2008 Freeskiing Tour Tease

[lemon boy]

Am I good or what?

Nahhhhh I just can see all to clearly why Tride would be nixed. It has a lot to do with why CB isn't a part of "the tour" and why places like Tahoe can keep two events even coming off of "the worst winter, EVER"



The prequal list is pretty weird for the women, only 6 are not from the US.

Z- All the more excuse for you to sack up and travel to the events.

[Odin]

Hmmm, I wonder if they are going to finally open that ridge for competition above the bowl.

or if they are going to hold it on the north face (ick)

glacier bowl

[idiot]

glad to see kirkwood on that list.....

[grskier]

I'm in! Mmmmm mmmm....now just need to wipe all the shit off my lips from kissing ass for a travel budget!

You should start raising money at the Tuesday night kickball games..

[Altaholic]

Drum roll please...

The 2008 Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Series venues will include (in no order related to dates):

Snowbird, Utah

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Squaw Valley, California

Kirkwodd, California

Alyeska, Alaska (NEW FOR 2008!)

I liked & disliked T-Ride, AK is cool but beyond my means to go there, I hoped they had Big Sky/ Moonlight as one of the 5.

[Altaholic]

There are a TON of mags, mags girlfriends, mags wives and mags friends on that list.

Oh Boy, I get to compete with my Buddy Ben Wheeler in the qualifers @ the bird , though his girl (Molly Baker) got prequalified but not him.

Hopefully I can stay on my fuckin' feet in comps this year and not DNFs from skis blown off, or the bottom of the barrel from crashing. Although it killed when my 193 Blowers cracked (I got replacements from the Nordica Warentee dept) the day before 'bird qaulifers, and had to go on stick from the previous season that my bindings were not at the perfect DIN spot I wanted & blew off TWICE, I tried a gnar line & got F'ed in A to sum it up right on West Baldy.

'06 was good comp year for me (got to JH finals), '07 I wanna foget.

Needless to say it'll be fun. Now if we can get Bass, Spaten, Pacifico, Sam Adams or Seirra for a beer sponser instead of Corona (It's alright but I'm a mother fuckin' beer snob to the highest order who will fully admit it who bootlegs LOTS of beer into UT for the winter), but Corona is an upgrade from Amstel Light though.

[Schralps McGnar]

In the new Powder, The article about the Honda Freeski Tour mentioned they were considering the possibility of hosting a big mountain event. Anyone know anymore info on that?

Drewski....I read that too and was curious. I am assuming it would be an invite only scenario like the pipe comp, but who knows. I think they should format it like the Back Nine if it was invite only. That would make for sweet tv coverage. TK says you will be rocking Fatta Pusses this year.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Anybody know why there are only 33 male skiers on the pre-qual list this year when last year (and previous years as well I think), there were 50? Why the reduction?

[alto]

The judges and the venues were getting flooded with never-before-seen numbers of competitors. Take for example the two days of qualifiers at Snowbird. I know your question is in relation to WT athletes, but that example does speak to the big picture. I also believe they rewrote the rules regarding requisites to be pre-qualified to be a little more difficult, hence fewer pre-quals.

I just hope the trend of "too many people" continues. Maybe a really legitimate Freeskiing World Tour could develop where just making the tour is a huge goal for LOTS of people, something like (though realistically not on the scale of) the ASP's (Assoc. of Surfing Professionals) World Tour.

After all, like McConkey says, "competitive freeskiing is just the sport of skiing. Its not any kind of specialty event. There's a starting gate and a finish line and the best skier who can ski down that mountain top-to-bottom wins."
Meaning; come one, come all, from Chamonix, France to Tyrol, Wisconsin. Its the World Motherfuckin Tour!

[Buzzworthy]

The judges and the venues were getting flooded with never-before-seen numbers of competitors. Take for example the two days of qualifiers at Snowbird. I know your question is in relation to WT athletes, but that example does speak to the big picture. I also believe they rewrote the rules regarding requisites to be pre-qualified to be a little more difficult, hence fewer pre-quals.

I just hope the trend of "too many people" continues. Maybe a really legitimate Freeskiing World Tour could develop where just making the tour is a huge goal for LOTS of people, something like (though realistically not on the scale of) the ASP's (Assoc. of Surfing Professionals) World Tour.

