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What is a non-gaper level of skiing?

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C-Wal
Posts: 185 - Karma: 1,370
Just wondering what level of park skiing you guys would expect of a skiier who is non-gaper?

I would have thought being able to spin 3's, slide boxes.

Wondering if anyone expects anything more such as off-axis spins, grabs with spins, rails, switch-ups, 2 ons and off?
Aug 2 2013 6:51PM
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cydwhit
Posts: 5065 - Karma: 42,823
Gaper is not a skill level but rather an attitude.
Aug 2 2013 6:54PM
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werd.
Posts: 967 - Karma: 4,330
This
Aug 2 2013 7:02PM
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C-Wal
Posts: 185 - Karma: 1,370
This is what I thought, however, I watched a video where a skier fell on a box, and everyone was ripping him calling a gaper and questioning him for wearing FT's
Aug 2 2013 7:28PM
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werd.
Posts: 967 - Karma: 4,330
I know what video you're talking about haha it's on the frontpage. And that's just NS members being how they always are. It's all in good fun, although some times it can go a little far. I think the main reason they were ripping on him so hard is because he just looked retarded when the little kid came on the box
Aug 2 2013 7:32PM
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a_burger
Posts: 5206 - Karma: 20,187
these people are gapers.

Criticizing someone because of skill and skill alone is a prime example of gaperness
Aug 2 2013 7:34PM
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caderobinson
Posts: 1193 - Karma: 4,770
id say if  you know how to ski in the park safely, like not ski under jumps or in the landings or cutting people off, you know how to call ur drop and not be in the way and stuff like that, then ur not a gaper.

As for skill level, if ur a beguinner ur gonna be called a gaper. Its not fair but its just the way it is. People Hate on  ns all the time.
Aug 2 2013 7:55PM
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J_BISCHOF
Posts: 2082 - Karma: 1,449
also, no matter what you can do, as long as you don't look like an idiot/gaper you should be fine.
Aug 2 2013 8:04PM
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egg.
Posts: 3231 - Karma: 3,477
If your not tom wallisch then your a gaper
Aug 2 2013 8:48PM
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~Gotama~
Posts: 821 - Karma: 3,160
its got nothing to do with park skiing ability, but if you can carve well, ski bumps, and comfortably make the entire mountain your bitch then youre good to go.
Aug 2 2013 8:51PM
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jca
Posts: 4162 - Karma: 6,261
if you cant link together a couple well controlled & powerful turns on your edges then you're a gaper.
Aug 2 2013 10:11PM
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Filmore
Posts: 460 - Karma: 861
Whether or not someone is a gaper is not measured by their bag of tricks. i know kids who can 5 and hit boxes and are complete gapers because they never learned how to ski properly outside of the park.
Aug 2 2013 10:23PM
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skiersupreme
Posts: 1549 - Karma: 4,872
gapers are people who think they know how to ski, but really dont.
Aug 2 2013 11:44PM
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ColinB
Posts: 1452 - Karma: 2,236
I don't see it as a level of skill.

Somebody who is totally fixated on their outerwear and looking as pro as possible rather than going out and having fun, or somebody who treats skiers that are better than them as though they're a 13 year old girl running after Justin Bieber. That to me is what qualifies as gaper-esque, forgetting that skiing is; a bunch of people all having the same fun doing the same thing differently.

Also people who are assholes to those of a lesser skill level rank right up there. Don't ruin someone else's day just because you know/think you're better than them
Aug 3 2013 12:52AM
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tcurle
Posts: 1247 - Karma: 5,182
If you arent oblivious in oark then you're better off. Gapers come in all shapes and sizes. You can have the first timer with rental gear or the ns gaper,
If you have team size jiberish and your $200 oakleys that automatically make you good at skiing
Aug 3 2013 1:02AM
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El_Barto.
Posts: 11630 - Karma: 24,465
gaper to me is just being bad at skiing. If you ski hard and wear a 1980s onsie with 210s and raichles youre not a gaper....youre a champ.

