The True "Enemy"

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The True "Enemy"

Postby Berus » Mon Jan 05, 2004 7:44 pm

PMTS Instructor wrote: "The Guest (I feel bad for him) is missing the boat, but his low level, miserable, degrading attack on good people won?t do anything to change the minds of intelligent skiers who know the difference in their skiing and skiing knowledge, after working with Harald and his great crew."

I believe the appropriate word here would be "aparatchik". "The Guest", like you, has the right to express dissenting viewpoints on teaching methodologies. The danger occurs when: 1.) Any one means of ski instruction (or anything else, for that matter) becomes so monopolized or sanctified that it is above question, or; 2.) Anyone is punished for expressing his or her beliefs about a given system.

Progress occurs as a function of evolution, and evolution never occurs as a function of "respect". Personally, I find your post disturbing in its "religious fanaticism". Be grateful to HH, certainly, if he has impacted on YOUR skiing experience in a positive manner, but PLEASE allow that no one human being is the messiah or panacea with regard to teaching everyone on the planet to ski. "The enemy" is not PSIA, HH, or even Carrot Top (well, OK, perhaps Carrot Top), but is in fact an entity known as "The Resort".

Resorts are cashing in on youth culture to create a snow-park environment which will, in no small way, impact upon the development of a basic skillset which is core to the sport/art that is skiing. Snowboarding and park culture are winning the hearts and minds of a generation, and these people will, in turn, teach snowboarding and park riding to their children. Skiing will fall into decline and suffer unless skiers like us put aside the squabbling and exert a unified influence to PRESERVE OUR SPORT. Skiing has as much room to evolve and grow as snowboarding, and this is the key to its survival. In order for this to happen, we must realize the importance of preserving a free-thinking and forward-willing approach to its development. Never will it be pragmatic to place the growth or development of an entire sport in the hands of one individual. Rather, progress will come as a function of the synergy of contributions from many sources.

Believe me when I say that there are "points of light" in the skiing universe which are in no way associated with HH. HH is neither Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Darth Vader. Resorts are "The Empire", and skiers are quickly becoming the "rebels".

---Berus
Berus
 

Postby tommy » Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:48 pm

Berus wrote:

[Resorts are cashing in on youth culture to create a snow-park environment which will, in no small way, impact upon the development of a basic skillset which is core to the sport/art that is skiing. Snowboarding and park culture are winning the hearts and minds of a generation, and these people will, in turn, teach snowboarding and park riding to their children. Skiing will fall into decline and suffer unless skiers like us put aside the squabbling and exert a unified influence to PRESERVE OUR SPORT. Skiing has as much room to evolve and grow as snowboarding, and this is the key to its survival. In order for this to happen, we must realize the importance of preserving a free-thinking and forward-willing approach to its development. Never will it be pragmatic to place the growth or development of an entire sport in the hands of one individual. Rather, progress will come as a function of the synergy of contributions from many sources. ]

The above triggered my mind to a thought:

I agree with Berus that most resorts really do not care about skiers. I doubt they really would care about snowboarders either, wouldn't it be the case that snowboarding is a very rapidly growning sport, thereby drawing loads of visitors to the resorts. In fact, I believe most (at least here in Sweden) resorts would be perfectly happy even if no sliding or any other type of sports activity what so ever took place on their montains, as long as people kept coming and paying for *something*. If I look at a typical resort here at home, a vast majority of the people on skis (I wouldn't call them skiers) are there *not primarily* to perform any sporty activity on the slopes; instead, skiing is seen as one of many possible resort activities during a "relaxing" winter vacation: there's a lot else to do in addition to being active on the slopes, e.g. swimming, bowling, sunbathing (at least during spring) and, not least, attending AFTER-SKI!

The only good thing about after-ski for those of us who go to the mountains to *ski* is that the slopes tend to empty up for the last hour, when the afterski typically starts, and also the first morning hour after lifts opening tends to be less crowded....

The point is that IMHO, a majority of the people on skis in the resorts are not skiers, nor interested in becoming skiers: they are there for a vacation week, where skiing is just one of many activities, at best a vechicle allowing them to see above the tree line.

And maybe this observation, if correct, can also at least partially explain the lack of interest in PMTS from the ski schools: if a majority of their student "skiers" are there mainly for other reasons, and consider being on skis as just a way to see a bit more of the mountain, then there is no point in teaching them anything beyond the absolute minimum, which will enable the "skier" to take the chairs up, to see the views, have a beer or two and/or lunch, and then slowly wedge slide down the blue runs, so that they can say "I was there and I did it". As an analogy: how many of you have attended "advanced driving" classes, (those where they teach you how to best handle a car at speeds/difficult situations/conditions) after you got your driving license...? I guess for most people, knowing the basics (allowing them to go from point A to point B reasonably safely) will be enough, no need to know how to do a 360 spin turn at 45 mph on public roads....

Just a thought....

Cheers,
Tommy
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Re: The True "Enemy"

Postby gravity » Sat Feb 07, 2004 5:39 pm

Berus wrote:"The enemy" is not PSIA, HH, or even Carrot Top (well, OK, perhaps Carrot Top), but is in fact an entity known as "The Resort".


Hogwash. Resorts react to a market. Always have and always will. Never will you see a resort as a philantropic entity for the sake of nostalgia and what you think is better. Money talks, Berus.

Tommy, I think you're saying that the market will drive the service a resort will find profitable to offer. If so, I agree.

Core skiers are a minority. Always have been ...always will be.
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