Is Freestyle The Future?
Snowboardings progression and future aren’t set in stone. True statement? Undoubtedly, which makes it a part of the majesty of what we all do. The potential for doing anything is limitless whether it’s Travis Rice pushing the limits of how many times you can cork a spin, Scott Stevens and Jesse Burtner showing us to think outside the box with technical rail progression, or Jeremy Jones (big mountain) riding lines that others wouldn’t touch. So why is it that the statement of Freestyle being the future keeps showing up and is it really the future?
It’s undeniable the grip freestyle has on the media both in just the microcosm of snowboarding and the mainstream. Pick up a magazine and flick through the pages whether it’s ads, stories, interviews, or what have you there’s an undeniable presence of the freestyle focus. Turn on the TV and most televised events are either the X-Games or The Dew Tour. Every four winters we get the Olympics but the big hype is typically in the halfpipe.
Riding more park than a teenager
Look at the big percentage of guys filming and riding in the backcountry most are riders that made their name in the park first and are now out there spinning 1080 double corks off huge cheese wedges or doing something technical off a more natural feature. It’s part of the natural progression as a rider, when the abuse of riding park all day takes its toll they started to move towards riding pow lines and dropping cliffs, but they’re still adding tricks they learned in the park to these features.
Slackcountry Melon
How accessible is it for someone to ride powder lines every day? Realistically for most it’s not, but it’s far easier for a resort to plop a few rails into the snow, push a couple mounds and build a jump, and if they have the budget and can make the snow a halfpipe. Now I’m not saying everyone feels the urge to go ride the park as there will always be those purists that just like riding down groomers, through the trees, or being a powder hound and sniffing out a stash of the goods. But how many of those people also like buttering around, jumping over or off natural features, and throwing a 180 here or there?
Pushing close to 30 and still pressing.
Starting to notice a trend here? Freestyle in the sense of being a purist to that aspect might not be the actual future, but all mountain freestyle definitely has that potential. I see more guys in their late 30′s throwing 180′s off side hits or ollieing off rollers out there than I did 10 years ago. Buttering potential has just gone insane with all the anti-camber options out there as well.
Age will always be a factor in this as well. As more people from my generation start to age and realize they can’t huck their meat off a 50 foot park jump like they used to, but that they can still butter around and ollie off rollers and do small side hits. If anything everyone will still retain some of that freestyle aspect as they transition as a rider. With that in mind it’s safe to say that all mountain freestyle is the future but not full blown freestyle. What is every ones thoughts on this?
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Hey man Im already there haha. Turning 38 just as the season opens and still having fun everyday learning new butter combos and pushing my rail riding. Over the last 4-5 seasons Ive definitely curtailed by park jump riding. I just physically cant handle eating shit off a 50 footer anymore. Park jumps are pretty much straight airs or 180s and 3's on a really good day but my rail and box riding is still progressing and giving me a blast. Just as youve said I have also really been hitting back country heavy and taking tricks I used to do in the park with me. Guess im just an awesome trend setter lol!
freestyle is future? i dont know, maybe. what i would like to see though is more diversity.
as you said, the minute you open a magazine you see someone doing a trick.but i think that there is room for more out there.
i would like to see guys like these get more recognition
http://www2.thenorthface.com/masters/
kyrgyzstanplan.blogspot.com/
http://jeremyjones.net/
http://mitch.at/blog/
i feel like the industry i focusing to much of its marketing to kids jibbing trashbins and people who ride real mountains are left in the shadow.
sorry for crappy drunk english and incoherrnet post..
When it comes down to it the majority of people these days would rather want to see a double cork than a monster pow line. We're losing appreciation for the simple/little things that make snowboarding so great and fun.
I am 39 years old, been snowboarding since 1987, was a sponsored rider for a few years in the early 90's. I still ride as much as possible, get about 30-40 days in a year. I am almost disgusted at watching the kids on the hill these days, they sure know how to slide that rail, or do that jump pretty good, but they don't know how to ride!!, no edge control, they slide around and it kills me. I would be so pumped to see some 19 year old rail a turn, but they don't know how! The marketing of freestyle snowboarding has caused this. I am going to throw out a claim and say at 39 years old I can still ride circles around these kids. I am that person who bypasses the big jumps now, just don't need to get hurt, but I butter the shit, take the rollers, style the airs, slide the rails 50 50, ride the pipe, ride big mountain powder, hike massive lines, and am an experienced all around rider. I don't spin like a used to, but a floated styled method feels better anyway.