Gapers jut have no fucking idea what is going on. They take up two spots in the parking lot. Their skis arent parallel in the line. They bring the bar down without asking.
Aug 3 2013 1:17AM
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SamMcChesney
Posts: 2905 - Karma: 2,198
you tell em colin!
Aug 3 2013 1:20AM
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SunburntSquad
Posts: 293 - Karma: 496
well put
Aug 3 2013 2:05AM
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No.Quarter
Posts: 5257 - Karma: 16,956
Learn. To. Not. Give. A. Single. Flying. Fuck. Then you will reach the path to enlightenment

-buddha
Aug 3 2013 2:14AM
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WVskiing
Posts: 3007 - Karma: 1,948
I fucking hate summer. People make the most pointless threads because we are all bored out of our own minds
Aug 3 2013 3:10AM
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seanahue.
Posts: 2141 - Karma: 3,366
makes me want to throw people off the lift
Aug 3 2013 3:59AM
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drew.p.weener
Posts: 75 - Karma: 58
You can't, the bar is down.
Aug 3 2013 4:07PM
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Freebird12
Posts: 114 - Karma: 295
I didnt choose the gaper life, the gaper life chose me
Aug 3 2013 4:44PM
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Radda
Posts: 368 - Karma: 1,297
Being gaper is a way of life. you could do almost any trick and still be a gaper
Aug 3 2013 8:24PM
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Peter.
Posts: 23796 - Karma: 13,012
exactly
Aug 3 2013 8:40PM
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Jenkins_
Posts: 83 - Karma: 208
dude i think that one was ghandi
Aug 3 2013 9:45PM
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pj21
Posts: 400 - Karma: 4,635
I'm from the southern hemisphere and we don't have "gapers" (people don't even know what the word means). Shit skiiers that are newbs are called "punter's" instead but after reading this thread I think that they are 2 different things. A gaper is someones who has a shitty attitude to skiing and also sucks and a punter is someones who sucks at skiing and has only just recently started. Am i correct?
Aug 3 2013 11:06PM
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GrahamGould
Posts: 713 - Karma: 2,439
Your more or less right. I have always thought of gapers the way you define "punters", but it really just depends on who you ask, or where in north america you are.
Aug 3 2013 11:09PM
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GrahamGould
Posts: 713 - Karma: 2,439
I think if you can genrally control yourself and not be dangerous to other people when you ski, your not a gaper
Aug 3 2013 11:12PM
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CheifQueef
Posts: 110 - Karma: 170
I agree with a lot here, but the word "gaper" I thought came from someone who "gaped" at the shit on a hill, or a hill itself, and thinks: "woah, I can't believe someone rides on that." and gapes.
Aug 3 2013 11:18PM
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GrahamGould
Posts: 713 - Karma: 2,439
Thats possible. I always thought it came from the way that a lot of gappers have a gap between their helmet and goggles
Aug 3 2013 11:21PM
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Bogs
Posts: 4296 - Karma: 1,361
you can be able to do both of those things and still have no idea what's going on on the rest of the mountain and therefore be a gaper.

even a kid who can throw doubles in the park but has to pizza to get there, or can't ski moguls at all, or doesn't even try and go in the woods ever because he's not good enough is still a gaper in my book.
Aug 3 2013 11:25PM
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JDUBSki22
Posts: 173 - Karma: 175
Gaper :
an asshole that's been used and abused so often that it doesn't readily close when an object (penis, dildo, zucchini, etc.) is removed from it.
"This porn whore is a vet! she's got a gaper!"
Aug 4 2013 12:00AM
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sherms
Posts: 878 - Karma: 656
thissss hahahahahahahaha
Aug 4 2013 12:02AM
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Balbertt
Posts: 1585 - Karma: 4,723
A skier who forgets to have fun, and takes skiing way to seriously.
Aug 4 2013 12:06AM
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Tikayt
Posts: 1031 - Karma: 1,543
Gapers are generally the ones who have the latest shit and stare at you when you 180 on flat.
You can see them miles away.
I met many many skiers below my level of skiing and still, never categorized as gapers.
Aug 4 2013 4:14AM
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seanahue.
Posts: 2141 - Karma: 3,366
Click for larger image
Aug 4 2013 4:36AM
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d00d
Posts: 2686 - Karma: 7,067
A jabroni
Aug 4 2013 11:13AM
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ShredTheEast
Posts: 15 - Karma: 29
Dont worry about what others say or think. Remember that skiing is FUN. I judge how good a skier is by how much fun they look like they are having. When you get this tricks and style will follow, I promise.
Aug 4 2013 5:20PM
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Peachbutt
Posts: 623 - Karma: 601
They're the same thing. People here are just trying to make it seem like there is more to it than there is. A gaper is someone who has no idea what's going on on the mountain. Most of the time this is because they're new to skiing.
Whoever mentioned kids who don't even know park etiquette decking themselves out in Saga and Jiberish had a point too, but I think I'd call them a poser instead of a gaper. They know more or less what's going on, they're just trying to be something they aren't.
Aug 4 2013 7:00PM
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iH8pow
Posts: 1726 - Karma: 7,210
To me, it's the people who want to ski park, but don't have the cajones to do it. Hence why, we've all pretty much been there. You know, the people who ski up to a box/rail, and go off the jump but just jump to the side of the rail. They wanna hit it, but they just can't bring themselves to do it (but hey, maybe they ARE sizing it up and their speed and they'll hit it next time).
Also, people who chronically case jumps.. The people who haven't figured out that you're better off fallling on the landing than casing. And obviously, people who just don't understand how to stay out of peoples way in the park.

