2011-12 Skiing Thread

[AR_Six]

Continued...

Originally Posted by Ted Ligety

... So how will this ruin the sport? The new skis will make skiing at the World Cup level less enjoyable to watch and perhaps more importantly far less enjoyable to participate in while making it more dangerous. Arcing clean turns is a joy everyone racing now days can enjoy. That feeling will be gone. First World Cup athletes will suffer this fate then in a couple years when the rules become FIS wide 15 year old kids will have to turn in their “old” carving skis for long straight skis. This will give the big kids an even bigger advantage and will drive kids out of ski racing; into freesking or the copious amount of other sports kids have available to them. Another way it will ruin the sport is the economically side. Ski racing is to ski technology as Formula 1 is to car technology. This new rule will take that away from ski racing since anyone will be able to buy better skis in a store then we race on. Why would ski companies stay in racing if it were no longer driving technology and sales? Ski companies are the main financial supporters of this sport; the athletes make the majority of their income for their ski companies and the amount equipment built for World Cup skiers is astronomical. If the athletes are no longer driving R&D and sales, the companies will eventually pull their support. Most athletes struggle to make a living at this sport already and without the support of the ski companies most won’t be able to afford to continue racing. And there goes the sport of ski racing.

FIS’s tyranny doesn’t just cover ski regulations but all sponsorships too, from the size of your headgear sponsor to the speed suit to the logo on your goggles. I am particularly concerned about the goggle logo issue for the obvious reason that I own a goggle/helmet company; Shred. FIS has long had a rule that the logo on the goggle strap could not be larger than 15 square centimeters. The rule has been ignored for just as long as it’s been around and for good reason, you can’t read a 15 square cm logo on someone travelling at speed and it was never enforced. This fall, out of the blue FIS decided they were going to enforce this rule, for seemingly no reason. Enforcement now is apparently, first a warning followed by not being allowed to start the race on the second offense. Most logos currently are 40-50 square centimeters. There is no point sponsoring a ski racer let alone start a company based around ski racing when one’s logo is too small to be noticeable. This hurts small companies like mine the most since it greatly takes away Shred’s ability to get valuable impressions to break through. Outside of this rule’s enforcement being a bad idea, it was not made known to companies early enough so they could put together the logistics to comply or what will likely happen in the future, decide their marketing budget is better spent else where. Which gets me to the greater point of FIS seemingly trying to drain the pockets of the athletes, since a large portion of athletes’ income is derived from helmet/goggle companies. I would think it would be in the sports, therefore FIS’s best interest to create value for not only FIS’s sponsors but also the sponsors that allow the athletes to compete at a high level.

Not only will FIS not listen to rejections from SRS and NGB’s on the ski regulations and logo issues as a show of complete power. It wants to fine athletes for speaking out against FIS. I was threatened several years ago for wearing a “FIS SUCKS” sticker on the back of my helmet. (I was 2 minutes late to a pre bid draw meeting and forced to start 45 while I was leading the standings hence the sticker.) I was told that a similar action would result in a 5000 CHF fine. Most recently word is that FIS is thinking about suing Jon Olsson for his choice comments he made on his blog about the ski regulations and posting “FIS SUCKS” logo on his site. At the most recent FIS meeting they discussed punishments for athletes speaking out against them. I quote an excerpt from that meeting, “The Council agreed to develop a “Code” to deal with cases of improper behavior that fall outside the competence of the competition jury to augment the existing rules, such as blasphemy on social networking sites or bringing the sport into disrepute.” Who would have thought that being a ski racer you lose your right to free speech.

One would think there would be some discourse to combat these atrocities but there is not at this point. Apparently Bill Marolt; the President of USSA and Vice President of FIS doesn’t even have the ability to bring these subjects up for discussion, let alone reversed or revised. The athletes to this point have had zero representation in the decisions FIS makes. When we hear of FIS’s decisions and we disagree we are ignored as shown in Soelden. Faceless committees make these decisions, and once the mandates are passed down their ego doesn’t allow them to admit wrong and reverse rules that are so obviously wrong. Unfortunately for alpine ski racing FIS monopolizes the sport so any and all changes will be hard fought or take FIS vastly rethinking their position in how the sport processes or more likely regresses. Perhaps it’s time to unionize the athletes or start an alternative tour. (An athlete union is now developing but it remains to be seen how effective it will be.) This should serve as warning for sports like freeride skiing and snowboarding, don’t let FIS monopolize your sport. FIS will bleed your sport dry of what has made it so cool.

