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April, 2025

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Is Freeze Still relevant?

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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22738 - Karma: 77,008
https://www.newschoolers.com/readnews/43286.0/From-the-Archives--Q-A-with-FREEZE-s-Micah-Abrams

This article got me thinking... Is Freeze magazine still relevant, or is it simply the leftovers of a past generation? Some things are better to have burnt out vs. faded away.... and maybe Freeze is one of them?

I don't know. Freeze was such a pivotal moment in my life. Literally the ONLY reason that I'm into this type of skiing is because I was standing at a magazine rack in London, Ontario at a Shoppers drugmart with my buddy Lucas, and saw this fucking dude on the cover of a mag doing some crazy upside down flippy thing. It was Seth Morrison doing a Lincon Loop for reference... but man my life changed that day.

I saw a High North ad, and knew that I needed to get into this type of skiing and get myself out to Whistler. The next year was spent shredding park as hard as I could on 205 slalom skis with no twin-tips, and saving every penny I could to go to Summer Camp. I did, and promptly followed it up by dropping out of school to become a pro skier.

I eventually realized I was better at getting sponsors than I was at filming or winning contests, and as such settled into a role as an ad sales guy at Newschoolers. History that you NSers know follows from there.

I just wonder with all this Freeze hype - how many people really had that type of a connection with it? Is it a romanticized piece that you all simply hold special because you know you should, or did Freeze touch you the same way it touched me?

12 years ago
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Shredability
Posts: 2757 - Karma: 501
I'm to young(19) for freeze to have impacted me, but I'm curious what other people say... threads
12 years ago
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chicken
Posts: 6844 - Karma: 2,122
a big stack is probably still sitting in my parents basement. I read every single one from like 2000 to the end.
12 years ago
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Huck_Norris
Posts: 11487 - Karma: 18,627
Freeze touched you too?

That sonofabitch. We should press charges man, we were young and that wasn't right.
12 years ago
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t_rob
Posts: 6433 - Karma: 11,460
Freeze is before my time and I know very little about it.

Many of the old regime still talk about freeze endearingly. Almost everyone on this site has heard of freeze even if they don't know much more than it was a magazine that was shut down my transworld years ago. From the people I talked to the magazine represented passion and rebellion. Those are two great things that shouldn't die and should be held onto. There is no reason to ever let go of Freeze. I think the memory of Freeze should live on but I don't know if it should come back.
12 years ago
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cydwhit
Posts: 5079 - Karma: 43,074
I agree but I would be stoked if it came back.
12 years ago
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snowmosexual
Posts: 1941 - Karma: 10,083
Freeze is way before my time(14), but my dad still has a small stack. Wayy better than anything we have now
12 years ago
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skiierman
Posts: 28699 - Karma: -5,563
No, because it's been out of circulation for so long... that question is almost as stupid as asking if they should bring it back or not.

Answer: BRING IT THE FUCK BACK AND PUT FREESKIER OUT OF BUSINESS! THAT MAGAZINE SUCKS AND FREEZE SHOULD HAVE NEVER GONE AWAY!

Freeze 4 LYFE!

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12 years ago
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CaptainObvious.
Posts: 5713 - Karma: 20,647
FREEZE was a turning point for me. I picked my first issue up on a trip to Steamboat with my parents (lived in Reno at the time). I was probably 15 and the only skiing I knew was racing. I did it because it was all I knew of skiing and all of my friends were there. I was hating it and considering putting my skis up for good because I wasn't having any fun. I read it on the flight and when I got to Steamboat I spotted the movie "Salad Days" that I had read about in my issue of the mag. I bought it and watched it over and over and over again. After that trip I shoveled driveways and mowed lawns for 10 months until I had saved up enough to buy the classic Salomon 1080 twins. The rest, for me, is what created the passion I have for skiing today.

So yes...it was a big deal for me too.
12 years ago
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Skibumsmith
Posts: 5469 - Karma: 12,380
I didn't know what FREEZE was until years after it had died. There's Something About McConkey is what did it for me.
12 years ago
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22738 - Karma: 77,008
bro - you and me need to share a cocktail and reminisce about our deliverance into the holy land.
12 years ago
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CaptainObvious.
Posts: 5713 - Karma: 20,647
I can't tell you how awesome that would be....but I live in the wrong country.
12 years ago
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22738 - Karma: 77,008
No such thing. What country? Never know where in the world I make it.
12 years ago
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22738 - Karma: 77,008
Its very interesting to see people posting that they don't know freeze, yet they know its supposed to be cool and that it holds cultural significance.

