If I gave one worthwhile suggestion in my previous Disabled List entry it was this: find a way to be on skis post-injury, pre-surgery. I did just that this past Sunday when I rode at Angel Fire Resort in NM. I headed up to AF with a couple of pals with the intention of just cruising a few groomers in order to beat back my obnoxious ski cravings. I convinced myself in the car that simply sitting on the chairlift with headphones on and straight-lining flattish runs would be a nice little treat before the cutting—and, right up until I found myself at the top of the most meticulously maintained baby shred park known to man—it was. Needless to say, I unleashed my entire trick catalog on a number of ride-on, buried features. It took roughly two runs. While I probably looked ridiculous and gapertastic trying to spin onto ride-on flat boxes, I had an absolute blast. It was warm, sunny, dead, and most importantly…free (titans of ski media don’t pay for lift tickets). It was exactly what I needed to reconnect with why I love skiing so much. To be honest, nearly a year of living ski-free with NS as my only real source of, ahem, “ski culture”, I was growing more and more cynical by the article. You probably noticed.
So, Tuesday the Doc finally fixed me up.
What they allegedly did.
I wasn’t all that nervous going into surgery as it’s such a commonplace procedure, but I didn’t really know what to expect immediately after. I did, however, manage to cut myself shaving my leg…I learned at the hospital that such a tiny bumble could have postponed my surgery for fear of infection. Good start…luckily it as all uphill from there. Truth be told, the whole experience has pretty much been a breeze so far; thanks in no small part to my lovely nurse, Brenna Aileen, who’s doting has been glorious. The whole procedure took a little over 3 hours as I was slow waking up out of anesthesia. By lunchtime, I was being loaded up into the backseat of my Jeep with a lap full of instructions and meds. Obviously, the instructions spent another 24 hours in the backseat while the meds came with me upon arrival. The worst part thus far is undoubtedly the anesthesia hangover. Miserable. Running out of Percocet Saturday night is a close runner-up.
What it's all about.
The overall pain level has been much less than I expected. I’d say it’s been comparable to the dull ache I used to feel after throwing too many pitches; it’s deep and substantial, but muted somehow. I guess for me all of the “resting”, elevating, and icing has been more of an issue than the pain. As much as I like to do nothing, having no options blows. In addition to all of the resting, I have to have my leg in a motorized knee bending thingy for “8-10 hrs.” (read: 4 hrs.) a day.
By the time my first PT appointment rolled around Friday morning, I was just desperate to get off of my couch. Ironically, my appointment was with the very same therapist I stood up in ’08 after I tore my MCL only to bump into him on the Taos Ski Shuttle. Oops. The session went swimmingly, and I left feeling encouraged as the therapist was blown away by my range of motion and the lack of bruising and swelling. Unfortunately, I don’t think this stint in rehab is going to end with me back on skis in 6 weeks. I’m presently staring at a sheet of exercises that I’m not very likely to do. I’m not advocating ignoring doctor’s orders, but come on….stretch my toes with a towel?
Anyway, I’m up and about, bearing weight, and I even managed to bathe today for the first time in 5 days. I really just wanted to post a quick little update to hopefully alleviate the fears of any fellow skiers who are a step or two behind me in this whole process. It’s really not that bad, and I’m confident that I’ll be ready to click in next season.
Anybody with questions, suggestions, etc., throw ‘em up. Please dedicate a run to me. Actually, the first person to take take a shred pic with a “Free Casual” tee gets my unused anti-nausea suppositories.
SIA is fast approaching, and here at BroBomb we’re kicking off our event coverage with an interview with Mike Waesche of RMU Skis. Mike is a Summit County local, and his special-order-only boards are making waves in the crowded pool of independent ski manufacturers.
Check back over the coming days as we take a good look at what RMU and some other companies have in store for ’10-’11.
BroBomb: Hey Mike, thanks for taking time out to chat with us. You guys just got back from a few days on the road right? What’d you get into?
Mike Waesche: Thanks, Chris. I’m stoked for the opportunity.
Yea, we were down in SOCO for a few days, started out in Telluride, then headed to Silverton. It snowed two feet over night in Telluride, and Silverton received over 50 inches…to say the least: Epic.
Was that trip business, pleasure, or both….and more importantly will we be lucky enough to see any footage?
That there is the grey area…who would of thought skiing powder could be a tax write off!? We are working on a new edit to show off our new pow ski, the Professor, and it should be up around the 15th of this month.
