I'ld like to react on the explanations given on the web site about the reasons why alpine snowboard disapeared.
Basically it says that it disapeared because progressively the board's width shrinked. I agree with that statement but would like to share further thoughts on the subjet...
My point is that when Alpine snowboard entered the Olympics it accelerated the disaster. And specifically that this is due to an insane rule about parallel slalom.
Yes, as an alpine snowboarder for years, the normal "evolution" for me was to start competition and slalom to continue getting sensations and a feeling of improvement. Still I continued to enjoy carving, with the same board, on the piste. But there has been a strong disconnect happening, (actually after I stopped competing and "only" enjoying carving) : that is the rule that now riders who fail down in a slalom are NOT discalified. This rule, that you never find in skiing, might be good for the "show" (and I guess good for the riders), but killed our discipline. Because since you where allowed to fail down, the door was open for having narrow boards, huge foot angles, and stiffness of a steel bar : a board with which you will only be able to do short "push" turns, easily fail down (but who cares, who can still have a gold medal eventhough he/she failed several times), and... cannot V-turn ! To me they actually don't turn ; merely change direction...
I am a strong believer that if those who fail down in a parralel slalom would be immediatly discalified, you would find on the market boards that can be riden, and enjoyed, by the many. Because the boards you find on the market derive from the R&D from competition (I am not talking about SWOARD), nobody wants to buy alpine boards anymore...
My current board (Oxygen limited edition) is 3/4 years old, I fell it is a bit "tired" and would deserve replacement, but never found something adequate until I have seen (on the paper for the moment) the SWOARD board...
Neither in current Olympic labelled parallel slalom nor in boarder cross do I find a competion discipline level that is in line with the most enjoyable and extreme practice that give us so much pleasure... name it Extremecarving.
Another sign of the "disconnect" is that here in France , there is no dynamic of more practice by young people eventhough so many Olympic medals were brought back home by french girls on alpine snowboard, a real and pittyfull "premiere" indeed...
Olympics killed Alpine snowboard
Moderators: fivat, rilliet, Arnaud, nils
-
fivat
- Swoard & EC founder
- Posts: 3011
- Joined: Thursday 21 March 2002, 13:13
- Location: Geneva, Switzerland
- Contact:
Re: Olympics killed Alpine snowboard
Thank you for your excellent post, Chinanico! I agree with most of your opinions...
Excuse me for my bad english, but probably there are other readers who don't undersand like me the precise meaning of "to fail down in a slalom". Could you explain this more clearly please?
When I talk with snowboarders AND non-snowboarders who have watched a slalom at least once (at the Olympics for example), they ALL tell me that the style is ugly and don't give the desire to practice this discipline...
-Patrice Fivat
Excuse me for my bad english, but probably there are other readers who don't undersand like me the precise meaning of "to fail down in a slalom". Could you explain this more clearly please?
Yes, it's the poor reality. And they use gesticulations to help the movements! What about driving a board, with a nice style, in a cool and fluid way, following the original spirit of snowboarding?Chinanico wrote:To me they actually don't turn ; merely change direction...
When I talk with snowboarders AND non-snowboarders who have watched a slalom at least once (at the Olympics for example), they ALL tell me that the style is ugly and don't give the desire to practice this discipline...
ExactlyChinanico wrote:Because the boards you find on the market derive from the R&D from competition (I am not talking about SWOARD), nobody wants to buy alpine boards anymore...
No commentChinanico wrote:Neither in current Olympic labelled parallel slalom nor in boarder cross do I find a competion discipline level that is in line with the most enjoyable and extreme practice that give us so much pleasure... name it Extremecarving.
-Patrice Fivat
Who killed roger rabit
I personally believe that alpine was killed by fight between FIS and ISF amd also by greed of some ISF area.
First major step to change slalom was to move from long sticks to short ones, then switch it totally to short ones and then finally totally to duel. Duel as format is really competetive, but only as long as tracks are really built for that. I still feel that nothing is nicer to watch(and ride) that WELL built duel slalom track. Last nail to coffin of alpine racing was to change also GS to duel. GS as dicipline is not so fast and furious as slalom and does not suit to duel, and duel format as such is not working with high speed.
We can also put huge responsible of killing alpine to shoulders of persons who have done tracks in races. And that way requiring length of boards to grow too long, specially some years ago when people wre taking podiums with boards 200cm+ on gs
To make growth back, i feel that we should go (back) to one name of disiplines of ISF, Carving (which shoul have been replacing GS).
We should start race on tracks were you are "forced" to ride carved turns to get best time, not anymore straight to next gate and then ugly looking jump crashh-slide turn and repated again. IE Fastest one should be fluent carving turns instead current "typical" racing. This way we can get racing closer to normal carving. You can see some of races in US (Extreme Channel) riding thatkind of tracks, and it looks pretty good
There must be future, also in racing area.
First major step to change slalom was to move from long sticks to short ones, then switch it totally to short ones and then finally totally to duel. Duel as format is really competetive, but only as long as tracks are really built for that. I still feel that nothing is nicer to watch(and ride) that WELL built duel slalom track. Last nail to coffin of alpine racing was to change also GS to duel. GS as dicipline is not so fast and furious as slalom and does not suit to duel, and duel format as such is not working with high speed.
We can also put huge responsible of killing alpine to shoulders of persons who have done tracks in races. And that way requiring length of boards to grow too long, specially some years ago when people wre taking podiums with boards 200cm+ on gs
To make growth back, i feel that we should go (back) to one name of disiplines of ISF, Carving (which shoul have been replacing GS).
We should start race on tracks were you are "forced" to ride carved turns to get best time, not anymore straight to next gate and then ugly looking jump crashh-slide turn and repated again. IE Fastest one should be fluent carving turns instead current "typical" racing. This way we can get racing closer to normal carving. You can see some of races in US (Extreme Channel) riding thatkind of tracks, and it looks pretty good
There must be future, also in racing area.