Blue Park Updates?

[jhartley]

And airbag= not bullshit.

 

I'm sure it will be fun, and whoever is making these decisions probly thinks they're makin Blue better for the customer. But to be honest I think the average park rider would rather have a well groomed/maintained park with lots of standard stock boxes and rails of varying sizes to learn and progress on. I'd just say that airbags and foampits are for summer. For winter they should focus on making a skatepark in the snow.

[toast21602]

I'm sure it will be fun, and whoever is making these decisions probly thinks they're makin Blue better for the customer. But to be honest I think the average park rider would rather have a well groomed/maintained park with lots of standard stock boxes and rails of varying sizes to learn and progress on. I'd just say that airbags and foampits are for summer. For winter they should focus on making a skatepark in the snow.

 

agree.

[Justo8484]

while this airbag thing will probably be a lot of fun, i'd rather have seen the (most likely ridiculous amount of) money spent on more quality rails and boxes and more snowmaking to provide better conditions and better built jumps. a properly built jump, even a really big one, can be relatively safe. i'm just having a hard time imagining actually sticking a landing on the airbag, like how are you gonna ride out and not just double eject and smear your face?

[GSSucks]

double eject and smear your face?

 

Sounds fun!

[RootDKJ]

while this airbag thing will probably be a lot of fun, i'd rather have seen the (most likely ridiculous amount of) money spent on more quality rails and boxes and more snowmaking to provide better conditions and better built jumps. a properly built jump, even a really big one, can be relatively safe. i'm just having a hard time imagining actually sticking a landing on the airbag, like how are you gonna ride out and not just double eject and smear your face?

I got to watch folks use the one at Windham. It's all crash & burn on the landing.

 

[toast21602]

seems like a waste of money to me. but at least they are making improvements in some shape/form

[RootDKJ]

seems like a waste of money to me. but at least they are making improvements in some shape/form

Windham charges extra for it. I think it was around $20/day and or $100/season.

[TT C6]

they need park passes for Sidewinder..

 

We all can agree on park passes being mandatory for the parks.

[girls.ride.harder]

I dont think the airbag is a waste of money... I rode one in hood and it was INSANE. maybe you cant land something and ride away, but thats not what its about. In my oppinion and from my experience its more about learning to control yourself in the air doing wilder tricks without having to worry about breaking yourself when you land. Then once you are comfortable and controlled you`ll be more confident and stable doing the trick to a real landing. The blue mountain local parkrats are all stoked on it and I think that its going to help push the limits of the kids that ride there for sure. Buttt yeah I think park passes would be great but I dont think it will happen. I`ve been told it takes alot to get them going but I`ll talk to my boss and see if he can possibly start making some moves towards them. There are some new features coming around this season too but nothing 100% finalized so for now I have to keep quiet about it.

[toast21602]

The blue mountain local parkrats are all stoked on it and I think that its going to help push the limits of the kids that ride there for sure.

 

There are some new features coming around this season too but nothing 100% finalized so for now I have to keep quiet about it.

 

are we all stoked on it?

 

i hope these "new features" are ice long flat bars, single barrel handrails that dont have ghetto urban lips, and nothing that can be found at a museum as a sculpture like the infamous "Crackerbarrel"

[stever2003]

A couple years ago I was against them as I had the attitude that if you buy a lift ticket you should be able to ski everything and my rebuttal was always,"Well if there are park passes there should also Black diamond passes but I've spent more time in the park at Blue as I have befriended some Jibhonks and I see the frustration they go through with noobs camped out in the landings and people using lips to rails as jumps along with Smartstyle Violations. I don't think park passes should any money but you should sign a sheet saying you will follow the rules of Smartstyle..it would really help alot on weekday evenings as 75% of the school groups head for the park it seems when they should be on Crazy Mile..

I'm all for a small fee for park passes - I'm sure the people who really care about the park wouldn't mind paying something like $5-10/day or $50/year to ride the park if this fee helped kept those who don't respect the rules out of there. If I was in your shoes and lived in the park, I know I would.

The problem here is, after years of skiing at Blue Mt, I already count all of the trails as part of the value of paying for a lift ticket (or season pass in most of your cases). I wouldn't be thrilled about paying extra for the park if the lift ticket price remained the same, or if they didn't add some additional trails to the mountain. Essentially, if the parks became exclusive for those who paid the fee while the rest of the mountain was available to me at the same (or higher) price than I paid the year before for the whole mountain, I'd be paying the same or more money for less mountain. There's gotta be some offset there for this method to satisfy all parties.

[Justo8484]

park passes might have gotten a little easier to accomplish with some of the new changes up there.

[RootDKJ]

I'm all for a small fee for park passes - I'm sure the people who really care about the park wouldn't mind paying something like $5-10/day or $50/year to ride the park if this fee helped kept those who don't respect the rules out of there. If I was in your shoes and lived in the park, I know I would.

The problem here is, after years of skiing at Blue Mt, I already count all of the trails as part of the value of paying for a lift ticket (or season pass in most of your cases). I wouldn't be thrilled about paying extra for the park if the lift ticket price remained the same, or if they didn't add some additional trails to the mountain. Essentially, if the parks became exclusive for those who paid the fee while the rest of the mountain was available to me at the same (or higher) price than I paid the year before for the whole mountain, I'd be paying the same or more money for less mountain. There's gotta be some offset there for this method to satisfy all parties.