Ted Ligety

[mrbanffgirl]

^^ Now THAT's how to bitch!! and i totally agree with him. FIS is full of self centered mindless bureaucrat's who couldn't ski a full day if their life depended on it! I raced until i was 18, and have now coached entry level thru K1 for the past 10 years, and the difference between now and then is almost unfathomable!! Ski technology, most importantly the shape skis and better composites, have made the average joe able to ski with less effort and in better form. And for the racers it has allowed them tools to get the job done faster , and to the opposite of what FIS is saying, safer! Accidents happen in every sport, and most athlete's will be injured once in their careers. FIS has this mentality that they are going to make it safer, with fewer lower leg injuries? try going 80 kph, and chucking them sideways, hoping you semi controlled skid will get you around the gate before the fence gets you!

[AR_Six]

When this was brought up on a skiing forum I'm on a former competitive skicross racer brought up how its induction into the olympics and consequent subjection to FIS control basically killed the "fun" parts of the sport:

"Ski Cross" used to be the dark horse of Ski Racing, where racers would go to get away from the spandex, the rules, regulations, teams, coaches, etc. There used to be 2 major thriving pro tours, the Honda Ski Tour (Jeep 48 straight) and the Saab/Salomon Crossmax series with multiple stops and large prize purses and other numerous one-off events and stops (tremblant spin fest). We used to wear the jerseys that were given to us and whatever pants we wanted, races involved concerts, parties and they were super fun and not at all rigid and as "straight edge" as racing was. The courses were always super fun and very innovative, full of big jumps and crazy features.

Boom, Ski-Cross gets in the Olympics. Number of FIS WC stops quadruples. Pro-circuit tours all die out. Spandex is brought back in. People now travel on teams with techs, rules, obligations and it's like alpine racing all over again. Now it seems most of the European Ski Cross races are all like Super G courses with pro bumps in the middle. It's like racing... with bumps. A far cry from the super fun featured courses on pro circuits.

For me, having to give up my snowmobile/pow skis was a deal breaker, and is now why I'm in the backcountry.

With pipe and slope now in the 2014 games, all of this is understandably making freeskiers a little nervous.

[troutman]

FIS sounds like FIFA or IIHF. A corrupt organization run by old European men for their own profit.

[AR_Six]

It's extremely myopic. Leading up to the 2010 games, there were a number of meetings where the introduction of pipe skiing was discussed. Anecdotally, I was told by someone present that when this topic was brought up and the reasons in favour of doing so were pointed out, the Euro FIS people would basically just stare daggers at whoever was talking, wait for them to finish, and then go on with whatever was being discussed before as if no one had said anything.

It doesn't seem to be about profit so much as control because it's beyond me how any of this serves to line anyone's pocketbooks. I mean, ski companies have no reason to develop new racing tech now, it's not allowed to be used, so why, as a consumer, would I want to buy new skis if they're no better than the ones I've been using from 5 plus years ago? All the design advancements are being made in freeride; camber profiles, rocker, multidimensional sidecuts, decreasing weight for touring, etc etc etc.

[mrbanffgirl]

I saw we beat FIS to the punch, and go cut down a couple of trees and whittle us up some state of the art "all terrain" skis!!

[AR_Six]

Nah I'm good with my newfangled rockered sticks. I am using old binding technology though. No one has come out with anything better than the FKS turntables yet...

[Tron_fdc]

FIS has always been a bunch of muppets run by a bynch of Euros that remind me of the monopoly guy, complete with eye monacle.

Back when I was racing the ISF (International Snowboard Federation) largely governed the events. As soon as snowboarding got big however, boom! In comes FIS. This resulted in the ISF more or less conceding that FIS was their governing body in order to allow snowboarding into the 98 olympics. One of the best riders at the time (Terje Hakonsen) boycotted the games because of it, when FIS announced they would be judging the events.

[troutman]

SunshineVillage Sunshine Village
Today's snow report @SunshineVillage Today's snow report: LAST 24 HOURS 25cm PAST 3 DAYS 45cm SNOWPACK 98cm

SunshineVillage Sunshine Village
GREAT NEWS! ANGEL @SunshineVillage IS OPEN THIS SATURDAY!! ow.ly/7EsKq

SkiLouise Lake Louise Ski Area
Nice, hopefully we can get some top 5's this season RT @lukenorman: @SkiLouise Today was all time. One of the top 10 powder days of my life.