The Professor. RMU’s powder whip. Early rise, and 122mm underfoot.
Oh, the wonders of capitalism…How did RMU come to be? Who are the key players?
RMU was the search for a better way, it was about the product. My good buddies Chris, Ocho, and Alex were all down for the cause from day one. I think Ocho’s exact words were, “Drink beer and build skis?…I’m in”.
Chris moved aside half of his family room and we set up shop there. We spent about a month building our press, three months building the first molds, and another month figuring out how to profile cores. I think ski building is something most skiers always have in the back of their mind, so it was fun to go through the trial and error of making the first skis. Eventually, we started making some pretty good stuff, so naturally we had a few buddies who wanted some custom skis—and after a few builds—word starting getting out. The Diam, our park ski, became so popular and we had enough demand that we made the move to Never Summer and created our first production ski. Big thanks to Never Summer for believing in us.
The Diam, RMU’s park slayer. Fully symmetrical and 93mm underfoot.
Drink beer and build skis….I’d like to believe that you’re not the first company to land on that as a mission statement. That being said, are there any unconventional materials, designs, or construction techniques that you’re particularly proud of?
We have pride across the board in our products and our company.
Because we are the ski patrollers, the shop employees, and the people working in the restaurants, we can only afford one pair of skis and we expect them to last. Our products are the ambitions of our members; we ask every single person on our skis what they like, want, and what we can do better next year. Our members want durability, so we reflect that in our buying decisions when we build the skis. Our materials are very high end, yielding long lasting durable skis.
Much like snowboard manufacturers have cultivated strong brand identities, ski manufacturers seem to be moving in a similar direction. Describe an RMU “rider”. Who do you build your skis for?
We build for any body who has passion for the product!
Our members range from riders in Jackson Hole who are out pushing the limits on alpine lines, to skiers who put in over 250 days a year in the park.
I’ve noticed that you refer to your customers as “members”, why is that? Any plans to offer custom skis in the future (lengths, camber, flex, etc.)?
Our customers are our company. Sometimes, that just means they get an invite into the garage to drink a few beers.
We fire up the press every now and then if somebody has something they really want to try.
One of your team riders, Dylan Ferguson, has been busy making a name for himself on the aerial and ski ballet side of things. Any chance RMU will dabble in reinventing the acroski?
Dylan is the man, we are so stoked to have Dylan be apart of the company and are stoked to see his progress with aerials. I was catching up with Ocho the other day and he already has the Acro ski in CAD.
Dylan Ferguson- future Olympian.
That sounds glorious…I’m looking for a pro model monoski if you guys are at all interested.
Yes, Lets do it, we actually made some Pow skis by special request that were 204 in the tip 176 underfoot and 186 in the tail. Could be the building blocks for the CC pro model monoski.
Let’s draw up the contracts and get it done. You guys have a fairly strong presence on NS, and your edits are staples in the top-rated video section. How important is it to you as a company to generate that sort of content?
RMU is all word of mouth, we don’t advertise, we just figured our product would speak for itself— this approach has actually gotten us pretty far. We occasionally run into awesome opportunities like the skiing mag graphic contest that we can’t turn down (check out new schoolers in February). We never really looked at our edits as advertising, but more of a presence in the community and that to us is huge.
Where do you see RMU in five years?
On top!!
If you had to punch one skier, sponsor one skier, and watch only one ski flick for the rest of your life…go.
Hmmmm, punch myself for not dropping that line with Nick, sponsor Tom, and watch level 1′s Real Time.
Any shameless self-promotion, or plugs you wanna throw out there?
Three consecutive days of wandering aimlessly around the Denver Convention Center for SIA (stands for Snowsport Insiders and Alcohol) left many in attendance clamoring for something to do other than shake hands and flex skis. Luckily, the brilliant minds behind The Rail Yard at Ruby Hill Park—minutes from downtown Denver—hosted a rail jam on Saturday night.
So, two bored BroBombers, a circus clown, a Garrett Russell, and a charmingly jaded filmer decided to head for the best damn free-public-park-hikable-rail and box-garden-thing known to man.
Courageously shot on two budget point and shoots by Matt Barber and edited (sloppily on iMovie) by yours truly, we present a look at The Rail Yard, and a potential sneak peek of Traveling Circus Episode 5.
