and dirtyozzy... 1) apparently you care, and 2) please stop with the "thug and gangster" argument. not everyone who opposes this institution in freeskiing has this mentality (i.e. TC crew, Yoke collect for starters).
Amongst other things, i care DEEPLY about this subject because many companies are dropping their roots teams and high level athletes who market on a more "media based" spectrum for athletes who will be repping that company in the olympics and major comps. it sucks to see an entire team ,who loves skiing and does it strictly for fun edits, get dropped to fund the ridiculous budgets of guys on the comp stage.
Its these guys doing tour stops around the world to session with kids and hand out free product, show that you can have fun anywhere or be a pro that came outta a 400 vertical hill, that have the largest impact on kids in the sport and continue their love for skiing. you dont have to strive for the olympics to do it for life. Thats why we are pushing so hard... because i dont want to see it like aerials where if you werent good enough by the time you were 18 being brought up through academy/ski team, then your career is over. no one does aerials for fun really.... but i want our sport to be one where kids keep doing it just to keep skiing. gonna be hard to do when our terrain parks are closed to the general population and the fee for getting busted hitting urban is $750