Man, we really need to track down the old issues and see if we can get them digitized. It would be amazing to have everything so that those that don't know could get an education on it.

It also would be interesting for those of us who reminisce about the 'good old days' if those issues were actually as good as we remember. ;)

Its funny how time and absence can really shine things up every now and then.
12 years ago
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CaptainObvious.
Posts: 5713 - Karma: 20,647
US. Denver, co. If you're ever going to be around, just hit me up man.
12 years ago
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japanada
Posts: 13785 - Karma: 1,959
Always and forever, it's like The Greatful Dead, great music that will forever and always will be relevant. I picked my first mag in 99/00 up when I was 13 skiing at a little old garbage dump converted into a ski 'hill' called Wilmot in way south Wisconsin. That began my ski bum dream. Years later Im loving life and living at the base Jackson Hole!! I have to give my props to you too Bishop, you and NS have been huge in my ski life! The change over the years has been far and vast reaching and great to watch over the years! Keep it up!!
12 years ago
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danbrown
Posts: 11939 - Karma: 21,834
i have two big tupperware storage container bin things with like 25-30 issues in each. plus 9 or 10 issues of axis scattered in. always a good read
12 years ago
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AwR
Posts: 5148 - Karma: 1,899
Freeze got me into skiing and also brought me to Newschoolers. Back in the day Freeze had message boards that I would frequent a lot, and then it got shut down and then I found NS. I think some member of the freezeboards seanpistol or crazyfuck talked about NS.
12 years ago
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ski4fun420
Posts: 902 - Karma: 842
Awesome~!

12 years ago
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22738 - Karma: 77,008
SIA every year dude. Come hang with us, always a blast. We've got a suite near the show and you should come out for a couple of cocktails / juices (depending on age in amuurika).

Hit up the moose closer to the date. I fuck up responses, so he's a safe bet.
12 years ago
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skiierman
Posts: 28699 - Karma: -5,563
I'll shit in your bathtub. Just gimme the chance!
12 years ago
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22738 - Karma: 77,008
We actually got super lucky with the shutdown of freeze. Basically everyone who was wondering what the fuck happened came to Newschoolers to discuss that fact. Thus began the rise of NS.

You could even go so far as to say NS success was a phoenix birthed out of the ashes of Freeze.
12 years ago
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Skibumsmith
Posts: 5469 - Karma: 12,380
If somebody actually went through the effort to do this it would be awesome. I would read them. I would even pay for them.
12 years ago
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CaptainObvious.
Posts: 5713 - Karma: 20,647
Hahah I'm definitely past the age in the states (21). That would be stellar. I will for sure hit up moosey when the time comes. Thanks for the invite man!
12 years ago
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GrahamGould
Posts: 713 - Karma: 2,439
Bringing back FREEZE would be interesting. A lot has changed in Freeskiing since 2005, so its hard to say if it would really be the same. That being said, I think its worth a shot. If they could get some of the same writers and the same editor on board, it could be really, really awesome. I think it would create a nice change in the ski industry.
12 years ago
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skiierman
Posts: 28699 - Karma: -5,563
This isn't Harry Potter, you dumb fuck. God damn is that child/spawn of Satan draining you of your brain power. Read him (her?) this next time...





12 years ago
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Mr.Huck
Posts: 6096 - Karma: 14,903
Freeze is relevant and needs to be resurrected. I'd love to join the Denver nostalgia cocktails Doug. Not inviting myself, but I will bring my own bottle of Scotch.

I owned quite a few issues of Freeze, but they have all been destroyed in moves. My fave though was the one that had the Seth Morrison self portrait. It was a shot of him doing a hand plant with the blue hair. This was before POV cams so I am still trying to figure out how he took the shot.
12 years ago
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Tremblantskier
Posts: 945 - Karma: 5,433
Unfortunately Freeze is no longer relevant to the new generation of skiers. Most young skiers probably would look at you blankly if you brought it up. In fall 1999 when I got my first copy of Freeze, with J.P Auclair doing a reverse tail grab on the cover, I knew I had to get a pair of those first generation yellow Teneighties. Everyone quoted the "overheard" quotes on the chair and Brad Holmes musings were hilarious. I don't think any media can recreate Freeze, now that the sport has evolved and is no longer a subculture. Print ski media is waning, it is a sad reality of the industry. I'm proud to say I have nearly every issue of Freeze gathering dust on a shelf, but the memory of such an iconic ski magazine will fade with the old fogies like us Bishop. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
12 years ago
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skiierman
Posts: 28699 - Karma: -5,563
You're a fucking retard.


