*We (Dunfee) messed up while rushing through his inbox to find something to post, and mistakenly credited the previous rant to Cy Whitling, which reader Joe Sanders had actually penned it. Will the real Cy Whitling please stand up?!? Well, yeah.. anyway, you get the idea. Here’s what Cy actually wrote (illustration is his, too):
Skiing is judgmental and that is a good thing. Periodically a pro or industry figure will pen an article bemoaning all the judging and competition that is going on in skiing. They will talk about how skiing is about style and freedom, how self expression cannot be judged. They elaborate on the joy that skiing is giving them and lament the judges’ decisions in the latest competition, in fact sometimes they lament the fact that competitions actually exist. I am tired of hearing this. Judgement is a fundamental part of skiing and that is the way it should be.