Look out for an article and interview with the founders and organizers of the incredible Rail Yard in the next week or so. Simply put, it’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. For now, head over to their site for more info. Big thanks to Tim Hutchens for being so cool about the whole thing.
When images of Trew Gear’s ’09-’10 line made their way online sometime last year, I wasn’t exactly blown away. I was a fan of the brilliant thumbs-up logo immediately, but nothing else struck me as particularly original. I thought the colors were fairly similar to what companies like SAGA and LDC were producing, and the fit appeared to be thugtastic. Essentially, I assumed that Trew was another fledgling outerwear startup that unabashedly placed “form” miles ahead of “function.” What I didn’t know, was that the masterminds behind Trew Gear were 100% committed to producing some of the most technical gear this side of those brands your dad swears by and that you wouldn’t be caught dead in.
TREW promised us no cheeseball ad campaigns.
Any other reservations I had about Trew were totally laid to rest upon seeing and touching the 2010-2011 line, and talking with the guys behind the wheel. While the designs and colorways of last year’s line were cool—if not exactly groundbreaking in my estimation—this year’s stuff is top notch in both style and quality. Trew appears to have set their sights on a slightly wider audience, while still retaining an undeniable freeride influence and styling. For guys looking to steer clear of skittle steeze and yet still look the part, Trew is positioning itself as a viable alternative.
Thanks to the guys at TREW for taking time out to chat with us, and be sure to check their site for updates.
It’s no secret that the BroBomb collective was less than blown away by Nimbus Independent’s 2009 project Contrast—a difficult admission as the Nimbus crew’s attitudes towards skiing and ski culture are so in step with our own. Where Contrast was overly-long and mired in philosophical meanderings of the “skiing as life” variety, En RouteNomads is a lesson in film making brevity and, fortunately for us, the shots themselves do all the necessary talking.
We’re not taking credit for the stylistic Departure (see what I did there?), but it’s nice to think that maybe Pollard and Co. had a similar sentiment when they sat back and watched last year’s flick.
Nomads is the second of three webisodes to be released by the collective this year. Much to this guy’s surprise, conspicuously absent from Nomads was the $5 price tag that accompanied the release of the first, Departure (You now see what I did there). Where the more cynical of us might have expected a drop in quality to match the drop in price, Nomads actually surpasses its predecessor…and arguably everything else bearing the Nimbus logo this side of Idea.
So where exactly did Nomads go so right? Well, everywhere. The filming is more dynamic, the editing is sharper, the skiing is better, and the soundtrack is probably the best of any ski film that isn’t the brainchild of Kris Ostness.
So much of the BroBombian ire leveled at Contrast was a result of the excessive vocal reflection throughout; it came across as overly self-conscious and referential. Here, what little talking there is, simply guides us through the crew’s travels and gives us a candid look at the relationships that the riders have forged in their never ending quest to GTS. Benchetler’s appraisal of Tony B’s steadily receding hairline serves as a prime example of the type of dialog that made the cut.
Keeping in tune with the dialog, the skiing on display also seems to have been boiled down to just the creme. Some will undoubtedly miss the usual abundance of glade and pow turns that have become a Nimbusian hallmark, but what’s left are raw and uncut bangers served up by the core crew and some new faces (Sean Logan of Montage Inc. fame shows up just long enough to drop a couple of hammers). Relative Nimbus newcomers Blake Nyman and Anthony Boronowski waste little time in showing why they were recruited as full-time members of the squad. Before “Under Pressure” fades away at the end of the intro, we’ve already been treated to more BC dubs than probably every other piece of Nimbus media put together. The quality of shots never wanes. Have no fear ye faithful, it’s not all techy-spinny-flippy madness of course, style is still the name of the game. Credit everyone (particularly Pep and Chris) for taking their style to bigger tricks.
The editing is taut, minimalist, and clever. As Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” gives way to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” (which samples the aforementioned “Wild Side”…a careful, thoughtful touch in this guy’s opinion), Chris Benchetler sends a HUGE cork 9 just as Q-Tip’s verse starts. A ridiculous zero spin and a couple of dub rodeo 9’s later, Benchetler’s mini seg gives way to Pollard’s…just as Phife Dawg takes over for Tip for verse 2. I promise you this was no happy-accident on Mr. Pollard’s part, and it works. Gloriously so.
