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It surprises me how often a self-proclaimed "professional" skier or snowboarder will subject their fans to watching them practice, under the guise of genuine, authentic competence. Don't film in the park. Or if you do, don't show me. I don't have to watch the Leafs practice losing, I just turn on the tv and they're engaged in an event that counts. Imagine that! I only have to watch what counts! The park doesn't count, the park is for practice.
Where did snow parks (or skate parks, for that matter) come from? Kids were sick of getting kick out of their local street spots, and thus created a demand for which hills provided the remedy. They created features specifically designed to be riden. Therein lies a fundamental problem. The legitimate aspect of street spots (and back country features) is that they weren't built with skiers or snowboarders in mind at all. Some are even engineered in such a way as to keep hooligans off of them in the first place! That's where snowboarding was born. "You can't do that." "Oh yeah? Watch me."
Bam!
When someone hits a park feature I am not impressed. Oh, you switch back 270 boardslide to 270 off that double-down? Good, that's what you were supposed to do. Oh you can land back 9's on that jump that's shaped the exact same every day, with the same gap and the same perfect landing that's designed on a computer with your flight pattern to match the trajectory of the take-off perfectly? Well shit, GoPro it and put it on youtube! Are you picking up what I'm putting down?
Go to the park to spin fun laps with your friends, laughing and stepping each other up; or use it to learn and perfect some tricks. Please! It's goodtimes! But if you want to bring out the camera, do it where it counts. If you can sneak up on a rail outside an operating business, or wait until 2am when you won't get harassed before you can tie off the bungie, and land something worth showing off before the cops show up, that's worth the 6-second clip. Or if you can stomp a big trick on a feature AND in conditions you had to rely on Mother Nature to provide, and make it look like it ain't no thang, that's worthy of Mb's on a cf card, because this goes for photos too.
She doesn't exist, get over it
A shot is so much more than those 6 seconds or that single perfect image. That pay-off is the result of hours of work, freezing conditions, waiting for light, building, chipping ice, generator and truck and sled gas, sore backs, numb toes, frozen batteries, police fines, broken bones, concussions, motel bills, and bullshit excuses for missing work. And a lot of those days don't yeild a single usable shot. It's not about "let's go hit that jump 40 times this afternoon until I can get that rodeo 7 I need to fill out my part". That's the epitome of laziness and it doesn't impress me. Stop filming in the practice zone.