Like the guy in the thread above me, started in 87, sponsored for a few years, latish 30's etc. However I didn't grow up in the park, one we didn't really have them so my lines are the similar as they are today finding powder and milking the terrain the best I can. Just doing laps in a park under the chair is not why I ride. When you're a kid, u bypass learing how to jump and focus on trying whatever trick there is. Then u start to see that there is more than the park and begin to see what all riding has to offer. It's just the natural progression of life.
Another old dude checkin' in. (33)
Freestyle IS snowboarding. Whether it's big mountain, street rail or perfectly groomed park, its all the same. There will always be creativity and progression. I see parks as a training ground for when the snow hits. Parks also turn a shitty hill into a mountain of possibilities. What I see as the future is a more fluid riding experience. More contests like natural selection, and more parks like what burton is trying to do with the stash. I love a powder day, and would never choose rails over kickers, but I can see why rails and all the street sections are blowing up. It opens the marketing machine to an entire world of new customers to sell to. The future of snowboarding honestly depends on what you want and how much cash you have in your pocket. If you got heli cash, lift ticket money or an old ass board you can send down a flight of steps, you can get it on.
personally, I'm gettin' my tricks straight so I can float some sweet 5s in the backcountry. Poof!
a young kid now! im 17 and live in new york. i agree with the 39 year old dude. most kids head straight to the little parks and hitt a box that they can stand up on and then fall to stop.luckily i leaned a lot of board control before i got into park and i credit all my progression to that. i also think learning edge work on an icey slope helped as well. im pretty big into park cause its all we have in NY but whenever we get dumped on i always hit up the trees or do some crusiers. but i agree that freestyle is a lot more fun that just carving. i love throwing flat land 3s off butters and jibbing fallen trees in the woods. nothing beats it.
Great responses to this post!
My take on this, as a mountain freerider:
People aren´t just going to do Jeremy Jones´ lines, for the simple reason that they´re absurd and really not for the average snowboarder or person who has no experience on a board, what so ever. This might be more attractive for a longboarder, but chances are this one has already been strapped into a snowboard. Same for a surfer. Surfing pow is really what we do, or aspire to, anyway. Now, why won´t Jeremy Jones (the big mountain slayer) turn people into snowboarders? The goods are for one inaccessible, two, fucking dangerous – calculated risk, maybe. Danger has the effect on people that it scares them.
For some insane reason, throwing ridiculous corks over huge park hits does not seem as dangerous – there´s a certain flow thrown into the mix, and being man built kickers, it really can´t be that bad. "Cool stuff that apparently isn´t dangerous? Fuck yeah, I want to do that!"
For me, Absinthe Films in particular have been the absolute best at showing a mix of backcountry riding and freestyle. When I started snowboarding, the natural direction for me to go was to the park. Mack Dawg forced me!
Later, I turned more and more to the real mountains. Absinthe kind of sparked this, and they still do. I huck 1s and 3s in the BC, eat shit every once in a while, and ride switch as much as I can, because being comfortably both ways can save your ass on the day the shit hits the fan. It´s fun, too.
Freestyle is the past, present and future of snowboarding. It just differs where you´re going to apply it.
Kudos to everyone here keeping it mellow and writing some introspective stuff. I think I fall on the other end of the experience ladder – I'm 31 and been riding since I was, what, 14? But I took a number of years off in college and didn't get back into it until about four years ago. I kind of look at my progression as pre- and post-hiatus. I was always timid on the park stuff and just wanted to ride, and when I came back to riding my friends were also not interested in jumping or tricks but obsessed with searching out the pow, so that's where my skills are now. I can hardly do a straight air off anything right now, but I'm determined to get better at it and at least be able to comfortably launch off of stuff and maybe a 180 here and there. I think it is required to have that kind of confidence to really be safe when you're on bigger lines and in the trees, which is where I tend to go.
Anyway there's "no correct way" as they say and it's all about getting a little better every time you ride. I live in Chicago and look at the pathetic hills we have here as practice and warm-ups for when I go out west to get the real stuff.