Letters in response to comments from Daron Rahlves and Tanner Hall

Letters in response to comments from Daron Rahlves and Tanner Hall{mosimage}Here are the replies to Ski Racing’s call for letters in response to December’s dust-up between Tanner Hall and Daron Rahlves. Views expressed herein do not reflect the opinions of the editors of Ski Racing and skiracing.com, who are currently working on a “reader’s forum” feature for the website.

Forget about what type of skiing is better, or harder, or cooler, or whatever. Who cares why you are sliding around on a mountain; if you are doing it and having fun, then you and I share a common passion for our sports. The real point of this controversy is respect. For Tanner to say what he did shows immaturity and ignorance. I think what Drew Leftwich said sums it up… ‘Tanner made a big mistake. Now he looks like a blowhard…’

I know Daron respects what Tanner can do on his skis, as well as what every other top level skier and snowboarder does, no matter if they race, or ride big mountains, or huck big in the park and pipe. It’s just too bad that Tanner is using his celebrity to make himself look like a jackass, and divide our sports. THAT type of punk attitude is no good for the sport.

Come on Tanner… grow up and join the community of people who share the passion for riding the mountains, however it’s done.

AJ Kitt
Hood River, OR

“Ok first off I respect what Tanner and those guys do it is pretty amazing. I totally agree with Daron on this though. I will admit it is pretty cool watching those guys huck 100 foot tables, but I mean come on any ski racers at Bode and Daron’s level would easily be able to hit a 100 foot table without question. But it is true most of the freeriders now would not be able to even ski a downhill course or a GS course. Most just put the skis straight down and go and when they have to slow down they just speed check. However there are a few that can ski. Even on huge powder days I see freeriders in the park, it makes no sense. Most skiers that can actually ski would be out skiing powder the whole day but yet they stay in the park all day.

Ski racers at Bode and Daron’s level deserve every penny they make.
They are on snow pretty much the whole year and when they are not on snow they are doing dry land training. Sure freeriders are on snow most of the year and are always trying new things but they don’t do any dry land
training when they are off snow. They also party and eat whatever they
want when ever they want to. World Cup ski racers also have a very strick diet as well they don’t always eat what they want to. The amount of work ski racers put in year round is unbelieve and they are always working on something with thier skiing skills.

For any one that is saying ski racing is starting to decline in popularity, well here are two names that will prove you wrong, Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves. These two world cup racers are re energizing the sport in the United States and around the world, everyone loves them. Oh yeah and here is a news flash Tanner they can pretty much ski anything that is skiable, because they are always working on something to improve their skiing skills and they are just great athletes they are some of the best in the world.

Another thing free skiing is not just about who can get the most air off a jump, it is about having fun and improving your skills. It is a time for skiers to relax and enjoy the mountains. I know a lot of ski racers that can huck themselves off huge table tops and pull the stuff Tanner is pulling. But I highly dought that Tanner can hit a jump going about 80 miles per hour without seriously injuring himself. Screw Hannekem I just want Tanner to try and finish the easiest downhill course on the world cup and even the easiest GS course he might be able to do it but it would probably take him about 5 times longer then an actual racer, if he finishes
it. Tanner I respect what you do it is amazing I love watching you on TV.
Bode and Daron and the rest of the world cup racers deserve every penny.
Dont talk trash about the best best thing that has happened to skiing as a whole in a long time when you do not know what you are talking about. Oh yeah by the way that thing is actaully a person and his name is Bode Miller and the entire US Ski Team as far as I can tell they are just getting better.
Ryan Mears

I have to admit, I went over to the FREESKIER web forum from the SkiRacing.com link expecting most of the comments to support Tanner Hall but found that they didn’t. MOST of the comments even at Freeskier indicated that Tanner was being a punk for bad-mouthing elite athletes who chose a different path within the sport. As a former ski racer who always felt that free-skiing was an important skill-building as well as relaxation aspect of training, I agree with the reasonable view expressed by many people on both websites that great athletes are great athletes no matter what branch of the sport they choose to pursue. I’m not a fan of Tanner Hall because he’s a mouthy little brat and exhibited his attitude even while being interviewed as a winner at the X Games here at Buttermilk. But, believe me, I’ve known a LOT of ski racers over the years with the same type of personality dysfunction.