There is plenty of sub-culture in skiing. That's like saying that there's no sub-culture in skating or surfing. Print media in general is declining but there's obviously other venues in which to promote a ski mag and if it's good enough, you'll get enough funding for it from the still tight-knight ski community... TGR and NS. Wow, imagine that.

Free advice, you stupid bastards. Now go and bring back FREEZE AND PUT FREESKIER OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!


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12 years ago
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QuazBotch
Posts: 3909 - Karma: 223
I skipped magazines and went straight to searching for skiing online after watching Mike Douglas talk about the Teneighty video on Pontiac World of Skiing and didn't find much until NS started existing. On NS, people talked about getting their issues of Freeze in the mail. I still didn't read it.

I have some issues of Axis somewhere though.

I wonder if I was the only person who thought print was silly when the sport was changing so fast that far back.
12 years ago
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RubberSoul
Posts: 11249 - Karma: 14,642
freeze was great, it had all kinds of good pictures and writing that didnt take itself seriously

really wish it was still in circulation. it'd be fun to still be getting new issues
12 years ago
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Tremblantskier
Posts: 945 - Karma: 5,433
Casual rebuttal...
12 years ago
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Karma_Police
Posts: 2655 - Karma: 1,628
Freeze is relevant for me, not because I read it but because my buddy who really got me into riding read it and preached about it. That's when I saw pictures of the Dino Contest and knew my calling as a terrible park skier who likes to drink and attempt poorly orchestrated hits.
12 years ago
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artrud
Posts: 598 - Karma: 1,471
It is no longer relevant bc it was the hardcopy manifestation of skiing's revolution during the early 2000s and today the "revolution" is over...we made it. Whether making it is was a good thing or not is a whole different argument.
12 years ago
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7290 - Karma: 18,698
I'd love to see freeze back, maybe not as a mag though but def as a website like powder. I think the attitude it had would still work with the you get generations of this site well and give you guys some great content for this site.
12 years ago
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LuchoR
Posts: 278 - Karma: 637
Well, i don´t know exactly How relevant it was, but, me being from "Down Under" (Argentina) was one of the ways to get to know the sport Better, i was only aware of racing... but somehow i got a tape and it was 1999, a video were CR was doing 1440s and McConkey, well he was THe Man... i remember working super hard to save money, so i could travel to the US and ski a "Good" park, way back then we barely have anything known as park in Catedral (bariloche)... so i traveled to "stratton, Vt" 2002-2003 period, and i remember getting a copy of Freeze (don´t actually remember who was on the cover but i remember that the have many interviews and made sevearl references to The video that got me REally into it, and it  was Happy Dayz, all these followed by the magazine, so that was the kick off (even though i didn´t know by that time) that turned out being my lifestyle... got to ski more and more FS and BC, somehow got sponsored by Atomic, in Europe, and then i Become a Freeski coach, and if i wouldn´t have gone through those magazines, i don´t if a would have choosen this, as My sport/life...
Now going back on time i do remember ONE cover that blewed my mind and it was PEP´s sw 3 secuence off a Spine (by that time hitting something that big sw, and landing sw, was Surreal, and that for me was a turning point...
12 years ago
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freeskibum82
Posts: 6355 - Karma: 5,056
I still have all my copies of Freeze. That magazine is what pushed me to get my first twin tips before they were even for sale, the Dynastar Concepts back in 1998. When skiblades were all the craze, i decided to stick with the skiing. I did my first lincoln loop and "dinner roll" back in 1998 as well and started to learn 180s and 360s. Trying ever so hard to get the grabs in the magazines down. I remember jacking benches from the lodge and dragging them up the mountain to grind them. I also got kicked out of Jiminy Peak for grinding the hand railing down to the ski patrol lodge.

