HATERS GONNN HATE. There is no way that you should let this thread and the event of one athlete leaving the team stop you from pursuing your goals and ambitions with the Girlsonskis movement. A true entrepreneur will push forward and overcome even the most difficult of setbacks. People who have ideas for companies and invest a shit ton of money into the company only to have the product not work out exactly as they first imagined can't just stop there. By doing so, you're giving in to defeat. Although you may feel low and defeated at some points in starting something new up, it is through these setbacks that you are able to learn what went wrong and make good improvements.
I haven't gotten a lot of hate on ns since I posted my first ski edit freshman year in high school. The edit sucked, the riding sucked, and for some reason I thought it was a good idea to include ads for sponsors in the beginning that we obviously didn't have. Although it felt shitty and made me reconsider whether I should continue skiing park or making edits, I went with my instinct and improved a lot with my editing and riding over the next few years (..skiing was just tooo much fucking fun)
It seems clear that you're still involved with the ski industry by sponsoring the West Mountain rail jam so don't claim that your project is a failure and you'll be making changes over the next year to 'come back with something better.' You already won the best innovative project at IF3 so clearly you're doing something right and the project is anything but a failure. This thread is not an example of defeat... skiing/ the ski industry (aside from competitions) is only self-defeating. I see kids in the park who freak the fuck out when they can't land their tricks and it's pretty ridiculous, this is a clear example of self-defeat as the more frustrated and pissed off at yourself you get when you can't land your shit, may not help at all but rather set you back even further. Keep a positive outlook and you'll have a better shot at being successful.
The real problem I see you having is right here, "I wanted to know what we should change for 2011 in order to get more recognition and more help."
- Change is not the right word, rather.... IMPROVE!
- The more you improve your filming and editing and push your athletes to try new tricks and step up their level of riding, the more recognition, help, potential for SPANZARSHIPS, and what not you'll have.... the website you've created already looks legit so it really comes down to producing more content that shows potential
I broke my foot in the summer of 09 and filmed for a lot of the year last season. At first, this lead me to realize that I'm really not that great of a filmer but as the year went on I began to really enjoy filming and worked towards getting the best follow shots I could. I would push my friends to try new tricks and get out of their comfort zone and this created shots we never could have imagined.
August 2010 - I brought Briggs up to the 6.0 feature at Windells and persuaded him to hit it knowing the potential he had to get down on the feature. First hit didn't work out too well, (first shot of the vid), but after hiking it a few more times, we were able to get a banger on his 8th hit of the feature. One of the sickest days of skiing this summer even though all I did was film.
Don't give up on your girlsonskis movement so fast. You have the potential to do big things in 2010-2011 so push forward and don't abandon the rest of your athletes who are still invested in the ideas and aspirations behind the project.