A lot of people here say people who dress up all radically, 6XL, bright colors, talk shit... I wouldn't call that gaper... I really don't know the word for them... all I know is that in my judgemental ass mind, I view those people as the ones who probably don't have jobs (hence why they can be good) and their parents probably buy them their shit.

Aug 4 2013 7:50PM
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notspoicey
Posts: 1167 - Karma: 1,706
A true Gaper is one who wears their ski pants and sometimes even jeans tucked into their unbuckled ski boots with their power straps flapping. They always ski down a flat slope as far in the backseat as they can get, sometimes even trying to be as cool as a ski racer and attempting a "tuck." Some even try to be Superman and take off down the run with all they're 80's jackets unzipped. Gapers almost always put the bar down on the chairlift and ask the lifty to slow down the high speed detachable quad. The word "gaper" comes from both the acronym guaranteed accident prone on every run and the famous "gaper gap" between the helmet/hat and the goggles. Gapers somehow manage to have yardsales on the flattest bunny slopes. A yardsale is when the skier crashes and all their gear goes flying, landing scattered across the run. Gapers always stop in blind spots on runs, just below knolls and jumps. It seems that everything they do to try and be cooler makes them look even more stupid.
Aug 5 2013 11:48PM
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deepfriedtwinkie
Posts: 434 - Karma: 389
When somebody respects the other kids in the park but is not the best it means that they are a beginner. When you get douchebags from long island that cut you off on jumps and cause harm to others that is a gaper. Majority of gapers flock from jersey and long island.
Aug 6 2013 2:28PM
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esotericjive
Posts: 1889 - Karma: 1,445
Long island represent.

Gapers generally know nothing of park etiquette, are douches, and can't ski real terrain at all.
Aug 6 2013 2:46PM
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ny300z
Posts: 1299 - Karma: 1,708
i agree with people cutting you off and causing harm are gapers but what do u ask every one u see where they are from? not all of us from Long Island are douchebag gapers..... just like not everyone from upstate is a poor hillbilly


Aug 6 2013 3:00PM
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fortyvalve
Posts: 1442 - Karma: 1,570
So pretty much what you're saying is anyone that doesn't ski park is a gaper, solid.
Aug 6 2013 3:31PM
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Zimmy
Posts: 1258 - Karma: -1,327
Gaper is someone that is easily and constantly pushing their boundaries on terrain considered pretty easy, or "done for decades." They are on the edge of their skill, and learning rapidly, but what makes them look basically lame is that they enter spurts of thrill or fear easily at seemingly unexpected points on the run because when they have entered a "new point on learning" - and that's the point of gape... especially happens on intermediate terrain. To the veteran or the master, Gaper stands for:

G.aping
A.t
P.oints
E.verywhere
R.etarded

But if you're always on edge.. you tend towards either a gaper if you're skills are low or you're new to the sport, or you're a master if you're pushing the sport and engaging in its progression... where few are there to help you. ... gapers can get plenty of help.
Aug 6 2013 7:26PM
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The_Polock
Posts: 345 - Karma: 1,280
Spoken from the king of gapes himself(Heartslayer), can you argue?
Aug 6 2013 9:26PM
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Zimmy
Posts: 1258 - Karma: -1,327
My original vid was gapy. I think the g-forces I can get on the new skis are high enough to move into progression territory.
Aug 6 2013 9:47PM
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Turd.Ferguson
Posts: 1437 - Karma: 2,713
i think you mean tom wallis... Click for larger image
Sep 2 2013 12:41PM
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