television event, dew tour was actually a tour, Tony Hawk, etc. Just a weird cultural time where everyone was into watching 'extreme' adrenalin fueled activities. Early 2000s was also when american motorsports peaked riding the same wave. Must of been some wierd combination of everyone getting hooked on Nirvana and then 9/11 happening.
3 years ago
10 1
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Jems
Posts: 7630 - Karma: 99,409
i’d love to pull up to 2010 hyland with my jets and a ridiculous outfit just to see how they’d think of this future style that dominates the hill
3 years ago
25 8
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Lippamani
Posts: 1435 - Karma: 15,125
I was born in 05 so idk and I've only been skiing for 2 years but that first year at wild mountain was pretty magical

I guess my uncle was a pretty hot snowboarder back in the day so he was going to try and work there to get a cheap pass for his family and he told me to go work with him as a Jr ski instructor so I did.

Went to troll the last hour of the ski swap got some fisher rc4s and atomic boots then showed up the last hour of the last day of training on my first pair of skis and they were teaching us how to teach 4through6 year Olds how to ski which just thought me how.

Got the job and hiked to a lift because I couldn't skate asked the lifty to show me how and I was off on my life's greatest adventure.
3 years ago
7 1
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BrownSnow
Posts: 125 - Karma: 548
Now is the peak, not numbers wise but guys are throwing tricks both on rail and in air that people would think impossible back in the 90s / 20s. People talk about "the glory days" or whatever but it's just nostalgia talking, they can't see the forest because of the trees.
3 years ago
7 14
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Lippamani
Posts: 1435 - Karma: 15,125
Instantly fell in love with bombing blue squares. but one day at wild I was on chair one and was watching people on front stage hit rails and I said to myself dude that looks awesome (all my friends went to troll). So I went over there watched some borders for a while then just sent it.

My 7lbs a piece back mounted razor sharp parabolic skis with old boots that I didn't have tight did not love that idea. BUT THE SNOWBORDERS DID LOL. They just kept hyping me up and had me send after send my knees hurt so bad I wrote a song about them that I still have in my drawer.

Then I went to troll for homeschool days and @cletus or yea_boy was impressed that I nose buttered on jumping Judy almost as much as his edgless bdogs and said "dude you need some skis" so on sunday he brought me Patty's old poachers and that was the start of the best thing on planet earth. JUMPS.
3 years ago
5 0
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BingPow
Posts: 576 - Karma: 5,663
2006-2014, watch the movies coming out then and the lineups were insane, style had a lot of importance, while the progression was insane
3 years ago
14 0
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SkierPT
Posts: 2209 - Karma: 4,908
Early 2000s. Big paydays for the main event comps. More recent jams. More full video releases. Rainbow outerwear. J-Crown Jiberish. Crowbars. Those were the days.
3 years ago
2 0
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fredyferl
Posts: 2952 - Karma: 14,926
For skiing to me it would 2008-2012. I had been skiing park since 2004, and remember being in high school around 2008 and suddenly people would talk about freeskiing, watching videos of Tom Wallisch on computers in class, and I didn't really understand at first as I had been skiing park for a while. I'm from the suburbs of Montreal, and before that era and after that, nobody has really cared for park skiing. People at my school would wear Axis boardshop hoodies, which is a shop 45min north of Montreal. People were into skiing, not even snowboarding really, and since then in Montreal there hasn't been much park skiers that are from here that I know of.

For action sports for sure early 2000s. I remember walking into my local skateshop for the first time and it was packed, and it was right in the peak of THPS, in an area where people don't really skate. Even though I was really young, it was sick to have experienced that era of skateboarding. Playing THPS, watching skate videos on vhs/dvd and then skating in my street, and being mind blown every time I went to a new skatepark was a special time.
3 years ago
10 0
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Farmville420
Posts: 5042 - Karma: 65,332
For me 2010s, but culturally the late 90s early 2000s. Not really arguable in that front. But to me skiing peaked when it was both established, and the dominant form of media was movies. I think that’s kind of why Level 1s superunknown isn’t as big of a deal as it was, because now you can get famous and paid without ever winning a comp or making a video part. The reason video parts are the main thing I care about it is because it feels like the most complete way to encapsulate your year and gauge how good or bad of a year skiers had. Like if u watch the old B&E movies you’ll see henrik and Phil competing in X games, Throwing down in the park and BC, and also dropping gnarly street parts year after year, so it was really easy to be like “these dudes are dominating, look how much shit they did this year”. As time went on we kind of realized everyone is both insane at skiing and active, and putting in the work. filming and editing proper segments or movies isn’t the forefront of the sport, and instead the social media era has kind of allowed anyone to blow up without ever giving something back to the community.


I think we are straying from being presented someone’s skiing to just watching people skiing, and it’s like a weird non-issue but to me that just isnt “peak” ya know
3 years ago
2 0
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theabortionator
Posts: 52303 - Karma: 170,427
BrownSnowNow is the peak, not numbers wise but guys are throwing tricks both on rail and in air that people would think impossible back in the 90s / 20s. People talk about "the glory days" or whatever but it's just nostalgia talking, they can't see the forest because of the trees.


