So what will they change the name of ‘slopestyle’ to?
Yeah, I was thinking the same.
Fresh off winning the Baker LBS, Terje kills it AGAIN in the quarterpipe (at his age!!!) - yet it hardly rated a mention. There was some amazing riding, definitely worthy of a ‘World Championship’ - but it lacked the corporate dollars to promote it properly on an international scale. I also think it was really poorly timed, with so much else going on around the same couple of weeks. Terje didn’t even stick around at the LBS to accept his winner’s prize (he was already on a plane to Oslo) - but not all riders have access to his travel budget. The World Snowboard Championships needed the snowboard industry’s support, to ensure the timeslot was free of any competition, and to guarantee that the world’s best were represented.
It’s always going to be about the money, which is exactly why the FIS staged their hostile takeover of snowboarding in the first place. I’ve been thinking that the focus needs to shift to the corporate sponsors, ans they’re the ones providing all the funding. For example, snowboarders should NOT be buying anything made by LG, and should be sending letters/emails to LG, letting them know that while they support the FIS, they will be boycotted by snowboarders.
Yeah, I was thinking the same.
Fresh off winning the Baker LBS, Terje kills it AGAIN in the quarterpipe (at his age!!!) - yet it hardly rated a mention. There was some amazing riding, definitely worthy of a ‘World Championship’ - but it lacked the corporate dollars to promote it properly on an international scale. I also think it was really poorly timed, with so much else going on around the same couple of weeks. Terje didn’t even stick around at the LBS to accept his winner’s prize (he was already on a plane to Oslo) - but not all riders have access to his travel budget. The World Snowboard Championships needed the snowboard industry’s support, to ensure the timeslot was free of any competition, and to guarantee that the world’s best were represented.
It’s always going to be about the money, which is exactly why the FIS staged their hostile takeover of snowboarding in the first place. I’ve been thinking that the focus needs to shift to the corporate sponsors, ans they’re the ones providing all the funding. For example, snowboarders should NOT be buying anything made by LG, and should be sending letters/emails to LG, letting them know that while they support the FIS, they will be boycotted by snowboarders.
Terjes crash on his last run was friggin nuts! he was far and away the most in control and stylish on his big methods though.
Boycotting the ones providing funding…..you might just be onto the best way to get to the FIS….through the hip pocket!
In theory it sounds good. But hate to say it - Vile Kyle Sandilands is still on the air….
In theory it sounds good. But hate to say it - Vile Kyle Sandilands is still on the air….
That’s different - because his polarising antics actually generate revenue.
I have never and will never… EVER… call it %$#@$%#@cross.
I won’t even type it. It’s Boarder Cross. That’s all there is to it.
I like your analogy of calling moto cross motorcycle cross hahaha it’s exactly the same thing.
That hitler vid was hilarious!
While we’re on the boycott thing. . .
The Macquarie Group (through its government contracts) make a lot of money from speed camera revenue.
Although none of us approve of people driving “too fast” for the road or weather conditions - in many cases, 5-15Km over the posted limit is perfectly safe (eg. empty straight roads with optimum visibility), but unfortunately it’s these situations that the government exploits purely for revenue raising. The Macquarie Group provide the means through which they, and corrupt government departments, profit greatly from this extortionate revenue raising - while completely ignoring the real dangers on our roads.
If you object to this kind of extortion, you should BOYCOTT The Macquarie Group and all the companies it owns. The company that owns the Rossignol Group is owned by, you guessed it, The Macquarie Group.
Therefore, if you object to this government sanctioned extortion, and want to promote safe driving by putting drivers’ focus back on watching the road, not their speedometers, these are the ski companies you should BOYCOTT:
Rossignol
Dynastar
Lange
Show you care about genuine road safety, and not just revenue raising - and DO NOT support these brands. Every dollar you spend on these brands indirectly goes into funding speed camera extortion, and diverts much needed attention away from addressing the genuine dangers affecting road users.
I will have never and will never… EVER… call it %$#@$%#@cross.
I won’t even type it. It’s Boarder Cross. That’s all there is to it.
I like your analogy of calling moto cross motorcycle cross hahaha it’s exactly the same thing.
*boardercross - it’s all one word. 
(I know you knew that already, because you wrote it previously)
In theory it sounds good. But hate to say it - Vile Kyle Sandilands is still on the air….
That’s different - because his polarising antics actually generate revenue.
See the thing is your asking riders to put their livelyhood and goals / dreams on the line…
Asking regular listeners to a radio station to turn off shouldn’t be that hard and they still haven’t done it! I have taken 2day of the pre program list on my radio. I am surprised at the number of people who still listen to him.
I don’t want to make this a discussion about Kyle. Just trying to say how hard your battle is (and i am not saying i don’t support it!)
Most “regular listeners” have no objection to what he does, in fact many tune in hoping that’s what they’ll get - that’s the point.
As far as snowboarders’ livelihoods go - there’s MUCH more money to be made at non FIS competitions (which make up the overwhelming majority anyway). Only one snowboarder has really benefitted from the FIS controlled Olympics, and that’s the king of corporate whores, Shaun White. Ever heard of a Swiss snowboarder by the name of Gian Simmen? No? Well, he won the Olympic pipe gold before Shaun White.