Jay Hammond
Aspen, Colorado

When my fellow ski racing buddies told me about Tanner Hall’s comments on Bode Miller and “Ski Racers” lack of balls in general when it comes to freeskiing, I was pissed off!! How can Tanner Hall even compare his idea of skiing and jibbing to ski racing and the all around versatility of a racer? The last time I checked, Tanner Hall cannot even turn his skis properly, let alone get away with looking like an intermediate skier. For what Tanner does in the park and off the jumps is pretty amazing, but Daron Rahlves is dead on….how much real “Skiing” talent does it take to hit rails and do some flips and shit off jumps…not much. Tanner looks more like a snowboard cross over who focuses on nothing but acrobatics and looking like a dope smoking albino gangsta. I have seen Tanner is person many times over the last 3 years at movie premiers up here in Calgary, Canada, and the way he carries himself and talks, I am suprised he hasn’t had his ass wooped on the mean streets of every local ski area he visits. He comes across as uneducated and more interested in making sure his pants are riding his bony ass properly.

In retrospect, many people believe that ski racers are very focused and sport specific in hurling themselves down an icy run and never venturing in the vast aspects that skiing offers. This is just wrong. Since I was a young racer back in the early 90’s, all of my time outside of the gates and in between training was spent “FREESKIING.” See we ski racers coined this term well before the media and the supposed new sport of Freeskiing got a hold of it. If we werent racing or training, ski racers were freeskiing. THis usually entailed swapping your racing boards for your rock skis and going to all corners of the mountain to hit pow, drop cliffs, ski the trees, head out into closed areas, build booters, and hit jumps all over the place….having a great time with your buddies and givin’ er was the order of the day.

Overall, I believe that what Tanner does is great for him and his side of the sport of skiing, but to suggest that ski racers are not representin and pulling their weight when it comes to the all around aspects of FREESKIING is a load of crap. Many of the top and most versatile freeriders out there today have come from a racing background…for instance – Jon Olsson, Seth Morrison, Hugo Harrison, Henrik Winstedt, Shane McConkey…..Tanner should spend a day skiing with Daron and see how well he compares to him doing some real freeskiing which entails more than just hitting rails, and doing some s
ick spins and flippy dippy — in the park all day. Tanner is nothing more than a park rat, that dreams of being able to turn his skis and to become more of a complete skier…plus I would love to see this goof ball get into a downhill suit, on a pair of downhill boards, and get into his bully and hit an ice hard jump at 130 km/hr. Make a wish Tanner, your taco is going to split in two!!
Dave Provencher

Daron, Bode, Herman…. are hard checking, 100mph slap shotting, demon skating, fists flying hockey players. These guys try to win. Tanner Hall is a figure skater. He tries to look pretty. Both are hard to do. Apples and Oranges.
Thomas Zander
Reno, NV

This is a funny situation, ironic really. I’m a former ski racer and to this day I’m an avid fan of the World Cup. I follow it religiously and read every article I can find. I personally haven’t raced or run gates in years. In fact, I don’t even ski anymore. I’ve been a hard core knuckle-dragging snowboarder for the last 9 years. So I’ve seen what was once a spat between ski racing and freestyle, then skiing in general vs snowboarding, and now ironically ski racing vs freeskiing. I must say that Daron Rahlves is absolutely right, and that Tanner Hall is just an ignorant young kid. The skill and athleticism of the top racers is amazing. Maybe it is because of my skiing background (15+ years before ever strapping on a snowboard) that I don’t share the same idols as today’s young snowboarders and freeskiers. And I’m only 27 years old. I get so tired of seeing jump after jump and rail after rail as the selling point of winter sports. The essense and thrill of riding to me powder, end of discussion. Steep and deep is you can get it. But well-executed carves speak volumes about a rider’s/skier’s ability when compared to if they managed to get a grab in or not during a 360…. My advice on becoming a better rider/skier, get out of the park and onto the mountain.
Ed Warner