SkiCastle Castle Mountain
@ChrisDurand not open yet! Dec 10 is the big day!

SkiNakiska Nakiska Ski Resort
@goskialberta 30cms for @SkiNakiska!!

[BurningYears]

Originally Posted by mrbanffgirl

Yeah FIS has really S#!t the bed with the GS regs. Although, i could possibly have a shot at making the world cup!, just need to dust off the old Atomic 215's and dig out my stretchpants!

I wasn't happy at all when my GS skis went from 22m radius to a 27m radius, but luckily for me I just ski in the Masters series so there is really no set regulation for sidecut. also on a side note the new GS skis will be basically Super G skis and they are hard enough to ski nicely in a super G course let alone a GS.

[mrbanffgirl]

Originally Posted by BurningYears

I wasn't happy at all when my GS skis went from 22m radius to a 27m radius, but luckily for me I just ski in the Masters series so there is really no set regulation for sidecut. also on a side note the new GS skis will be basically Super G skis and they are hard enough to ski nicely in a super G course let alone a GS.

the perform almost like a bus on black ice. the only way i see this working in the long run is if FIS stretches out the minimum distance between gates. But if that happens everything changes
Downhill = Speed Skiing
Super g = downhill
GS = Slalom
Slalom = ballet
and ballet skiing was one of the worst things i have ever witnessed on snow!!

[mykalberta]

Thought I would ask here. I will be at COP tomorrow, and I have never been there before and was wondering if they have lockers to rent or if you need to bring your own lock?

Also, what building (I assume there are signs but figured I would ask) do I go to?

Thank you. Michael.

[mrbanffgirl]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Thought I would ask here. I will be at COP tomorrow, and I have never been there before and was wondering if they have lockers to rent or if you need to bring your own lock?

Also, what building (I assume there are signs but figured I would ask) do I go to?

Thank you. Michael.

I think that there are lockers there that you don't need a lock for (like the ones at swimming pools), and as soon as you pull into the parking lot, go to the large building right off the parking lot.

[AR_Six]

Ripped around Lake Louise today, snow was great and still falling when I left. Not dumping mind you but it was steady throughout the day. Great conditions for November.

[mrbanffgirl]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Ripped around Lake Louise today, snow was great and still falling when I left. Not dumping mind you but it was steady throughout the day. Great conditions for November.

was up there yesterday for the DH and it was great!! midseason powder day in Nov 1. little sketch in spots but worth the day/
today at norquay... not so much, rain/snow/sleet/wind, but skiing!!

[TimSJ]

Hey all,

getting back into skiing this year after having been away for close to 10 years. I have enrolled both kids in out local ski school progams so will be heading back to the hill every weekend again.

Skied i ton when i was younger and was an instructor all though university.

Anyway need some new skis. The last set i have in my basement is a set of 205 Rossi 7XK with the old marker MRR Bindings.

What should i be looking at in the way af skis today? What lenght etc. I am actually really looking forward to getting back out on the slopes again.

thanks
tim

[troutman]

Unreal snow at Sunshine Sunday. It was hard to see though, because it was windy and snowing hard all day.

This could be a record-breaking season for snow.

Sunshine had 88 cm in last 6 days.

[kipperfan]

Yeah Louise was sick yesterday as well, I have never in my life seen snow like this before January, let alone December! Powder more then waist deep in tons of spots on the back, twas pretty great.

[Tron_fdc]

Louise was pretty good all weekend. Lots of lifts open, but not all runs open off the lifts. Top of the world and Paradise were closed due to high winds, which made things a little congested.

I still managed to get a few turns in, but it's still a little sketchy in spots. Knee deep on top of rocks, meaning I put a few dings into my board.

Hopefully this snowfall stays consistent though. It would be an amazing year if we keep getting 10-20cms a week!

[Vansmack]

I was at Louise Friday through Sunday. It was awesome. Saturday they opened Whitehorn off of summit and it was amazing. There is so much snow. It was coming down really hard when we left on Sunday as well. I heard revy actually had to close the mountain on Sunday due to extreme winds.