I think people are well aware of the tricks that are going down.

I was talking more about the culture in general. There was a point where everyone was watching xgames etc whether you ever did those activities. A music scene around it. The gravity games, b3 etc. Eventually dew tour in the early 2k. More physical shops everywhere. Full length movies that everyone saw. Big money for teams and contest wins.

So yeah, people can do quad corks and everyone can spin off or rails, that's how progression works, but that's not what we're talking about.
3 years ago
4 3
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jakeordie
Posts: 664 - Karma: 3,277
theabortionatorI was talking more about the culture in general. There was a point where everyone was watching xgames etc whether you ever did those activities. A music scene around it. The gravity games, b3 etc. Eventually dew tour in the early 2k. More physical shops everywhere. Full length movies that everyone saw. Big money for teams and contest wins.

If you need all that shit for skiing to be prime or golden or whatever, then yeah no wonder.
3 years ago
0 1
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BrownSnow
Posts: 125 - Karma: 548
theabortionatorI think people are well aware of the tricks that are going down.

I was talking more about the culture in general. There was a point where everyone was watching xgames etc whether you ever did those activities. A music scene around it. The gravity games, b3 etc. Eventually dew tour in the early 2k. More physical shops everywhere. Full length movies that everyone saw. Big money for teams and contest wins.

So yeah, people can do quad corks and everyone can spin off or rails, that's how progression works, but that's not what we're talking about.


Sure it's not all about the tricks going down or the complexity of things, but you asked peoples opinion on the forum, I still watch all the dew tour, X games etc, just because some people forgot or lost interested at some point doesn't mean that has to get me down, I'm a live in the now kind of guy and am still enjoying the skiing culture as a whole, that's just my opinion, although clearly a very unpopular one xD
3 years ago
0 1
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25444 - Karma: 13,855
Freeskiing before double corks/flips.
3 years ago
4 1
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IsaacNW82
Posts: 771 - Karma: 6,739
I think in general for extreme sports, you're pretty bang on for the late 90's/early 00's carrying tons of public hype. A great example is 2002's xXx movie cashing out on the extreme sports image in the mainstream.

For sports individually I think prime periods follow technological advancement: usually a few years after the gear gets really good and widely available it blows up in popularity. Some examples include:
-F1 and rally in the 80's when we got really good at turbocharging engines, and things got very fast
-mid 2000's for park skiing, twin tips were good and ubiquitous
-2015ish-now for mtb (especially enduro and trail), you literally cannot compare a 2018+ bike with a 2008 bike. combine this with the explosion of flow trails and new bike parks
-2010's for kiteboarding: kites became advanced, but not many people were on foils yet
3 years ago
3 0
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Schoess
Posts: 2126 - Karma: 25,422
The late 90's was pretty pure. Everyone is basically just saying "the era I grew up" but the 90's at the genesys was an era of complete discovery and creation. Nothing existed until it was done at that time (like new tricks for example). Everyone only skied because they absolutely loved it. Homies nowadays be out here playin an image or some bullshit
3 years ago
8 1
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r00kie
Posts: 5238 - Karma: 59,590
BrownSnowNow is the peak, not numbers wise but guys are throwing tricks both on rail and in air that people would think impossible back in the 90s / 20s. People talk about "the glory days" or whatever but it's just nostalgia talking, they can't see the forest because of the trees.


Tricks will always continue to evolve and new tricks will keep getting landed. It is not represenative of any cultural peak or significance though.
3 years ago
8 0
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tutipups
Posts: 1691 - Karma: 10,622
fredyferlFor skiing to me it would 2008-2012. I had been skiing park since 2004, and remember being in high school around 2008 and suddenly people would talk about freeskiing, watching videos of Tom Wallisch on computers in class, and I didn't really understand at first as I had been skiing park for a while. I'm from the suburbs of Montreal, and before that era and after that, nobody has really cared for park skiing. People at my school would wear Axis boardshop hoodies, which is a shop 45min north of Montreal. People were into skiing, not even snowboarding really, and since then in Montreal there hasn't been much park skiers that are from here that I know of.

For action sports for sure early 2000s. I remember walking into my local skateshop for the first time and it was packed, and it was right in the peak of THPS, in an area where people don't really skate. Even though I was really young, it was sick to have experienced that era of skateboarding. Playing THPS, watching skate videos on vhs/dvd and then skating in my street, and being mind blown every time I went to a new skatepark was a special time.

add me to the list of park skiers in montreal that you know of. Man i wish my school wouldve been like that during that era
3 years ago
1 0
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FruitBootPro
Posts: 3171 - Karma: 14,504
Action sports early 2000s, skiing was a bit late to the party in its golden era so that's more like late 2000s early 2010s
3 years ago
1 0
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Oldmanripper
Posts: 82 - Karma: 469
PBP Revolver got me back into skiing. Had lost interest somewhere in the early 2000’s.