I agree 100% with Daron. Freeskiing and jumping off cliffs has done great thinks for the sport of skiing, and we needed a boost to the industry as a whole and we need more. Thank goodness for the US ski team. Not just Daron and Bode,but whole team is getting people pumped about skiing. With that said, when talking pure skiing skills Daron you win hands down.
Thanks
Darin Derosier
Deadwood South Dakota USA

Who is this Tanner? Any flake can be a free skier. He is not worth a comment from any racer. Most of these freeskiers can’t ski at all.
Rolf Lackner

Two world class athletes, in similar but vastly different sports, competing in a forum in which neither has much expertise, one sounding like a spoiled two year old, the other a mature young man. I’ve got to go with Daron simply because of the respect he shows a sport and a man which does not give him much of the same.
Robb Blatherwick

Now this is entertainment! Some of the e-mails posted on the Freeskier website are crafted with amazing grammar. Get a grip, it’s all good! Instead of belly-aching about one persons fame vs. their fame, how about putting that energy into growing the sport. Oooo, what a concept! The sport is about skiing, not about fat guys that make a ton of money, control the sport and don’t ski. I have witnessed both racers and freeskiers, both do amazing things on skis and do amazing things for our sport. I’m a race fan, but I really appreciate what the freeskiers are doing.
Jim Catalano

So, its like this: Tanner’s type of skiing is subjective, while racing is purely objective. Park and pipe skiing is all about trying to get your trick to look good in front of everyone else. Racing is simply a contest to see if you can ski faster than everyone else. Take your pick: style or speed?
Saul Rosenberg
Eugene, Oregon

Daron had it right! If Tanner thinks ski racing is so easy he doesn’t know skiing. Let him put on a pair of real skis and back up his punk kid attitude with some meat. Walk the walk little dude and become a man.
Cress Bohnn

I can’t believe, that Daron would disrespect Jibers. On my hill, jibers are the fast guys, and they get big air, just like in a world cup downhill race. Around here, the race club kids just ski on short slalom boards, and practice skiing on one ski, like that is hard to do? Maybe, Jibers can`t carve on a pair of 215 cm race skis, but if the racers used jib boards, then the Jibers would win, for sure.
Steve Howze, Alyeska

I have to say that Daron couldn’t have said it better himself. The controversy doesn’t need me or anyone else to add to it. Tanner is young kid getting too much attention for doing tricks, over honing a precise skill against men and the clock. For Gods sakes the kid is still waking up to wet spots in the middle of the night.

Hucking yourself off a jump has been done by all of us at some point in our skiing lives…practicing it in order to grab your tails and roll wasn’t considered worth the reward when I was his age because nobody gave a shit…
its not that it would have been hard to practice…just stupid given the reward and risk to permanent injury for no apparent reason.

Tanner hasn’t lived long enough or talked to enough men who certainly grew up skiing their whole lives, having fun with their buddies in the back country, doing stupid things… the difference is we didn’t have our own video cameras on hand to catch the action and more importantly we didn’t care anyway if anyone saw it.

This issue is more about the x-Game phenomena of hyping activities that any idiot can partake in as long as they have a certain quotient of pain to ego worshipping… I cant tell you how many times I hear those kids bragging as much about their cuts and scratches as their new tricks they just pulled off…they love the attention they get for being the class wild man.

It’s a joke…and a trend and luckily for all of us who have followed Alpine Skiing for the last few decades it won’t last. It’s like mogul skiing, good fun but not enough substance to hold your attention.

Anyway, Daron said it best himself. I just wanted a little rant.