In between segments, stop motion footage of a 1950‘s(ish) toy car and trailer make their way across a map of North America tracing the gang’s trek from CA to BC and beyond. It’s a charming little touch, and it’s indicative of the care and thought put into the project as a whole. Nomads isn’t perfect, but it’s noticeably closer to perfection than the majority of other ski flicks this ski bum has sat through.
As good as the film is, it’s also notable in that it (and the other En Route entries) marks the first time in Nimbus’s history that their season long project will be released exclusively digitally. Perhaps sensing the change ‘a comin’, Pollard has opted not to produce a DVD hardcopy.
If I was forced to point to something that could have ended up on the cutting room floor, the paintball scene went on a tad too long, even if it did feature some nifty go-pro footage. I guess it “fit” but I’d personally skip it on repeat viewings.
This review is already overly long…suffice it to say that this 32 minute free MOVIE (webisode or not, make no mistake…this is a standalone film that measures up to any $30 pro DVD that came out last year) is well worth at least one viewing— even if you’re not much of a Nimbus fan. If you are, well…prepare to be amazed.
This might the first honest to god sentimental ski edit ever, and it’s damn near perfect. The skiing isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, the editing is far from revolutionary, but yet the feel and the mood it conveys are unmistakable. All the more surprising is the fact that it’s the brainchild of Ian Compton—a skier better known for silly shenanigansand…uh…well, a big mouth and big teeth. The song accompanying Ian’s skating and skiing is written and performed by Ian’s dad John, and was inspired by Ian’s mom. Corny or not, it’s touching. Thanks, Ian.
Let’s get this out of the way up front—in case my clever, witty pun of a title wasn’t clear—I didn’t like PBP’s latest offering, Revolver.
That’s not to say that it didn’t have its moments, or even that most people won’t like it, but I just wanted to be up front in case you’re the sort that takes other people’s opinions personally, or if you have a woefully short attention span. Feel free to proceed directly to the comment box and tell me how wrong I am if that be you.
So…why exactly didn’t I like it?
Well…it’s just too damn long. If I was talking to a buddy and not writing a review, my indictment of Revolver would probably end right there. I’m not exactly sure what it clocks in at (and there’s no way in hell I’m doing the “research” to find out), but if it’s on the short side of 80 minutes, I’d be shocked. I could make the argument that NO ski film—other than a documentary, or some other sort of ski flick with a narrative/plot—should be that long, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that, in this particular case, however long it is, it’s too long…sort of like this review will probably be.
I’m not so sure that the majority of the other issues I had with Revolver aren’t simply extensions of its bloated run time. For example, the middle of the film, which I have dubbed the “Theory 3 Mini-Movie”, is monotonous and flat. For those unfamiliar, Theory 3 is/was a Canadian film crew spearheaded by the unquestionably talented Jeff Thomas. Unfortunately, Theory 3 called it quits after releasing the incredible “Journal” in ’08, only to be absorbed by PBP the following year. It hurts me to be brutally honest, but in one guy’s opinion at least, the merger hasn’t been all that successful. To be fair, I don’t know for sure that Jeff is personally responsible for the filming and/or editing of the segments I found underwhelming, but they do feature the skiing of the Theory 3 athletes: Charley Ager, Dane Tudor, Brandon Kelly, Riley Leboe, and Josh Stack.
Basically, beginning with Dane’s segment, the middle of the flick is pow shot after pow shot….after pow shot. At this point, I can’t even intelligibly describe why it didn’t work as I loved Nimbus’s latest pow-centric offering, but that’s the problem; it was all so damn similar, to the extent that not even the missteps are all that memorable. In fact, had this sizable chunk of the movie been whittled down to the bangers (Charley Ager executing a legs spread octograb to four point landing in a reverse snowplow is not a banger. Sorry, Chuck. “I think I’ll stick to pow”, indeed.) and broken up, it might have yielded some of the best moments of the entire movie (some of Dane’s shots come to mind). But, it wasn’t and I was bored. I think the strongest argument against making a movie this long is this: By the time Tim Durtschi rode out a stomped dub cork 10 over Chad’s Gap, yes that Chad’s Gap…I didn’t care anymore. That’s a problem, PBP.
Monotony and boredom are the perfect segue into my next chief complaint, the music.
Holy shit.