I’ve never enjoyed more aspects of skiing as I do now though. Great park edits, backcountry booter clips, adventure skiing all over the world. The future of skiing looks good.
3 years ago
5 0
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Chunderface
Posts: 2551 - Karma: 10,013
Early 90's street skating.
3 years ago
0 0
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BrownSnow
Posts: 125 - Karma: 548
r00kieTricks will always continue to evolve and new tricks will keep getting landed. It is not represenative of any cultural peak or significance though.


What is done on skis has nothing to do with skiing culture, haha ok.
3 years ago
0 1
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BingPow
Posts: 576 - Karma: 5,663
BrownSnowWhat is done on skis has nothing to do with skiing culture, haha ok.


did u just disprove your own point?

and yea homie no one gives a fuck birk ruud looks like a mf helicopter, i'd much rather watch someone i've never heard of lace cork 7 blunt than a triple 2160 with a buick grab
3 years ago
0 0
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oldmanski
Posts: 3485 - Karma: 25,566
For me, it was the 90's when snowboarding hit my area. Seemed everyone I knew traded their skis for a board and that was the cool thing to do. I held out and stuck to my skis, the sport was not progressing at all but I had to stay true to what I loved. I tried boarding for a bit but it just wasnt my gig, the twin tip ski introduced to me in 1998 changed my skiing world.
3 years ago
0 0
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freestyler540
Posts: 13176 - Karma: 19,682
The best years? Fuck. 1992 to 1998 was all about bumps and aerals. Think olympics. Knees flying from side to side and doing 360s while sporting fluorescent gear! Flips and spins on massive 90 degrees kickers was beyond belief. But in 98, something happed; it was all about the jump and fuck the bumps! From then, everything changed. However, gear was not available. Some made their own skis, but it was always small production. It also involved using a blow torch to heat the tails and bend them into twin tips.

in 99-2000, solomon patented the first twin tip skis, designed by Mike D, JP auclair, JF Cusson and Shane Szocks. They tried so hard with every company, but took years to convince solomon to try the idea.

Now everyone could jump on higher quality, more robust skis. Taking off and landing backwards became a thing. People were trying new things and those that could afford camera gear, got their stuff out.

The golden age happened because of a demand push in technology. Then, for 10 years, we all begin to try to figure out the sport. I guess that was the magic; endless potentional and everything was new.
Think prospectors discovering gold in California, skiers found their golden discovery and now it feels tapped out.

Like many revived gold towns, many found other material to make money; park skiing has branched off into comp, park, pipe, big mountain freeride… each a golden discovery waiting to happen.

its why I keep in touch with all aspects of skiing. Im looking into how I can branch off into another discovery!
3 years ago
5 0
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BingPow
Posts: 576 - Karma: 5,663
fuck is not the best year for skiing

did you copy and paste the beginning monologue of some boring warren miller movie?
freestyler540The best years? Fuck. 1992 to 1998 was all about bumps and aerals. Think olympics. Knees flying from side to side and doing 360s while sporting fluorescent gear! Flips and spins on massive 90 degrees kickers was beyond belief. But in 98, something happed; it was all about the jump and fuck the bumps! From then, everything changed. However, gear was not available. Some made their own skis, but it was always small production. It also involved using a blow torch to heat the tails and bend them into twin tips.

in 99-2000, solomon patented the first twin tip skis, designed by Mike D, JP auclair, JF Cusson and Shane Szocks. They tried so hard with every company, but took years to convince solomon to try the idea.

Now everyone could jump on higher quality, more robust skis. Taking off and landing backwards became a thing. People were trying new things and those that could afford camera gear, got their stuff out.

The golden age happened because of a demand push in technology. Then, for 10 years, we all begin to try to figure out the sport. I guess that was the magic; endless potentional and everything was new.
Think prospectors discovering gold in California, skiers found their golden discovery and now it feels tapped out.

Like many revived gold towns, many found other material to make money; park skiing has branched off into comp, park, pipe, big mountain freeride… each a golden discovery waiting to happen.

its why I keep in touch with all aspects of skiing. Im looking into how I can branch off into another discovery!
3 years ago
2 2
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Casey
Posts: 7963 - Karma: 26,067
Everything pre-Instagram gets my vote. Is there even a ski industry anymore or are we all just saying hashtag like hashtag follow me
3 years ago
0 1
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freestyler540
Posts: 13176 - Karma: 19,682
BingPowfuck is not the best year for skiing

did you copy and paste the beginning monologue of some boring warren miller movie?

Nope, joined NS in 03. Been skiing since I was 3 in 1990. I was at the right place at the right time to watch skiing evolve and to contribute to the birth of modern freeride movement by competing and trying to push the sport in my area.
3 years ago
2 0
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Matthewbyrne1
Posts: 68 - Karma: 994
2010. Bright colors, huge clothes, thugged out style, 90s rap. What more can you ask for. I love the new era of skiing in a lot of ways but I'll always miss the earlier 2000s. Also for my home mountain Whiteface, NY that was the peak of their parks, the scene is much smaller now.
3 years ago
3 0
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