Kyle Watson
Age 36 Seattle
“Former Stick Chaser”

Here we go again. It used to be ski racers vs. freestylers then boarders and now freeriders. The bottom line is ski racing is a disciplined approach to sliding down a hill on snow with quantifiable results. Because you have to make turns in the same place run after run with a clock telling you how well you executed those turns, a ski racer adapts quickly and efficiently to sliding down a hill. Some people enjoy ski race training and some don’t. I do believe that any kid going through a ski racing program will be a better skier, boarder or free rider for it. It seems to me that two of the best “free skiers” Jeremy Nobis and Scott Schmitt came out of ski racing backgrounds and there are many more like them.

Freeriders like to jump off cliffs. It’s fun but the dare factor is being raised to marginal landings so that some idiot cameraman can get the next epic shot. At least a ski racer has experienced air time under controlled conditions and hopefully knows from experience how to adapt the landing.

My thoughts.
Greg Tucker

This sounds like two kids saying my dad can beat up your dad. This is not important. Cover the skiing events and not the dumb things people say.
Jon Lehman

All I have to say is Tanner is just like all the other skiers out there who are to immature, arrogant, undisciplined and stupid enough to realize what a true world class skier has to do to compete at that level. It is like Daron says “Go ahead and strap on some 212 and let’s see you get down the mountain.” No one, especially Daron, was saying Tanner is a bad skier or anything close to that, it was more to the point
of Daron wanting people to realize how much work, skill, training, and commitment it takes to compete on the WC at the level he does. If people realize that then they wouldn’t have a single bad thing to say about how much money those guys are making.
Josh Shackelford

What a ridiculous discussion. Skiing is skiing, whether you are hucking 720s or pulling 3 g’s through a downhill turn. At that level of competition, they are both feats of amazing athleticism and creativity. Anyone with an understanding of the sport would realize that. To my knowledge freeskiers and World Cup racers spend a fair amount of time skiing together when their respective seasons end. I find it hard to believe the freeskiers are waiting for the racers at the bottom of the runs or vice versa. Perhaps Mr. Hall is just lonely and looking for a spring ski buddy.

The salient point being, whether Tanner Hall is that arrogant, stupid, bored or all of the above, his comments are uninformed, pointless and quickly resolved. Mr. Rahlves has already offered to hook up Malibu’s Most Wanted with some downhill boards and turn him loose on a WC course. However, I sincerely doubt freeskiing’s version of Vanilla Ice will take the challenge. After all, even the meager living he claims to be making plying his grossly underappreciated trade is still better than lying in a hospital bed for 6 months. Let’s hope he at least has the intelligence to realize that.

Tim Hazelroth
Stillwater, MN

I’m glad Tanner the “hip hop Montana gangsta” is spewing. It’s about time us old ski racers had a chance to sound off.

I’ve covered the X-Games in Aspen and have seen the roller ski competition.
Slopestyle seems to have very little style. The jumps are sweet, but in between the jumps these guys make it very clear to anyone with an eye they can’t really ski well. They stand on their skis unbalanced slipping around. It just doesn’t look good, nor does it show you what the ski can do. The pipe tricks are really fun to watch. The roller skiers are also judged in made for T.V. comps. I’ll also bet Tanner could not ski down the Kahm. Every coach I’ve spoken with has fallen just skiing it once or twice,…it’s that hard.

Bode and Darren have got be laughing. They are flat out some of the best athletes on the planet. Great website,….surf long and prosper,…..
John Goulet KUTV

I am the Alpine Youth Director for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. That means I oversee programs for racers 12 and under, as well as a Youth Telemark program, and several non-competitive skiing programs. I also have a 12 year old daughter and 13 year old son – both are good racers, and both love to ski outside gates as well..

My son, Max, is skipping school today to go watch Tanner Hall and company, at the Steamboat Ski Area’s “Ultimate Bumps and Jumps” competition – along with a throng of other boys his age.

So, one point I want to make already, is that viewing the controversy between Ralves and Hall as being larger than a dispute between two people, and the people that choose to take sides, is unhealthy, and sets a bad example for good citizenship.

I hope that in the end, more press is given to ways we all DO get along, as opposed to how we are supposed to pick sides and fight about it.