I know what some of you are thinking, “Duuuude, it’s a ski movie!! It’s about the skiing!”, and while that’s fair, I expect more out of a ski movie than quality ski footage. For me, music really drives a film and gives segments personality. If you’re cocking eyebrows out there, put on your all-time favorite ski porn and press mute. Good luck. Like the visuals it accompanies, the music is for the most part incredibly repetitive, flat, and worst of all, unmemorable. Predictably, dub-step and glitch (if it’s not technically either of those genres, I don’t care, so don’t waste your time correcting me) dominate the proceedings. If you don’t know what that means, it goes like “WOM WOM beepbloopbeep WOM WOM”, something about “you’re the shit, girl” annnnd repeat. I’m not saying that the music, valued on its own, is horrible, or even bad. But, I am saying that scoring a large portion of a ski flick with it is somewhere between curious and downright moronic. I know off-hand that Arne and Ingrid Backstrom’s segment from MSP’s “The Way I See It” is edited to “Home” by Edward Sharpe and co. I know this because it was such a perfectly fitting choice for the segment for both aesthetic and contextual reasons. Well, no one is going to remember what song accompanied…well…any of Revolver, really. I suspect that the emergence of Matt Walker and Andrew Hathaway as skiing’s in-house DJ’s influenced the soundtrack, but instead of it translating to PBP tapping into the pulse of what’s happenin’ and being hip, it feels desperate and misguided. I don’t know Chad Davis, the movie’s Musical Supervisor, but I hope he’s unemployed next fall. Sorry Chad.
I’m not a film major, a reputed film critic, blahblah, so I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of the filming and editing. But, I will say that this is certainly, through and through, a Poor Boyz movie. I have no doubt that anyone intimately familiar with their movies of the last five years would be able to peg this as the efforts of their core group of filmers and editors. It’s mostly subjective whether you dig their style, but I’m not their biggest fan. Primary among my issues with the PBP style is the habitual abuse of slow-mo. I think they equate “slow” with “epic”, but I equate it with “boring”. Sure, slow-mo is a tool like any other and in plenty of instances can be effective in adding emphasis or in calling attention to detail, but there’s certainly exists a line between tasteful and overboard. Somebody toss Hamlet a life-vest already.
The filming itself is fine, nothing glaring, and there are plenty of clever and dynamic shots throughout…it’s in putting them together that PBP slides into mediocrity. Too many repeat tricks (butter 3s? Wow.) and repeat angles/features in different rider segments really hurt the film. Watching Jossi destroy a wall-ride is sweet. Watching Simon do the same thing…on the same thing…from the same angle…20 minutes later, is pointless. There’s also some silly “stunt” like shots that come across as gimmicky and, frankly, lame. Sammy gapping a road…and tapping a barrel…mounted on a stick…in the back of a pick-up truck…while it’s moving…seems a little Evil Knievelish to me. Jumping the moving truck-jib is the new Jumping The Shark, I guess.
To wrap up my thoughts as to why this movie failed, I’ll say this: There are a LOT of talented and passionate people involved at every level, top to bottom, in producing PBP films. Unfortunately, like the 2010 Dallas Cowboys, no one person or singular vision seems to be steering the ship. The result is that the whole is significantly less than the sum of its parts. This point was driven home even further for me today when I watched the AWESOME Meathead’s flick, Work it Out. I don’t think anybody would claim that the Meatheads crew is more talented across the board than the Poor Boyz squad, but nevertheless, Work it Out is a FAR superior film. It overachieves where Revolver underachieves.
Lastly, I understand that Salomon sinks a ton of dough into PBP projects, but hot damn…what percentage of the riders are on Salomon boards? 70? 80? I don’t know, but a lot. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but watching Charles Gagnier’s bizarre hybrid of Gorilla Steeze meets “I don’t know where my hands are” meets “I could fall at any second” style takes away from his incredibly technical tricks and makes him painful to watch. That, and the fact that Dane Tudor is on screen for what feels like half the movie, tells me that PBP might have sacrificed some filmmaking integrity for a bigger expense account.
Quickly I’ll list a few positives and pleasant surprises as this movie is not uniformly terrible:
- The old guys still got it. JP Auclair and Julien Regnier must have found the fountain of youth, because they both KILL IT. JP has a bunch of awesome urban/jib shots that look even better sandwiched in between him charging big lines and playing with his slough in no-falls-allowed zones. Wow. Julien on the other hand, nabs some of the best helmet cam footy I’ve ever seen and makes Armada look absurd for dumping him last season.
- Sammy is quietly becoming one of the best BC/pow jibbers doing it and deserves the attention that guys like Petit and Durtschi get for their efforts. In five years, Sammy will be the bar setter and looks poised to enjoy a Pep-like rebirth outside of the terrain park.