So maybe a Park Pass is included in a Season Pass, but for a day tripper, it's an extra $5.

[Justo8484]

So maybe a Park Pass is included in a Season Pass, but for a day tripper, it's an extra $5.

that's too easy. to be effective, there needs to be a concerted effort on the end user to actually acquire the pass, regardless of whether its free or for pay. i still think stratton's solution is the best option. watch a 10-15 minute terrain park safety video, for free, to get the park pass. its good for the season. for passholders, this would occupy such a small percentage of their on-mountain time it would be trivial, but for a family of 5 that takes two or three day trips a year, getting 3 kids to sit through a 15 minute video would just be such an exorbitant pain that unless they really, truly wanted to ride park, they wouldn't waste the time. barb, please make this happen.

[TT C6]

I'm all for a small fee for park passes - I'm sure the people who really care about the park wouldn't mind paying something like $5-10/day or $50/year to ride the park if this fee helped kept those who don't respect the rules out of there. If I was in your shoes and lived in the park, I know I would.

The problem here is, after years of skiing at Blue Mt, I already count all of the trails as part of the value of paying for a lift ticket (or season pass in most of your cases). I wouldn't be thrilled about paying extra for the park if the lift ticket price remained the same, or if they didn't add some additional trails to the mountain. Essentially, if the parks became exclusive for those who paid the fee while the rest of the mountain was available to me at the same (or higher) price than I paid the year before for the whole mountain, I'd be paying the same or more money for less mountain. There's gotta be some offset there for this method to satisfy all parties.

 

I think anyone who is serious about the park will gladly pay the fee as long as it improves safety in the park.

There is nothing worse than practicing "smartyle" and still finding a "out of sight" 10yr old looking up at you from a landing right before impact.

I busted my hip pretty bad in VT because I chose to land on my side instead of my board to try to save a kid. It ended my season.

[Justo8484]

I would have landed on the kid to soften the landing..lol

 

and undoubtedly, your ass would have gotten sued, instead of bruised. ttc6 i can completely relate to what you described, i've done the same thing at blue, and so have many of the crew i ride with. obviously, riding park comes with inherent risk, but we shouldnt be putting ourselves at a greater risk because some ignorant parent allows their 6 year old to flail around the terrain park with their edgy wedgy and dog-style harness. unfortunately, a lot of people don't have basic common sense, and a park pass is one way to help enforce what common sense should already provide. i'm sick of having to calmly tell parents they're the ones in the wrong when getting screamed at for almost hitting their kid who was sitting on the landing of a 40 foot jump.

[TT C6]

Not to mention the fights that ensue.

I had a 40yr old locked up for busting open a 15 year old's face in VT because the kid told him he couldn't hang out in the blind spot of a big jump. (Stratton?)

The kid was like 120lbs and the 40yr old was like 200lbs. (fat)

WORST CASE you push or restrain a kid. This guy started off with a right cross.

Ironically, he then became a blubbering pussy when dealing with the prospect of getting cracked with my board and then the cops locking him up.

 

 

I've been on the other end of that scenario after a parent actually hit me in the back of his head with his ski pole after he said I got too close to his kid who was hanging out in the blind spot of a 40ft landing.

Keep in mind, this was 10 minutes AFTER I politely asked him to protect his kid's by staying off the landings.

To top things off, some liftie tried to steal my board after I double ejected to "address" the issue after being hit in the back of the head.

 

Frankly, I don't know if I'm willing to break/bruise another bone in an attempt to avoid landing on someone who crosses in my path AFTER I leave the lip.

There is no sense in risking injury to BOTH people when I can at least ensure my safe landing on my board while still trying to avoid a collision.

Edited September 15, 2009 by TT C6

[TT C6]

I'd rather be sued than injured..

Then you obviously haven't been sued.

 

I've been sued and I've had my ass kicked.

I'll take the ass kicking.

 

Being sued, is just a massive inconvenience.

[Mixilplix]

Isn't part of smartstyle to make sure the landing is clear?.....But it still does not make hanging out in the LZ right.

[rgrwilco]

in all of my close calls, kids cut across after i leave the lip, as ttc6 says. how have the steps been working

[girls.ride.harder]

Isn't part of smartstyle to make sure the landing is clear?.....But it still does not make hanging out in the LZ right.

 

Haha yeah but you cant always see kids when they are chillen in the landing

[Rodeo Steve]

Pretty stoked for the airbag. Im sure everyone has tons of tricks waiting to be unleashed on that thing. Maybe in the next few years though red bull will build us a half a million dollar superpipe with a foam pit at the bottom so we can catch up to Shaun Whites double corks.

[Justo8484]

Pretty stoked for the airbag. Im sure everyone has tons of tricks waiting to be unleashed on that thing. Maybe in the next few years though red bull will build us a half a million dollar superpipe with a foam pit at the bottom so we can catch up to Shaun Whites double corks.

or maybe not.

[jhartley]

Welp it seems like there's gonna be an airbag taking up space where there should probly be straight rails and minishred (in my dreams)....BUT check this out: http://lineskis.com/skis/anthem

 

Watch the vid. Garret Russell slays the wooden wall thing, and the regular wallride. Dude's so good with the unorthodox. I would also like to draw attention to how nicely shaped the takeoffs to those features are for our friends at Meatheads. Now some takeoffs like that would probly help me learn more tricks than all the airbags in the world.

[Rodeo Steve]

or maybe not.

 

I guess that was taken seriously? lol