I've been thinking this for a while and this year's X, which frankly was an embarassment to our sport only confirmed this. This is an event driven by all the worst aspects of action sports, and presented in such a way that entertains the gaper masses, not the core fans.
I mean I guess slopestyle was alright and there was some sick stuff thrown down and Andreas fully deserved the win, but again it was just a numbers game. I remember Thomas Doplads threw down a run of pure perfection and steeze and the commentators tore him a new asshole for not spinning higher. Nonetheless, slope was pretty much ok I guess.
Big Air was retarded and I hope nothing like it ever happens to our sport again. 4 skiers? Public voting? Haydn Christiansen? I swear you couldn't make this shit up.
Pipe however really takes the cake. The superstars of our sport risk their bodies putting on an epic show for a crowd 80% of whom don't give a fuck about skiing. Tanner throws down the best pipe run in history. By a mile. And people boo and throw snowballs?
Seriously, who can look at this year's Xgames and really believe it in any way helped freeskiing? The athletes I hope have come away from it thinking "do we really need this shit?"
So what's the solution? Clearly comps are a hugely important part of freeskiing and there needs to be a pinnacle of the circuit, just not the Xgames.
-USFSO? They sorta dropped the ball this year, although it served its purpose: providing the breakthrough for a few unknowns (AJ, Kalle etc). This is what the Open is good for but it can't be the pinnacle: half the big athletes didn't show up this year...
I guess we need to look to Simon and Jon and hope the NAO is as great of a comp as it surely has the potential to be: an event created by skiers, for skiers, with perfect and huge features. I hope.
Idk, but what I do know is that Xgames was a rediculous debacle and ESPN should be ashamed.
thxbye : )
