Slopestyle Setup

bennwithtwonsHow do you all like slope courses to be set up?

a lot of the time, rails are all put at the top and then jumps at the bottom. I actually think it should be the other way around though. Generally, competitors seem to screw up rails more than jumps. If you fall on a jump, your run is typically a waste no matter what. Alternatively, if you hit 3-4 jumps successfully and then a few rails, and just had a slightly early off on the last rail or something, your run would still be pretty good.

also, from a spectator perspective, you could easily be within view of 2, 3, or even 4 rails at the bottom rather than just seeing the landing of the last jump in the course.

Finally, mixing jumps and rails in an alternating fashion might look cool but it seems to me that it just messes with the flow too much to be the ideal setup.

thing is it would feel pretty weird having rails at the bottom. would need to see it in actual comp

first one that comes to mind with rails at the end would be font romeu

tutipupsthing is it would feel pretty weird having rails at the bottom. would need to see it in actual comp

the last jump is almost always the biggest air, so having it right before a rail section would result in massive speed checks. kinda fucks with the flow.

Isn't Silvaplana like that also? And Tignes had jump-jump-rail-rail-rail-jump today.

combatgoon17first one that comes to mind with rails at the end would be font romeu

how about just rails?

This wouldn’t be too hard to fix. You could have a big rainbow or trap rail on a deck similar to a jump. A small turn or two to bleed a little speed and you’d be good to go I reckon

hegleezythe last jump is almost always the biggest air, so having it right before a rail section would result in massive speed checks. kinda fucks with the flow.

tominiemenmaaIsn't Silvaplana like that also? And Tignes had jump-jump-rail-rail-rail-jump today.

yeah it was pretty sick too. 3 of each seems perfect too, although i can understand why the builders might want to have 4 jumps, since it would encourage athletes to spin forward and switch in both directions. i'm ok either way but mostly trying to think of ways to avoid so many throw-away runs because of a shitty slip out of the first or second rail.

Stubai has jumps first rails at the end. I think though slopestyle should get rid of the big jumps altogether and get more creative. Wall rides, volcanoes, variety of jibbing... Some slopestyle courses feel almost the same as a big air comp.

IMHO would be cool for FIS to try a concept where some course specific rules demand the riders to do certain stuff on certain features. Like a huge jump with a limit of 540 or 720 degrees. Or rails which need to be hit for more than 80% of the length for the trick to score on it to force riders to actually grind the rails, rather than going mach 7 with a spin on and tap the last inch.

snowpigStubai has jumps first rails at the end. I think though slopestyle should get rid of the big jumps altogether and get more creative. Wall rides, volcanoes, variety of jibbing... Some slopestyle courses feel almost the same as a big air comp.

tominiemenmaaIMHO would be cool for FIS to try a concept where some course specific rules demand the riders to do certain stuff on certain features. Like a huge jump with a limit of 540 or 720 degrees. Or rails which need to be hit for more than 80% of the length for the trick to score on it to force riders to actually grind the rails, rather than going mach 7 with a spin on and tap the last inch.

i think a lot of this could be done with course design. if you made one of the jumps 20 feet rather than 80, you'd limit the quantity of spins and flips naturally. also, you could have a long rail with a fairly slow approach, which means you have to really get locked in (rather than spinning to the bottom of the rail, as you mentioned). do you follow the comp scene closely? i used to but after 20 years it doesn't intrigue me that much, despite how bonkers the tricks are now.

I watch everything that's easily available from Finland. X Games, Dew "Tour", World Cups, random smaller comps.

This year the World Cup has had some smaller jumps in most of the stops but still the top riders throw dubs from them, landing Gucci, and are being rewarded doing that. There's also been a few very creative runs (in the slopestyle range) in the finals but again they haven't been rewarded.

What I'd like to see is some slow spinning finesse tricks from the big booters, lesser spins with harder grabs and unique axis, bring backs, knuckle on purpose like AHall (not my cup of tea but it's new and different) etc.

Finesse-hard (not necessarily slopestyle-hard) rail tricks on the hardest rails. IIRC Colby for example laced a 270 on pretzel backswap pretzel 270 out on the gnarliest, longest and thinnest, last rail of the comp course early this season. Stubai maybe? Majority of the rest of the finalists pack didn't even touch the feature.

Most of the creative runs seen in the World Cup circuit get thrown in the qualifications tho and it's so stupid there's no way to watch it anywhere.

bennwithtwonsi think a lot of this could be done with course design. if you made one of the jumps 20 feet rather than 80, you'd limit the quantity of spins and flips naturally. also, you could have a long rail with a fairly slow approach, which means you have to really get locked in (rather than spinning to the bottom of the rail, as you mentioned). do you follow the comp scene closely? i used to but after 20 years it doesn't intrigue me that much, despite how bonkers the tricks are now.