Most SSWSC kids train at Howelsen Hill on school days, and on any given Monday-Friday, you can see alpine racers, nordic racers, nordic jumpers, freestyle skiers, snowboard racers, freestyle snowboarders, and everything in between. Barring a few exceptions, the kids are all friends and get along. One thing noticable is that a freestyle skier will only try gates out when no one is watching, but a racer will tend to try a rail or pipe any time. This is confirmed in discussions I have had with the freestyle coaches.

So please don’t incite conflict. Do your best to present facts that are researched. Freestyle skiing did not start yesterday, or last year, it has been around for many years. Back in the 60’s at Wildcat Ski Area, my coaches used to encourage us to do tricks off of jumps, and I remember them doing inverted aerials on some crazy jumps. Skiing is evolving for sure, but to force an epic struggle on people, especially kids, is doing a disservice.

I would, however, like to see a real competition, that requires racing on a challenging course as well as a pipe and rail and bumps component. Put in that a Jeffrey Harrison, as well as a Tanner Hall, determine ahead of time a fair scoring system, and see who wins.

I wrote and email to the Managing Editor of FreeSkier magazine. I don’t know if they will read it or reply. I hope so but it was sent yesterday and I’ve not heard a reply. I will forward that.

Thanks,

John Marno, Alpine Youth Director
Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club

I just wanted to say somehthing about the deal with Ralves and Hall. Skiing is skiing. It’s cool if you stick to the courses, or stick to jumps/rails. But why do we all have to have this constant fued between us. When ever we are training gates, or just wearing our training gear, we take crap from ALL the “freestylers” on the hill and in the lift lines. Are you guys jealous or what? I have never made fun of a “freestyle” skier, yet I take constant critisism from anyone with twin tips, or a board… If you think about it, Tanner and Daron have one similarity, both of them catch air. Of course Daron is doing about 70 mph and flying 150 feet down the mountain. Daron, your the man!
Tanner, how about you go get a salary with as many zero’s on it as Daron and Bode, then come talk smack! Dude, Daron could buy your little terrain park you like so much and groom it! I’d be down with that. And one last thing…Tanner, when are you going to strap those 215’s on and race some downhill?

Steve Pirie
Charlevoix MI

It’s the same as the ’70s! The same arguments, the same controversy. Freestyle was more pure, but how do you know who won? A judge said who won. Back then “freestyle” got more and more structured…in other words the competition became less and less subjective. The reason is this: people compete for status. People have evolved to compete…read some current work by Stephan Pinker et. al. on how human behavior has evolved. People will always argue about who won unless it’s very obvious. Of course one way of winning is to deny that you’re competing to begin with and you can claim you win by default. There will always be a nagging doubt in a subjective competition on who is really the best, so judged competitions become more regulated until the rebels drop out (citing the rigidness) and start their own “free” movement of one sort or another and the cycle begins again.
Ski racing has evolved to a degree, but when the day’s over those who compete know who won in an objective manner, no doubts, no judges…the reason Stenmark won is the same reason Bode wins. Sure there’s a lot of rules in ski racing, it’s a very rigid competitive environment, those rules are mainly aimed at safety and fairness issues. The only rule that limits Bodes’ chance express his artistic soul or whatever is the rule that says the fastest skiier wins. All the arguments I saw on the Freedog site involved this kid competing with a ton of caveats…”He’d whip Bode if they raced switch” etc. etc. In ski racing form follows function…no “ifs”, just who’s fastest. If running the Birds of Prey “switch” was fastest, the best skiiers would be doing it.

Chris Schow
Ski racing coach, ex racer, father of racers, etc.
Cody Wyoming/Red Lodge MT.