- Jossi Wells is somehow better at skiing than people think. And, no one would call him underrated. I don’t know that there’s another guy out there (Wallisch?) who has the technical skill to win any major comp he enters, while simultaneously pulling off stupidly stylish and smooth simple tricks. He shatters the idea that “you’re either a comp skier, or a movie skier”. He’s that good.
- Mike Henitiuk is way underrated. What a well-rounded skier that kid is.
- LJ Strenio has a death wish and we are very, VERY lucky that he does.
- Finally, BroBomb’s favorite skier, Simon “Lawyered Up” Dumont, turns in bar none his BEST and most well-rounded segment since his jaw droppingly spectacular Teddy Bear Crisis part. Clearly, Simon wanted to silence his detractors who cast him as a one-dimensional pipe jock. He hasn’t, but he’s a beast anyway.
Anyone even passingly familiar with European history knows all too well how our glorious sport of skiing came to be. With that, I’ll spare all 6 people reading this a detailed account of the events that ultimately culminated in Leif Erikson chopping down a tree with his bare hands and fabricating the first pair of gnar-sticks with no tools save telekinesis and stem cells.
Within hours after completing the first descent of K2—switch, mind you—Leif was pouring the tears of his close friend, Baby Jesus, henceforth from the Holy Grail all over Cleopatra in what is believed to be the first wet t-shirt contest ever held.*
Those divine tears that did rush over Cleo’s supple, supple bosom that fateful day were later mopped up by a lowly bar back by the name of Sir Shane McConkey. In what is inarguably the second most important step in the evolution of ski culture (the first being the development of a reliable treatment for syphilis), Shane combined BJT (Baby Jesus Tears) with Hi-C’s Ectocooler to give birth to what we have come to know as “PBR”, or Pabst Blue Ribbon. While the naming of this heavenly mixture was curious to say the least, Shane had, in a single stroke, concocted the official refreshment of skiers the world over.
This photo (used w/o permission) unwittingly illustrates everything Chris is about to say.
Fast forward 12 short years, and our once beloved beverage has been boorishly burglarized by bearded beleaguered bohemians. Admittedly, there’s a bit of an overlap between skiers and hipsters, and to the casual observer at least, each group’s affinity for facial hair of the ironic variety and flannel can make distinguishing one from the other rather difficult. However, shredding the gnar and moped-ing to the vegan bar are not on par, not by….umm….a substantial distance. While I’ve no doubts about which group is superior, or more likely to win an arm-wrestling match, Apple’s relentless tech-takeover and the emergence of the Wal-mart skinny jean has made the snarky, sarcastic, verbose writing on the wall very clear; the Hipsters have won…and won big.
It is with this then, that I, on behalf of the ski community, offer a solemn—yet dignified—resignation of our once upon a time life’s blood. While we’ll miss it, I can’t help but feel we’re leaving it in good, fingerless-gloved hands. Let’s take a moment and reflect.
Please feel free to recall your fondest PBR memories in the comment section should you be feeling particularly nostalgic.
Fear not though friends, because—just as acroskiing rose like a glorious phoenix from the ashes of rigid and monotonous slopestyle contests—a new black-out bequeathing barley based brew has revealed itself to me as the new, sure-to-be beer of choice for all of my fellow ski bums:
Sean Pettit taps can at this past week’s Caldera Head Rush.
Yes. Soak it in. It is beautiful. It is Ashland, Oregon’s own Caldera IPA. At a respectable 6.1% ALC/VOL, I’ve no doubt that it, like its predecessor, will cause otherwise reasonable and respectable men(women)-children to behave like flaming assholes on(and ultimately underneath) bar stools from Whistler to the make believe land of Chamonix. And, though it’s totally irrelevant, it tastes really good.
Whereas we’ve mindlessly aped the trends and styles of our action sport brethren over the last decade or so, let us for once be the trend-setters. Let us claim this as our very own, and let those other silly adults who fling themselves at metal objects at high speeds with assorted types of equipment on or about their feet follow us for a change.
… And, before the bitching begins, YES this beer is a tad pricey, but if your bourgeoise ass can afford that sweet TREW setup, those Bentchetlers, and an Epic Pass, you can afford an extra buck for a brew, you cheap bastard, so shut it.
Go skiing, indeed!
