Ski Racing or freestyle?

i used to race. i think it definately made me a better all around skier. i would say race for a year and hit the park/mountain on your free time. then next year either sign up for the freeride team or just have fun and not be on a team.

racing gives you the best base for all around skiing, and i found the transition to freestyle to be failry easy.

well, i am on the wsu ski team.  it depends man, i had so much fun last year it was ridiculous.  but i wouldnt have had much fun if i was a true park rat at heart.  i like park, but more than that i just love skiing and meeting other cool people who ski as well.  the best part of it was meeting all the people on the team, and they are all pretty much my best friends here.  but if all you want to do is park and freeski this is definately not for you.  on race weekends we get if we are lucky about an hour or two of freeskiing, and the rest is just for course setting and runnning.  and you can get sanctioned if you dont do stuff, ask my dumbass friend about that one.  told not to run the course and did and finished the run through the finish line with one leg in the air fist pumping... yeah the judges werent too stoked on that and made him miss the next race.  so basically if you want to get good at skiing in general and just having fun and meeting people join the team.  but if you want to freeski alot and get good at park do the freestyle team.  hope that helps, and if you want more info hit me up.  im pretty sure i saw you at warren miller.  were you the kid talking about getting the long story short premier?  i was the kid with the ski porn shirt on handing out mags.  anyway hope that helps you out.

peace.

who was your friend?

depends how old u are

i mean if you got a year to spare, race.

go fore the freestyle team that would be sick

haha, it was glenn he was the guy standing next to me at warren miller with the obermeyer puffy with the fur hood.  it was hilrious he is such a screw off, i laugh every time i think of him fist pumped through the finish screaming yeeeeeaaaaah while the finish line judge is running out of his shack yelling at him. 

Hey man i raced all thorugh highschool and it helped me be a very good and technical skiier. I think once you have those skills it is mch easier to cross over into other types ok skiing.

I've never raced before, and no I don't hate on it either. I think that you should try to do as much as you can. Obviously I think that you u wanna ski more park and bc then you should do the freestyle and snowboarding one. However, I think that racers get to learn excellent edge control which can be translated into pipe, and even some transitions from jump to jump or to rail etc... Also racers seems to have a good understanding of a center of gravity. THIS IS HUGE in park skiing... I could rant and rave about how u need to use the core of your body instead of your arms...

freestyle by far

freestyle

race

race

racing by far improves your overall skiing cuz if u just freestyle, however steezy it is the look of not trying and whatnot isn't good for your skiing. if you learn to race and ski real well first, a) the transition to freestyle will be a breeze, and b) when you aren't rippin in the park you can actually ski well in the bc and whatnot.

that's just my two cents.

yeah, seriously i sucked so bad at racing last year cuz it was my first time racing, or on skis that werent twins.  its incredible how much of a difference it made in my overall skiing.  i have so much more confidence skiing anything because we have to go fast over sketch rollers, compressions and weird corners.  so it just makes you prepared for anything.  i finally learned how to set my edges in and ride a nice arc, instead of just kinda skidding around.  i find i have so much more fun now on just plain old grromers cuz i can just rip them like i couldnt before.  also as people said up above it gives you so much more balance and will make you better at park just because you have more awareness on your skis.  your choice, i think both would be great for you, so thats a tough one.

how solid is your overrall skiing. and how old are you? i wouldnt waste a whole year trying to build up a sking base, instead of a trick base

I have been skiing since I was five. I am 20 and this will be my 16th year on snow. I didn't two years of development training with my mountain. I can pretty much rip anywhere on the mountain. The only areas I really want to improve in is freestyle, steeps, powder and cliffs. 

depending on what happens with the Rocky Mountain Conference freestyle events could become part of the college alpine circuit. It really depends on how well it does in its first year.

racing will make you a better skier, all the balance and the fundamentals. you can learn to rip..like me ;)