Daron’s comments were right on!!! He was diplomatic and positive. Side slipping Kitzbuhel is difficult!!! Let alone attacking it with all you’ve got. Bode, Daron and the rest of the men’s and women’s USST deserve accolades and all the $$$ they receive. Bode’s future challenge, along with the World Cup (and the media), is to win the
Dh. and the Sl. at Kitzbuhel, which has never been done. He can do it and with that kind of accomplishment, certainly he is ‘da MAN’!!! Who cares about the trash talking, it is just great fun to be alive and a fan of ski racing (and of course, the miracle ‘04 Red Sox)! I only wish we could see more ski racing on the ‘tube’. Good luck to Bode, Daron and the entire USST. Keep the faith, you guys are great!!
Terry Palmer

‘Tricks are for kids’ Having seen Tanner ski at Mammoth, if he thinks he is better than Bode…..he has landed on his head once too often.
Tom Bell
Mammoth Mountain

Tanner’s comments really point to his youth and ignorance of the true elements of alpine skiing. The purest form of the sport of skiing is making the optimum utilization of the ski design as a tool inorder to negotiate the slope and snow conditions. Racing (the fastest guy down the mountain) is this expression and it is amazing to watch the very best executing precision turns and finding the fastest line through the course.

This appreciation alludes Tanner since his thought process is rather one dimensional. Tanner’s understanding of the sport resides in acrobatic moves on the snow and in the air. Freestyle is a thrilling aspect about skiing and will always be a compelling stimulus to get involved in the sport. I enjoy both aspects of the sport, I believe as Tanner grows older and wiser; he too will understand the design of those slats on his feet. The design consideration does not factor flying.
Ted

Daron is challenging Tanner to Kitzbuhel? That little punk couldn’t hold his own in one of my old man Master’s races.
Aaron Larsen
Layton UT

To really understand the “so called” controversy we really need to understand that both athletes are trapped in their own particular time.
Both are a product of two different schools, two different value systems and two different philosophical ways to perceive their athletic environment.
Daron is in my opinion coming from a culture that still rewards consistency, hard training, patience, and guts. He is involved in a sport in which you have absolutely no chance to make it if you are not at the very top of your personal, physical and mental game. On the other hand Tanner is as well a great athlete which has been brought up with a different value system. A system that that has given our sports society more options, more freedom, more creativity and definitely more fun, but that came as well with a costly price. Inconsistency, impatience and a lack of old fashioned sacrifice are greatly missing in some of these new sport variations performed in the slopes. The reality or at least my reality is centered in one simple fact.
When Daron is skiing down a world cup race he do not only has to beat the rest of the crew in the event, but also needs to beat the Killy´s, Ingemar´s, Tomba´s, Giradelli´s, Gustavo´s, Sailer´s, etc. In other words Alpine skiing has a long tradition and has been in business for a long….long time and believe me when I say that there are no short cuts.
Taaner´s sport tradition is limited and therefore we need to really wait few decades until the sport develops to a point in which we can have enough data to even be able to consider their trash talk a controversy that should have never happened in the first place. Both are different sports and have nothing that really makes them alike….well aside from the mountains and the snow. Anyway, both should focus on their own thing and make their sports even better. Nonetheless, I would like to see Tanner on the top of Kitzbuhel.

Vicente Tomas
Barcelona, Spain

Tanner made a big mistake. Now he looks like a blowhard for not putting up after he shot off at the mouth towards a sport that he has no expertise in. It could turn into a huge media event for the sport and make him look like some kind of genius if he followed through and did an event.
Drew Leftwich

I started skiing when I was 3, racing when I was 8. Downhill was my specialty.

In the last few years I’ve become a real enthusiast of freeskiing. I’ve jumped off some pretty high cliffs and done some breathtaking steeps (however nothing like a freeskiing champion). The adrenaline rush reminds me why I work at a bank to support my family and afford skiing.

No offense to Tanner, but it takes a lifetime of training just to get the technique (not to mention the balls) that is required to take on a run like the Hannenkam. To win there requires a second gear that even the winnner didn’t know they had and a technique that holds together without thought.

Great to see both sports getting attention for the challenges that they are.

Andrew Keith – 39
Rye, NY

From a non Ski racer to the next…. Tanner , as Darren summed it up, you are young and dumb and in your own nieve, big headed world).

