Freeride World Tour - 2019

[madcult]

He is filming all the time...Verbier happens once a year and is the toughest stop of FWT. Out of respect to the competition, his wildcard and other athletes he should compete. He is all the time about proving himself. I'm sure he would be there if he fights for title. I'm disappointed, would love to see him on some proper gnarly steeps.

[galibier_numero_un]

Everything @offpiste said, and ...

Remember how TH beat his chest last year bragging how he was going to change the face of the tour?

Talented as he might be in his world, he's still a little shit for his behavior.

[TAFKALVS]

Everything @offpiste said, and ...

Remember how TH beat his chest last year bragging how he was going to change the face of the tour?

Talented as he might be in his world, he's still a little shit for his behavior.

“720s and things people have never seen before on these venues”

Ie gorilla stance turns with wedges/stems thrown in.


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[bobinch]

Poor form to sack off the Bec. Not in the same league as Candide

[bobinch]

Xav even made a video for him...

[McDee]

It's debatable wether or not you can fault the FWT for trying to bring eyes to the sport, but Tanner Hall??? No doubt an amazing freestyle skier but this is free skiing. I'm not an 'insider' by any means, but what was the word on the street when he was announced, did anyone really believe he could cut it in the 1 run, variable condition, shark riddled, exposure fest that is the FWT?

Agree. It's a very shitty move of Hall to quit this late before bec, but I'd rather focus my ire on the FWT on giving him the wildcard in the first place? He only took what was offered to him (and chickened out in the end). The FWT enabled him to do that.
Is it just me, or is the FWT trying to specificaly reach the freestyle audience as a market with Halls wildcard? Similar to Candide's? Candide at the time was also more known for his freestyle exploits than freeriding at the time, or am I getting back the time lines mixed up. Difference was, Candide was/is a beast and Hall hit his limitations.

Edit: sorry for grammar, two thumb typing is not my strength.

[kootenayskier]

Agree. It's a very shitty move of Hall to quit this late before bec, but I'd rather focus my ire on the FWT on giving him the wildcard in the first place? He only took what was offered to him (and chickened out in the end). The FWT enabled him to do that.
Is it just me, or is the FWT trying to specificaly reach the freestyle audience as a market with Halls wildcard? Similar to Candide's? Candide at the time was also more known for his freestyle exploits than freeriding at the time, or am I getting back the time lines mixed up. Difference was, Candide was/is a beast and Hall hit his limitations.

Edit: sorry for grammar, two thumb typing is not my strength.

As evidenced by their choice of wildcards numerous recent judging, calls, the FWT seems very deliberately to be courting a freestyle audience. I have a “tricks are for kids” perspective, but acknowledge they aren’t going to build a successful business around just an audience of obsessives who can appreciate the subtleties of big mountain skiing skills, and that pandering to jibbers might help them reach a younger and more mainstream crowd. I accept that they need to combine the two, and that it isn’t easy, they just seem incapable of being clear and consistent about it. At minimum the judges and top competitors need to be able to make sense of what constitutes the winning run.

[geo039]

Reine got a wildcard for Verb

[TahoeJ]

Assuming Tanner doesn't compete next year, shouldn't the tour give that spot to the first person on the cusp who missed out otherwise? Which would be Reine, right? Glad he's able to fill the spot at Verbier at least.

FWT is definitely trying to cater to the freestyle crowd. I'd be much more interested to see a wildcard go to someone like Sammy Carlson, though.

[brutah]

They've always had wildcards on the FWT. And athletes deciding not to compete is nothing new. For most athletes on the FWT, skiing is business not about chest thumping. Ski filming is t Hall's bread and butter, can't blame the guy for following the money

Tabke had similar results as t hall this year and is on a wild card spot, should he not have been afforded the opportunity? And would tabke be competing if he a lucurative film career?

as a spectator would I rather see t hall compete than some no name kid compete? T Hall all day. I'd actually argue the amount of skier star turnover is too great and makes it more difficult for skiing as spectator sport. Competitive Skiing is a highly political sport

[McDee]

If my French is still good enough, I think I just heard bimboes saying he's quitting comps after verbier? Geo, u know more? He also turning to filming with his ruroc partner . Or maybe a Down Skis movie

[teamdirt]

I'd be much more interested to see a wildcard go to someone like Sammy Carlson, though.

One pizza wedging, gorrila stance thug to the next. Lol. Just because u think they look good skiing hero snow on mini golf lines doesn't quantify skills to compete on the freeride world tour.

Your above statement descredits all the rest of your arguments...

[TahoeJ]

One pizza wedging, gorrila stance thug to the next. Lol. Just because u think they look good skiing hero snow on mini golf lines doesn't quantify skills to compete on the freeride world tour.

Your above statement descredits all the rest of your arguments...

Okay, whatever. I said I'd rather see someone like Carlson than THall if the Tour is going after that audience, not that he'd be my first choice amongst name skiers. Obviously I'd rather see someone like Ian Mac or Sage or Sean Pettit (would he ski or snowboard?)... not that they'd likely have any interest in it at this point in their careers.

