That would be a cool experiment, I think most skier would pick an ugly rail and sloppy take off that flows better than a rail and take off that looks good but doesnt flow well.. If that makes any sense.

Function over form

features that flow > features that look easy

DROPCLIFFNOTBOMBThat would be a cool experiment, I think most skier would pick an ugly rail and sloppy take off that flows better than a rail and take off that looks good but doesnt flow well.. If that makes any sense.

Function over form

But the cleaner edges and such would make the less functional one look almost more functional and our mind would probably interpret it as such so i think it would be a pretty cool experiment. probably the better riders would prefer the truly smoother setup but less experienced riders would go for the cleaner one

nate1097But the cleaner edges and such would make the less functional one look almost more functional and our mind would probably interpret it as such so i think it would be a pretty cool experiment. probably the better riders would prefer the truly smoother setup but less experienced riders would go for the cleaner one

Yeah, if you straight up asked people what they would prefer, most would say the better setup to ride. But that's the point of this.

How much would what we see play into the overall feel of things.

Nobody would want to spend the time to make this happen, but it's a thought that's been in my head.

It would be interesting to actually have some data on this. It would show how important(or unimportant) making things look super clean is on top of having just a well riding, functional park.

i've ridden my fair share of both and i would take a well built jump/rail/landing over some rails that just got slapped in the ground and manicured over a few weeks.

lake louise is a good example. their inventory of rails is insane and their jump lines are incredible every year, but the way the rails are set up always sketches me out. like the lips are way too poppy for how steep the rail is or the landing is too flat, and the park could flow better.

put big bumps beside the feature and see if gapers learn their fucking lesson

steezburgereddieput big bumps beside the feature and see if gapers learn their fucking lesson

good point, this should be a thing

ive experimented with this kind of thing before but not to this extent... although I did find that less confident skiers definitely gravitate to cleaner looking features because they appear to be easier to hit. sort of a mind over matter thing if my rambling makes sense

steezburgereddieput big bumps beside the feature and see if gapers learn their fucking lesson

nate1097good point, this should be a thing

Kind of irrelevant to the topic and a waste anyway if someone actually did it.

The natural hits we put some finishing touches on with shovels always look janky as hell but a couple of us have backgrounds in building dirt jumps so the transition and lip is usually pretty flush, as a result they ride well and we don't really care how they look.

In a commercially operated park though... if a jump/feature looks dodgy, it's usually indicative of the level of care that went into its construction, and this is often reflected in how it rides.

That said I've hit some very nice looking features that were dangerously badly put together, so it's not a perfect indicator of quality.

nate1097But the cleaner edges and such would make the less functional one look almost more functional and our mind would probably interpret it as such so i think it would be a pretty cool experiment. probably the better riders would prefer the truly smoother setup but less experienced riders would go for the cleaner one

agreed

steezburgereddieput big bumps beside the feature and see if gapers learn their fucking lesson

there is so much side jumping at my home hill that there are legit bomb holes on each side of every feature. So many people get wrecked anthem it insane.

Kind of off topic, but my hill also has an elbow kink with no skirting on it, and gapers side jump the inside end of the rail all the time and get clotheslined because they couldn't move away fast enough. its funny as shit