Probably the most avid Ski racing fan in Toronto Canada, I follow the World Cup like my buddy’s watch their NHL teams make a run for the Stanley Cup. I’m a free Skier with a racer’s attitude and when I had a chance last April to schuss down the racing worlds Superbowl run , the ” Hahnekamm ” I was one of the great Crazy Canucks of my youth for those few minutes. I had no choice, and no doubt one has to be crazy to point the tips down and get into a tuck on any of these F.I.S. tracks. I was thrilled to just make it to the bottom and I was born with sticks on my feet !

Tanner, you need a serious wake up call. What you pot heads are doing in the pipe, on rails, off jumps; any Europa Cup racer could do after a weekend of watching. Ask your buddy Jeff Harrison the question, who’s really is taking risks ?.
Tanner, you have made a real —- — of your self making these comments especially the one regarding the slopes not changing, but rather just icy. That tells the world, you are really not all that experienced on the snow, narrow minded, in-experienced and have no —– to take a camel bump at 85 miles an hour in a tuck. Put your play station down for ten minuites little boy and watch the Wengen race comming this january. I think you will then see what a bone head you really are. And that every DH track is very different in a handful of ways.
My suggestion; take up Daren’s invite to Val Gardena of Kitzbuhel, what you will.. and need to learn atleast, is how to hold an edge. I suggest, you stay on your lame twin tips though, as Rahlves said, you’ll never be able to turn a race ski…. let alone flex one.

For the record…pipes and little kicker’s are for kids so..I take that back…..stay away from a race track….for your mothers sake. Let the experienced racers ski and the kids play in the park.

Tricks are for kids pal….you will understand when you mature and buy a stiff GS ski.

Dave Temple
Skican Quality Holidays
Toronto, Canada

I find it amusing that the freeride community which seems to boast the “free spirited” side of skiing would idolize a character like Tanner Hall – whose comments seem so narrow-minded. I coach ski racing every winter and I’m having the time of my life and my ski career. Even though shape skis have brought the carve turn to most of the skiing public, the fine points of the carve are elusive to many, especially on steeper and icy terrain. Mr. Hall calls it “icy-ass”. Maybe he needs a dictionary as well as an introduction to the reality of skiing. The carved turn is king and always will be the pinnacle of ski skill, weather or not Mr. Hall or anyone else in the skiing public wants to admit it. A carver can skid his skis anytime he wants, but very rarely can the skidder make his skis carve.

Mr. Hall might also want to watch his back. Some of the kids that I have coached over the years are leaving ski racing for other avenues of competition – including freeride. My own son who qualified
for the FIS Regional Championships in Colorado in ’04 also competed in local freeride competitions and he won podium spots – and he never trained . This year he has made a clean break from ski racing and will focus only on freeride competions and training. I’m not terribly happy about his decision. He had a great future in ski racing if he really wanted to get after it, but he is happy with freeride and I guess the only way he will ever be an outstanding competitor is if he has his own internal motivation for his sport. At least he still has a passion for skiing and isn’t hanging out in front of the TV playing X-box.

The skills that racers have aquired through ski racing allow them to use every part of the ski, not just the bases. For these young athletes, they begin competition in speed events at age 11. Many reach speeds in exess of 55 mph where every slight dip in the terrain is a major obstacle when you have to turn. For some of these kids, popping 10 or 15 feet of air is no big deal compared to nailing a 50 or 60 mph carved turn. I know this because I see some of them hit the halfpipe in their spare time. Freeride will soon be embraced as an official snow sport competition by the entire ski community – especially as more legitimate athletes enter its ranks. It’s too bad that Mr. Hall hasn’t pushed the speed envelope of the carved turn. His statements about ski racing indicate that he has totally missed a dimension of skiing that would give him the edge that his new competitors will have. Tanner Hall is oblivious to the new talent that entering the freeride genre. His focus is probably on what his nickname, “T Money” indicates. So, “T-Money” might want to get his eyes of his stash and watch his back instead.

Parker Thomson, J5 Coach