[bw_wp_hedonism]

If my French is still good enough, I think I just heard bimboes saying he's quitting comps after verbier? Geo, u know more? He also turning to filming with his ruroc partner . Or maybe a Down Skis movie

Sad if true. Love watching the guy ski. Although thinking about it, I would expect his films to be pretty insane given what he does in less than perfect conditions.

[Dantheman]

Tabke had similar results as t hall this year and is on a wild card spot, should he not have been afforded the opportunity? And would tabke be competing if he a lucurative film career?

IMO, Tabke got that wildcard spot because of his run in Andorra last year. If not for that freak tragic crash at the very bottom he wins that event and makes the cut for this year. In case you missed or forgot it:



That backie at the end was like 150 feet? Biggest backflip ever on the FWT? I think so.

as a spectator would I rather see t hall compete than some no name kid compete? T Hall all day.

I'd watch that kid who won the Junior Worlds (vid of his run is a few pages back) over Tanner's comp runs this year every time. To each his own, I guess. I'm just happy someone was able to fill his Verbier spot.

“720s and things people have never seen before on these venues”

Ie gorilla stance turns with wedges/stems thrown in.

Yeah, it would have been one thing if he had been humble about the whole thing, but he went in spraying from the moment the announcement was made and never backed it up.

Obviously I'd rather see someone like Ian Mac or Sage or Sean Pettit (would he ski or snowboard?)... not that they'd likely have any interest in it at this point in their careers.

Maybe as a one-off wildcard like Rice did, but pretty unlikely they'd be interested in a full season on the tour, particularly in light of the judging this year. Though, you would think that Mac especially would be interested in the Bec.

[meter-man]

Sweet Turdell vid!....^^^

I really like seeing the big-name skiers and riders join, whether for just a comp (T-Rice killed it in Hakuba) or even for a full season.

HOWEVER, FWT could easily change the format for giving wildcards. Instead of taking slots from regular riders, they could have designated "wildcard slots" and "regular-rider" spots. The wildcard slots could be used for single-comp or season-long wildcards to bring recognition, eyeballs, clicks, and sponsorship to the tour. They could really pimp up the wildcard slots even more than they do. Say, 3 wildcard slots per comp/season.

The regular-rider spots would be for the guys who come up through the ranks. Top 12 slots go to Verbier and next season's tour.

With 20-24 (?) skier slots in the early events, surely they could fit in some designated wildcard spots, no? I loved seeing THall compete, and Rice, but agree that it doesn't make sense for him (or Candide or T-Rice or xyz) to take spots from those who came up through the ranks.

Are you listening Nicolas Hale-Woods?

[grskier]

Maybe as a one-off wildcard like Rice did, but pretty unlikely they'd be interested in a full season on the tour, particularly in light of the judging this year. Though, you would think that Mac especially would be interested in the Bec.

Sage competed back in like 2014...

Sean doesn't need that noise in his life.

But yeah, I too like seeing the Kai, Logan, et. al film guys compete from time to time. It's great context. But, their view on this whole thing has got to be pretty different.

That all said, bec looks nice right now via that webcam posted... stoked to see what goes down.

[teamdirt]

I Though, you would think that Mac especially would be interested in the Bec.

He already has been there and done that. 2nd place Verbier Extreme 2004.

[Dantheman]

He already has been there and done that. 2nd place Verbier Extreme 2004.

Oh, yeah, forgot about that.

[McDee]

I also forgot that eder comes from a freestyle background, there have been others as well like Fabio studer. So it seems to work most times, just not for Hall this season

[californiagrown]

Sounds like after all the bitching at Thall from folks not involved in the comp, the situation resolved itself as well as it ever could have. The "last guy out" was able to fill the spot, and it turns out to be a skier most of the folks here would rather see ski anyways. Weird how bitter people can be about getting what they wanted.

[geo039]

If my French is still good enough, I think I just heard bimboes saying he's quitting comps after verbier? Geo, u know more? He also turning to filming with his ruroc partner . Or maybe a Down Skis movie

You know more than me...and if true totally cool. The back story about me and Mika is funny and I support these guys as much as people support DOWN. DOWN is 100% passion not money so hope we can support WA in the future as Mika never skied DOWN for money but the skis.

[SUPERIOR]

I agree that there’s a lot of Tanner Hall hate going on here.

I thought he was a cheesy spoiled kid WAY in the beginning, and after listening to the LPP podcast featuring him, I’m sympathetic to the toll drugs and booze have taken on him. Skiing is all that guy has. He’s not going back to school for a computer science degree.

However, I also think it’s correct to say that the sport does need big names to draw attention to the events and sponsors.

Hall’s second place finish in Japan was a fun line to watch, and his other finishes simply weren’t.

I also think the judging has been very strange on the tour, and I’m not sure if there needs to be some more concrete way to score competitors, or if we should just all agree that this is a big game show where skiers huck their meat for us to tune in to....

Fuck, you can even bet on results thru the website. What does that say?

[PNWbrit]

Fuck, you can even bet on results thru the website. What does that say?

Coming soon a FWT fantasy league?

Actually that's how much of this thread sounds already.

[toast2266]

Coming soon a FWT fantasy league?

Actually that's how much of this thread sounds already.

I mean, that sort of fantasy league already exists for some of the mountain bike events that roughly parallel the fwt. A fwt league wouldn't be a stretch at all. I'm kinda surprised it doesn't already exist.