Jump to content
Note to New Members ×

Chris Klug on TV


jtslalom

Recommended Posts

I just watched a short ducumentary on PBS channel 13 broadcast in the New York City region. I did not know that he almost did not make the US team and had been dropped from national US sponsership, wtf. Well I am happy he's riding in the Olympics and looked great from the footage I saw.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chris deserves more regognition than he has gotten. I feel like writing USSA a letter to ask for my money back for all the years Ive paid for membership dues. I really think they are a bunch of elitist tightwads. This story only proves that they are. Chris has represented, and deserves to be recognized at a higher level. USSA should take care of their own. But it is obvious that they have not!. Canada Snowboarding takes care of their own and it shows! They actually invite competitors like myself to events and make it quite easy to register and participate. The USSA needs to revamp and reform their snowboarding faculty from the top down. How about starting with Bill?

I could go on, yes, I will. My racing friends and I have learned that US Snowboarding has created a sort of exclusive club of elite racers. We believe that they could make the "pipeline" to success much more steamlined if they wanted to. But they dont. Therefore, we see alot of potential stars burn out in the process. Not enough money and not enough chances for the local kid to reach his or her potential. And yes, USASA has definately picked up the slack in this department. Thanks USASA. We find that young riders have a hard time making the jump from the local USASA series to the next level. Not enough events in each region. Not enough chances to make successful bids.

We have found that it is prohibitively expensive to make these bids as each trip costs in excess of $1500.00. If the USSA really wanted to create a truly competitive US field, they would do much more for aspiring athletes by holding more events in each region more often for less money with incentives that attract more talent. Why is it that Chris and Tyler are the only Olympic contenders in PGS from the nation where snowboarding was (arguably) invented? The rest of our US riders are surely capable of rising higher in FIS rankings. We think that they have not been given the tools to do so. These being a multitude of basic services that would allow them to reach their goals without having to sacrifice and go broke in the process. An aspiring international athlete should not have to go into debt in the process of reaching these goals. Rant over. Rip it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not only does the media in this country get to decide which sports succeed,but governing bodies get to decide who's in the loop; and it is not always the fastest or the best.In velodrome racing I saw this all too often.USA Cycling crapped on some of it's best talent over and over and basically have ended up with little to show for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bigger support from maufacturers like Burton would also help but their not making any new hard equipment. I remember buying hard decks, boots and bindings back in the early 90's and not having to remortgage my house to do so. Equipment is expensive, not including entry fees and traveling expenses.

Now I don't know what governing association or who decides who will be on an olympic team. I would think it would be based on performance through some type of FIS racing tour or something like that. The problem I have is that I have no idea how a racer makes it to a professional level. All I do know is after meeting a 17 year old racer about a month ago I can see where real talent can go to waste when I asked him if he thinks he will start racing professionally. He basically said he doesn't think he can afford it. That truly sucked because I hope it's not just a $ issue for most racers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yep its true, I was having that discusion just last night with my GF, between the cost to race and train and the opportunity.... and the reward.... its tough.

I could be wrong but i think it was easier a few years back. Now theres only a handfull of races in the states. and how do you practice? only a handfull of places to practice, and many times they are limited on time. So.... how am I supposed to make any progress?

well... I guess you could move to steamboat, live out of your car and work for home depot....(do they have a home deopt in steamboat??) to pay for the training...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chris quote: "...This is how alpine snowboarding started, with independent professional teams. This is perhaps my final competitive season, and I wanted to leave a legacy and show that perhaps there's another path to the Olympics."

Observing US competitive snowboarding arena from my european perspective it looks like it's getting the major path for US racers :(( It's a lot harder, but if that's what needs to be done for the discipline to grow, you have the way shown by Chris "independent professional teams" instead of expecting what might never happen - USSA evolution toward European or Canadian model.

The environment is so different in US vs. Europe: privately owned resorts, lack of grooming, gate training limitations / costs, expensive accommodation, a lot fewer races etc. so perhaps the approach must be different accordingly.

I dont think you will ever have the comfort of european model with every single slope groomed daily, with ability to set course nearly everywhere for free, with the lift pass discounts just for the fact you are about to set a training course, with tourist skiers support for parts of slopes being closed for training on daily basis, with at least 1 FIS race within several hours drive every single weekend of the season, TV coverage...

just my observations... correct if I'm wrong since it's been a while since I used to live in Colorado for 2 seasons

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chris quote: "...This is how alpine snowboarding started, with independent professional teams. This is perhaps my final competitive season, and I wanted to leave a legacy and show that perhaps there's another path to the Olympics."

Observing US competitive snowboarding arena from my european perspective it looks like it's getting the major path for US racers :(( It's a lot harder, but if that's what needs to be done for the discipline to grow, you have the way shown by Chris "independent professional teams" instead of expecting what might never happen - USSA evolution toward European or Canadian model.

The environment is so different in US vs. Europe: privately owned resorts, lack of grooming, gate training limitations / costs, expensive accommodation, a lot fewer races etc. so perhaps the approach must be different accordingly.

I dont think you will ever have the comfort of european model with every single slope groomed daily, with ability to set course nearly everywhere for free, with the lift pass discounts just for the fact you are about to set a training course, with tourist skiers support for parts of slopes being closed for training on daily basis, with at least 1 FIS race within several hours drive every single weekend of the season, TV coverage...

just my observations... correct if I'm wrong since it's been a while since I used to live in Colorado for 2 seasons

yep pretty much bottom line is money/support and opportunity, you can ski moguls, run the halfpipe, ski race ALL THE TIME.

USASA has only done so much, but they arent that different, freestyle gets more attention, infact ironically Here in CO, the place where one of the guys that owns USASA, we only have 3 races!

I think the private team is a good idea..... Now where to find the other racers that are serious enough? I asked Zack Kay, when I picked up some boards from him about the AST... its only for them. (Im sure unless I had $50-100K laying around...)

Team summit??? Nope... not even a mention of Racing on their site....

Copper?? Nah.. no team... just who ever shows up.

I guess if you really want make it... you cant have a real life.

frankly the only thing in alpine racing thats worth anything is an olympic gold medal.... anything else and you're just a chump on a skiboard.

And theres only 1 every 4 years to go round... how many guys are willing to literally waste their lives away for even just a chance at that??

Heck if Klug DIDNT have a transplant he'd only have a 1/10 of the attenion(minimal enough as it is)

other than that, no media, no local, and as it stands, barely any Professional support (ie USSA)

Mean while DH ski racing is getting all the attention (in skiing as opposed to boarding) You think if L Vonn was racing snowboards she'd get half the attention?

problem is we are in the "wierd sports" group when we shouldnt be, such as curling, luge/skeleton/bobsled, ski jumping and what ever else you never heard of outside the olympics, nobody does, and you couldnt do if you wanted to...(where the heck am I going to go luging???)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...