Its a shame that magazine ended, but we had freeskier! unfortunately for me, freeskier is all ads and the content is horrible. It's tough for a magazine to live today in the digital age. What happens on NS, shows up in freeskier 2months later. If freeskier wants to prosper and be the Freeze of this era, it must inspire and provide fresh content for its readers.
12 years ago
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freeskibum82
Posts: 6355 - Karma: 5,056
misty 7 circa 1998
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12 years ago
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22738 - Karma: 77,008
Phoenix isn't a harry potter reference, I'm straight up Dungeons and Dragons. Old school on that mythical shit. Harry Potter is silly fantasy dumbed down for tweens.
12 years ago
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stizzle
Posts: 371 - Karma: 623
I have the last three years worth of issues... maybe more. I'm willing to let someone digitize them as long as I get them back. I still go through the old issues before each season. Its what got me into freeskiing and a hit of nostalgia at the start of each season is perfect.
12 years ago
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EastShoreDrive
Posts: 188 - Karma: 862
Not to generalize but I'm willing to bet it is still relevant to those people who read it while it was in circulation. I picked it up from some airport magazine rack and that was it, mogul skiing immediately became stupid. The sort of manic layout and rebelliousness of the whole thing spoke to me. Freeze and the Bluetorch wakeboard magazine had a similar voice and were the two magazines I waited for every month. It is a bummer that both are not around anymore but I feel like they served their purposes and progressed the way people looked at the respective sports. It was wild to see the stuff people were able to do on snow and the party lifestyle that came along with it. Freeze made you want to be there while all this crazy shit was going down on the mountain and when the sun went down. Freeze made everything look fun.

As a side note, there is still have a poster of Shane Szocs from Freeze on the wall in my old room at my parent's house. I think this only proves how fucking old I'm getting.
12 years ago
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thejackal1177
Posts: 3434 - Karma: 2,724
it will forever have a special place in my heart, I really thought it was a joke when they ended but when it sank in i was so dissapointed.

me the day i would get my freeze.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DyHpOXLOO1U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
12 years ago
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thejackal1177
Posts: 3434 - Karma: 2,724
terrible at embedding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyHpOXLOO1U
12 years ago
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weiler
Posts: 735 - Karma: 654
We need freeze! Freeze was skiing's Thrasher.
12 years ago
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Pipe_Munky
Posts: 10888 - Karma: 2,185
the Freeze forums are how I found out about NS. Once I got here I met some weird dude with long blond hair that worked the park crew at Blue Mountain...wonder what happened to that guy...
12 years ago
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Karma_Police
Posts: 2655 - Karma: 1,628
Do you still have that banner?

Btw, you still haven't returned my calls about when you're coming down, ya cum turd.
Something else to note, the quakes beat the sounders 1 nill, suck it.
12 years ago
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Min_Soo
Posts: 2307 - Karma: 293
Freeze definitely helped me get into skiing. I already loved the sport but seeing this sport develop during my teenage years definitely helped me get way more into this sport.
12 years ago
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Bloc_chain
Posts: 26051 - Karma: 4,433
The first gen of modern freestyle skiing is still 100% relevant and I think super important for new people to that sport to get to know. Seeing as freeze was THE magazine for this era, yes it is still relevant.
12 years ago
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25444 - Karma: 13,856
Freeze has become a hipster trend in skiing, it was obscure and short lived but the memory of it lives on and distinguishes those who know it from the noob hordes of more recent fans of freeskiing.

In many ways, I think if it had survived, it would not be as known/reputed as it is now. Its death at the hands of a cost-cutting operation higher up only made it stronger.
12 years ago
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Ace3+4
Posts: 1493 - Karma: 50
Such a long time ago. I got into it just before it got cancelled (wish I could find those last copies). I just remember a lot of seth morrison and the "ask Brad" column. I'm pretty sure that part was shit... but I remember enjoying it back then.

Since we're reminiscing I'll just throw out my intro to freeskiing. My dad owns a ski shop and we recieved from helly Hanson a copy of "Ski movie 2: High Society" I just watched that over and over and quit snowboarding to return to skiing. That same year (I think) I went to a premiere of Exact Science in Bromont, Qc and met the two Phil (larose and Belan) and thomas Rinfret. I was so nervous I nearly shit myself. But from then on I was hooked.
To this day High Society and Whiteshine are the two Movies I've watch the most.
12 years ago
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CaptainObvious.
Posts: 5713 - Karma: 20,647
Ahhhhh!! I think I still have that one! I haven't looked at my collection in a long time but I'm damn sure I still have it. I always loved WSKI106 and Session 1242 as well.
12 years ago
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