The best thing that could happen to the sport of snowboarding, is that a bunch of Euros with names Americans can’t pronounce make a clean sweep of all Olympic snowboarding medals - because then the big US dollars would go elsewhere.
Yeah as Ozgirl says - the fact the FIS comps in halfpipe and whatnot exist mean that more snowboarders can make their living from doing what they love. There are more avenues for them to pursue their dreams. Wasn’t Nate Johnstone halfpipe world champ? And chumpy pullin?
Would you really say to their faces that they are dogs for going in the FIS comps and aren’t proper or “core” snowboarders because they aren’t doing the TTR tour?
Yeah as Ozgirl says - the fact the FIS comps in halfpipe and whatnot exist mean that more snowboarders can make their living from doing what they love. There are more avenues for them to pursue their dreams. Wasn’t Nate Johnstone halfpipe world champ? And chumpy pullin?
Would you really say to their faces that they are dogs for going in the FIS comps and aren’t proper or “core” snowboarders because they aren’t doing the TTR tour?
It depends….As Chucky said The FIS hated snowboarding to begin with and actively tried to crush it. When they realised how much money there was to make from it, they stepped in and took over, crushing the snowboarders own association….by competing for them you are effectively saying you are ok by that. Just because you are getting paid to do it and ‘living’ your dream doesn’t make the fact that you are morally/ethically on shaky ground. Its something that they should be considering in any case.
What would you say if ISA came in now and started up a bodyboarding tour and it was added to the olympics and crushed the IBA would you think that it was ok if all the top pro bodyboarders went and rode for the surf associations because they would get more money?
. . . the fact the FIS comps in halfpipe and whatnot exist mean that more snowboarders can make their living from doing what they love. There are more avenues for them to pursue their dreams.
It’s just the opposite - and that’s the crux of the problem. The FIS have deliberately placed their events in competition with the established events (the ones with all the prize money), so now riders have to choose - make a living, or make it to the Olympics. There’s also been plenty of complaints about how some FIS events are run with little to no regard for the safety of the competitors, so anyone wanting to ride in the Olympics also has to risk their livelihoods just for the sake of one event every four years!
Wasn’t Nate Johnstone halfpipe world champ?
FIS “World Championships” are a total farce. I could become “World Champion” too - all I’d have to do is schedule the event at a time and place which guaranteed that the world’s best were all competing elsewhere, at higher profile events that actually paid their bills. In other words, it’s easy, just make sure nobody better than you shows up.
Would you really say to their faces that they are dogs for going in the FIS comps and aren’t proper or “core” snowboarders because they aren’t doing the TTR tour?
Plenty of people are now saying that about Shaun White.
haha yes I was thinking about this correlation between booging and snowboarding already. The debate about “support the brands that support bodyboarding” has been around for ages but isn’t it funny that the world champ is sponsored by rip curl and booging is increasingly and actively looking to outside support to have a viable world tour? It seems that bodyboarding just can’t manage to support itself. PLC was also looking to be sponsored by Nike 6.0 & Red bull. Do I care? Not really. Sure it would be great to only have pure bodyboarding brands around the sport, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough professional people involved in the sport for there to be many other options. Most of the people in the industry are ex or current pros and they don’t appear to have the education or nous to run these brands or associations on a professional enough level.
My stance on that has always been that its good for them that they get to be pros and travel the world & its super enjoyable for me to watch them compete but if it all came crashing down or they all sold out to standup brands then would it really affect me? Industry of one kind or industry of another kind, I’ll still be kooking it in my crappy board and fins, as will most people. Same with snowboarding. I don’t feel I am anyone to be making moral/ethical judgements about some aussie guys (or anyone else) just trying to make a living from snowboarding. I don’t know how it works - maybe they aren’t good enough to compete with the TTR guys? Maybe they really want a gold medal? Maybe they are just trying to scrounge a living out of snowboarding? I’m not anyone to be telling them they can’t.
Do I wish the FIS would go away? Yes. Do I feel I have any power/influence to help that happen? No. I don’t have the disposable income to be excessively choosy about what brands I buy/don’t buy. I support where I can. Do I feel the need to earn more money/work more hours so that I can have that influence? Certainly not. I feel like I do the little I can but it ain’t much and when it comes down to it, I don’t find it as important as buying the right kind of tuna or stuff without palm oil in it.
If everyone does whatever they can, it gets done.
It costs next to nothing to send a few emails or letters. The threat of a mass boycott is enough to sway these corporations. If every snowboarder in the world got every single member of their family to contact LG, saying they won’t be buying any more of their products until the FIS gives snowboarding back to snowboarders, they’d have no choice but to take notice.
If everyone does whatever they can, it gets done.
It costs next to nothing to send a few emails or letters. The threat of a mass boycott is enough to sway these corporations. If every snowboarder in the world got every single member of their family to contact LG, saying they won’t be buying any more of their products until the FIS gives snowboarding back to snowboarders, they’d have no choice but to take notice.
But that is my whole point! hundreds of thousands have signed to get Kyle off air and he is still on air!
So mass boycott threatened boycott doesn’t work - heaps of sponsors walked but kyle is still on air.
Honestly I really thought that the petition to get Kyle of air would work and it didn’t. So yeah I have lost the will to keep fighting the good fight.