The can truly speaks for itself, so I’ll shutup now.
But before I do, I must plead with you—my friends—to do your part to ensure that this painful, albeit necessary, transition goes as smoothly as possible. Please demand that your local watering holes boycott PBR, may that their taps overfloweth with pale malt deliciousness! Consume often, and consume recklessly, and may your hangover accompanied first chair or gondola or tracks be aplenty!
(* NOTE: First wet t-shirt contest held in Squaw Valley. I thought this obvious, but I can’t assume that everyone is as learned as I am.)
Hey skiing. It’s me. Listen, I wrote you some long, stupid letter about how your choices have affected me, and how I won’t support you unless you make some changes. But the truth is that I’m going to be there whether you choose to associate yourself with shitty music or not. I know, I know, I’m an enabler and I’m ruining the intervention, but I’m just being honest.
I’m not going to preach to you, or plead. I’m just here to share a little bit of my experience, strength, and hope as a recovering shitty music fan.
You see, what started out as an innocent love affair with Dave Matthews, quickly became an obsession—an obsession that led me to a dark, dark place. If it weren’t for that DMB concert in ’94, I never would’ve gone on to open those Mariah Carey and Britney Spears CDs in order to masturbate to the liner notes in the teeny bathroom at the indie record store I worked at. Also, I don’t think I would’ve then been fired for smoking PCP out back whilst leaving the store unlocked and unattended. Don’t you see that this shit is killing you? I don’t want to find you with your pants around your ankles, hunched over a filthy sink someday, ogling Miley Cyrus!!
I know you have a long road to recovery, and I don’t expect you to fall in love with Coltrane and Tom Waits over night….so I found a few gems in the rough for you to get all hyphy with, or whatever it is you kids call it these days.
De La Soul – “Stakes is High”- Produced by none other than the soulful architect, Jay Dee (RIP Dilla), Stakes is a classic. It’s jazzy, funky, and….great. Perfect for a mid-season edit, preferably filmed primarily on cloudy, flat-light days.
Kardinal Offishal – “Ol’ Time Killin’”- Ideal for those that find it impossible to ride without at least one rasta colored garment, but who just can’t bring themselves to edit around yet another Kya Bamba track.
Cam’ron – “Down and Out” feat. Kanye West and Syleena Johnson*- The song perfectly suited for any number of the oft-injured, or conspicuously absent. Maybe C-Van will finally drop that banger for Level1 that we’ve all been clamoring for. Maybe Tanner and Candide will crash PBP’s park shoot and show the youngin’s how it’s done. Or…maybe Travis Heed will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of Wicked and show everyone how sleeping on rails is supposed to go.
*NOTE: Obscurity, in and of itself, is not the aim, friends…it’s OK to use songs that other people have actually heard, and that didn’t come out tomorrow.
With ski halfpipe’s inclusion in the 2014 Olympic Games looking more and more likely, the voice of opposition, once a murmur, has begun to ring out. Conventional wisdom would seem to suggest that a nod from the Olympic Committee would only accelerate freeskiing’s meteoric rise from laughingstock of the action sports world to fastest growing segment of the snowsports industry. However, many of the freeski elite seem to be concerned about the larger implications of just such a shift.
Maybe the naysayers fear freeskiing will suffer a fate similar to rollerblading in the late 90’s, where too much too soon led to a veritable tsunami of a backlash—and ultimately—the sport’s commercial obliteration. Think it’s tough making a living as a pro skier? Try earning an honest living with in-line skates on your feet…well, outside of Japan, I mean. And outside of Sonic Burger.
Predictably, many of the most ardent dissenters are of the “X’s coolness is inversely related to the number of people who think X is cool” ilk, otherwise known as the “They sold out, their old stuff is way better” club. However, a sizable number of the….ahem….godfathers of our sport seem to also consider the Olympic push to be a possibly crucial misstep. Many potential issues have been cited by those wary of such a huge move, but the most common seem to be the fear of a return to the creativity stifling rigidity of high-profile competitions, and a drastic reallocation of dollars towards pipe-athletes and pipe skiing in general—at the expense of other niches.
And, who can really blame them? After all, wasn’t freeskiing’s emergence at the dawn of the aught’s a flipping of the bird to the FIS? Wasn’t the birth of the “newschool” a resounding rejection of the stagnant freestyle and aerial scenes?
