Like most teenagers at the time, I did some rollerblading in the 90’s. I’m probably not going to shock you when I say that getting aggressive on a pair of skates was pretty damn popular at one time, and then it faded into an oblivion only skiboarding can relate to. I’m no roller historian, but it’s safe to say that the sport experienced a textbook bubble effect. Before it had any culture, history, or underground foundation, it was featured in every cheesy Disney movie and junk food commercial. Knee-and-elbow-padded rebels terrorized the populace and brought radical fun wherever they went. When Bob and Betty Customer got tired of the extremeness, rollerblading got put out on its ass.
Let this be a warning to ye double (triple?) corking phenoms of the ski world. This isn’t about “selling out” or any silly bullshit like that. There’s big money and exposure in commercials, so have a blast. But make sure the script doesn’t have you shredding with Tony the Tiger, or jibbing the McDonald’s arches in Ronald’s red wig and yellow overalls. The money will be tempting, and they’ll promise you truckloads of Frosted Flakes and Big Macs, but it won’t last forever. You will kill the sport, your career, and your heart (if you eat all those Big Macs). Everything’s going really well now, but you never know when you’re one Bobby Brown Capri Sun ad away from annihilation.
Here’s what brought this to mind. Depending on your outlook it’s an extremely funny joke, a sign of a comeback, or the saddest thing you’ve ever seen.
it seems like we’ve seen some of this over-commercialization with snowboarding and some in skating. shaun white is stereotyped as “extreme” in redbull ads and such. it really has nothing to do with trick technicality though. its big company sponsorship and the ensuing stereotyping for advertising purposes. shaun white’s “extremeness and coreness” sells stuff. i think we can progress without ruining things
I don’t think we’re close to the point where athletes are ‘selling’ themselves out yet – at least not close enough to issue dire warnings. What I love about the corporate skiing world is its sort-of grass roots methods. At a very basic level, you sponsor an athlete and he in turn sponsors your company: by telling friends, family, random people he or she may see on the street, and also by doing cool things with your gear and getting in baller photos or segments in a film.
I think the biggest problem is when a company like McDonalds (ad nauseam) step in and pay out for a skier or rider to do a commercial promoting something that has nothing at all to do with our sport(s), and is something most athletes don’t even use. Remember during the Olympics? McDonald’s came out with a commercial saying with pride how the U.S. Olympic team just looooooove their Big Macs. Know how many times I’ve seen a Big Mac in the hands of an Olympic Aerialist, Bobsled, Ice Skate et cetera athlete? Never.
Redbull is a different matter – at least they tend do things for our sport(s) because of the sport. Of course, that could just be wishful thinking on my part. Yes, overly stereotypical cliches (like Travis Pastrana or Shaun White in a Redbull commercial) are comical at best… but, to be fair, that’s probably the best way to do things on national/international television.
Back in 2007, I felt the same way. Thought it would eventually be freestyle skiings destiny to implode all over again.
“Today in 2007, think about skiing 12 years ago, then imagine it eight years from now. Consider what would happen if in eight hypothetical years, skiing went into decline again, like a tech bubble bursting. All the haters who said skiing was lame when the park was dominated by snowboarders, are saying, “See, I told you so.” Would you stop skiing, or even pretend you never did it at all? That’s the path aggressive inline skating has taken the last 20 years. If skiing never quite eclipses snowboarding, you might see something like this happen… not saying it’s probably, but it’s possible. Meteoric rises are usually followed by a steep descent, after all. You could say that newschool skiing is just now taking off after fueling up the last 10 years. Sponsor dollars and the pure number of pro-level events make easy indicators. Ski superpipe went from a non-event to the headline event live on ESPN in only four years, with that event alone probably the reason for Simon Dumont’s major sponsorship with Target. Thankfully, newschool skiing has the huge benefit of a well-established, centuries-old lifestyle image to lean on for support. In contrast, nobody’s parents ever taught them to skateboard or rollerblade.” – from the inline at mammoth article on NS. Just went back and read what i wrote back then, seems like a long time ago.
I feel much better about it today though, and surprisingly because its gotten more spectacular. 1620′s triples whatever, it will always be trick skiing, and thats not skiing to everyone. The back country and the purists and the tradition will always save skiing, thats the unbreakable image of adventure and lifestyle. People can try to relate and transfer that into their own experience wherever they ski or snowboard within their own limitations(95% of people). Rollerblading in that media invented sense of jumping cars and getting extreme was never transferable on a smaller scale. Individual people could never relate, and marketers moved on.
I very much like the post above.
I came back because I had a comment on the whole triples, 1620′s, etc deal… some things are done because they /can/ be done, and others are done because they /should/ be done. The tricks that can be done are (arguably) the main shots of every film these days, while the tricks that should be done are the highlights and are the moments everybody remembers.
If skiing turns in to a bunch of stuff that can be done, we’ll exhaust that pretty quickly and be back to square one. If, on the other hand, skiing gets all of this ‘can’ be done tricks out of the way and keeps it fresh with things that should be done? Well, we’ll be rockin’ this sport for decades to come.
And as far as aerial steeze, Dylan Ferguson mananges it quite magnificently.