Does anyone else feel like the knuckle huck rising to prominence as a major event of the xgames has given park crews at their local resorts an excuse to be lazy?
I love the knuckle huck event as well as buttering over knuckles myself from time to time, but I feel like the promotion of a "roller" or "knuckle" from a once side-hit-feature to a now-perceived-as main feature as the result of the xgames has given local park crews the excuse to no longer put the effort into actually making jumps and quality park set ups in which an amateur can progress.
Park crews will just push snow, that could have otherwise been used for both a jump and a knuckle, into a roller that would be barely workable as a feature for a professional let alone a progressing amateur. A roller or knuckle isn't really great a progression feature to begin with. The creativity and prowess observed in the event hosted by the xgames was gained practicing on a wide range of real features.
I empathize with the plight of small resorts in regions affected by lack of snowfall or climate change. I grew up in coal country southeastern PA. That being said, plight should be treated as plight, not romanticized and/or used as an excuse for mountains with adequate resources to skimp on building actually progressive set-ups. The people who have to work harder to get better because they come from a place that lacks the resources to build adequate park set ups WISH that weren't their situation to begin with. It's why you see the professionals like Tom Wallisch, who grew up in western PA, move away to Utah when given the opportunity.
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