So then, isn’t it a reasonable fear that, with pipe’s Olympic debut, companies will be powerless to fight the allure of diverting their already modest resources to pipe skiing in an attempt to reach a broader audience? If so, will training pipe become a freeskier’s only option in pursuing a career in skiing? And…if so, won’t our beloved sport, built on the desire to be “free”, become just another mess of tenth of a point deductions and suspect judging?
Well…in a word, no. As skiing is all too wont to do, we have but only to look to our snow-sliding brethren.
Since snowboard halfpipe took the Nagano games by storm in ’98, the sport has only grown, and much more tellingly, diversified. I’m not implying that there’s a cause and effect relationship there, but it’s clear that snowboarding having made the leap into the “mainstream” has not had a disastrous effect on the “little guys”, or on snowboarding culture.
As Shaun White has dutifully collected medals like some collect DUI’s, left-of-center film crews like the Videograss and Think Thank bunch(es?) have carved out sizable and lucrative niches for themselves. In addition, the likes of Travis Rice and Jeremy Jones (and many others) have pushed the very idea of what is possible on a snowboard outside of the confines of the ropes and gates. While a few large corporations control a sizable market share in both hard and soft goods—not unlike in skiing—several smaller brands have found ways to be successful; often by developing new technologies or through shrewd branding (sound familiar?). In 2009, a year in which hype for snowboard halfpipe reached a fever pitch in anticipation for the Vancouver games, sales for rockered snowboards—which are certainly not pipe-specific boards—more than doubled compared to the previous year. Simply put, in spite of snowboard halfpipe’s inclusion in the Olympic Games, the sport as a whole has only grown and fragmented into specialized factions. In fact, as the notoriety of Shaun White, Louie Vito, and other pipe jocks has grown, the “core” snowboarding culture has actually appeared to move away from rigidity and conformity, and towards freedom of individual expression. Sure, plenty of kids want to be Shaun White, but plenty others want to be Lucas Magoon or Scott Stevens or Gus Engle and so on.
So, why then are our freeskiing forefathers and elder statesmen so afraid of freeskiing going (more) mainstream?
No, skiing is not snowboarding, and skiing has a much longer and more diverse history particularly when talking about competition. So, naturally, I’m not suggesting that there’s any sort of guarantee that skiing’s inclusion will have an overall “positive” effect on the industry, or on “us” as individual skiers—nor is freeskiing guaranteed universal “respect” all of a sudden because the Olympic Committee decided it was worthy of a slot. The truth is that no one knows for sure what ski halfpipe being Olympified will change. But, there is one group that will most definitely benefit from ski halfpipe’s inclusion, and that’s the athletes themselves.
Matt Margetts, a likely member of the Canadian squad, summed up his outlook on the matter quite nicely in a recent post on newschoolers.com: “When halfpipe skiing gets into the 2014 Olympics in Sochi Russia, I will be competing. It will not be for money because that’s not what skiing is all about. It will be for the once in a lifetime opportunity to become an Olympian and potential medalist. Simple as that”. Aren’t his wants valid? After all, he’s one of the many that devote an enormous amount of time and energy to training pipe. Is it really the amorphous “ski community’s” place to say what FREEskiing should or shouldn’t be? Should passionate individuals be denied this opportunity because some multi-national corporations potentially stand to profit?
Encouragingly, despite competitive freeskiing reaching all-time highs in terms of visibility with the birth of the Dew Tour and a newly cast starring role at the X-Games, backcountry skis (AT/Randonee skis) saw a 48% increase in sales between ’08 and ’09. Additionally, three times as many rockered skis were sold in ’09 than the previous year…suggesting, yet again, that more and more people are exploring skiing outside of the traditional confines of icy halfpipes and resort boundaries all together. Furthermore, several freeski brands have emerged over the last five years that essentially forewent the idea that to sell skis they had to be photographed atop podiums at major competitions. All of that, coupled with the fact that the “webisode” and videoblog have proven to be incredibly popular and influential in driving consumer purchases, seems to suggest that ski halfpipe being elevated to Olympic heights won’t fundamentally change the sport.
At the end of the day, whether ski halfpipe makes the cut or not, the average kid who heads to the mountain, or hill as it were, will continue to do exactly what he or she finds most enjoyable. Whether it be hiking a handrail, earning pow turns, or competing in the largest athletic contest on the planet, it should be up to the individual in my book.
Please let us know what you think…is an Olympic berth good, bad, or meaningless?