After all, like McConkey says, "competitive freeskiing is just the sport of skiing. Its not any kind of specialty event. There's a starting gate and a finish line and the best skier who can ski down that mountain top-to-bottom wins."
Meaning; come one, come all, from Chamonix, France to Tyrol, Wisconsin. Its the World Motherfuckin Tour!

Pfft....Coming from number 2 in the world. Whata you know?

[Alyeska_Skibum]

Hmmm, I wonder if they are going to finally open that ridge for competition above the bowl.

or if they are going to hold it on the north face (ick)

glacier bowl

I have the new owner to thank for this! When the Red Bull comp was up here they had it on the North Face right by Xmas Chute and just to the right of Headwall above High T. Both venues were pretty badass.

[powdork]

Why would they have dropped Kirkwood, or what were the complaints.
It doesn't seem like Kirkwood does much to market the event. I probably do ten times what they do on aboutlaketahoe.com, but that's just how they roll. They really should be able to fill the corral, but they don't really even try. Or is it the organization behind the event, lack of lodging at Kirkwood, or just the 'we don't care, we're just here to ski' attitude that prevails at many levels (not that there's anything wrong with that)?

[Altaholic]

The judges and the venues were getting flooded with never-before-seen numbers of competitors. Take for example the two days of qualifiers at Snowbird. I know your question is in relation to WT athletes, but that example does speak to the big picture. I also believe they rewrote the rules regarding requisites to be pre-qualified to be a little more difficult, hence fewer pre-quals.

I just hope the trend of "too many people" continues. Maybe a really legitimate Freeskiing World Tour could develop where just making the tour is a huge goal for LOTS of people, something like (though realistically not on the scale of) the ASP's (Assoc. of Surfing Professionals) World Tour.

After all, like McConkey says, "competitive freeskiing is just the sport of skiing. Its not any kind of specialty event. There's a starting gate and a finish line and the best skier who can ski down that mountain top-to-bottom wins."
Meaning; come one, come all, from Chamonix, France to Tyrol, Wisconsin. Its the World Motherfuckin Tour!

I remember Jim Jack (If any of you guys have never met him, he is one of the coolest skier/guy you can meet) & Shimdty talking about that change up last winter on the 'bird tram, looks like I'll have to sign up even faster for comps come Nov. 1st.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Why would they have dropped Kirkwood, or what were the complaints.
It doesn't seem like Kirkwood does much to market the event. I probably do ten times what they do on aboutlaketahoe.com, but that's just how they roll. They really should be able to fill the corral, but they don't really even try. Or is it the organization behind the event, lack of lodging at Kirkwood, or just the 'we don't care, we're just here to ski' attitude that prevails at many levels (not that there's anything wrong with that)?

I hear you on the marketing thing. Every year when the comp is going on, i'm amazed at how little fanfare or even basic signage is going on in the village area telling people that the comp is going on and where to go to watch. I mean you have some of the best skiers in the world competing there right around the corner from the village and no one would ever know it unless they happened to glance at the calender of events on the website or maybe popped their head into Red Cliffs lodge.

As far as the specific complaints, I'm not sure, and I don't want to openly speculate online, but it was very easy to overhear the tension during one of the inspection runs I happened to be taking alongside the judges as they made their way down inspecting things themselves.

You always do a good job covering the comp Powdork. Please keep it up! It doesn't go unnoticed!

[Z]

I just hope the trend of "too many people" continues. Maybe a really legitimate Freeskiing World Tour could develop where just making the tour is a huge goal for LOTS of people, something like (though realistically not on the scale of) the ASP's (Assoc. of Surfing Professionals) World Tour. !

Yup. The more people the better.

[FREESKIER_FIVE-0]

I want to compete this year. Ill be turning 17 in feb. What do I do as a minor? Thanks.

[ukeskis]

Do the Aspen Freeride and Crested Butte comp towards overall points on the North American Tour?

Shralps get ahold of me..

[ridefree]

Do the Aspen Freeride and Crested Butte comp towards overall points on the North American Tour?

Sorry , no

[powdork]

You always do a good job covering the comp Powdork. Please keep it up! It doesn't go unnoticed!

Some of it may get missed this year. Entering is on my to do list for this winter. Of course, that likely means only $100 and a small portion of the mens qualifier will be missed.