For some, freeskiing appears to have simply developed deeper fissures between competitive and creative endeavors.
Others fear style and creativity are dying at the hands of a regimented, aerialist approach to competition.
Dylan: Not to bad, just got off work man, you?
Hank: Good man, you wanna just jump into it?
Dylan: For sure!
Hank: What are you up to this summer?
Hank: How was West Coast Sessions?
A bunch of good skiers just having fun, that’s what skiing should be about.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/713092/West-Coast-Session-8-x-Evan-Heath
Hank: How’d you get your start in aerials?
I was getting better at aerials and thought I would just kind of go with it.
Right out of high school I moved to Park City and joined their ski team to train with them.
Dylan: New Hampshire, we had a solid crew of park skiers when I was there.
Mike Clark, Andrew Hathaway, Willis Brown, Henrick Lampert.
I don’t want to be too competitive about it, more just something to do.
Dylan: I think that it’s just the natural progression of those sports.
Obviously aerials didn’t just start out with people hucking triples.
It started with single flips and slowly moved up.
If you are 12 years old and don’t have both dub 10’s then you’re sorta out.
That’s the standard these days.
Hank: The 3 flips with 5 twists is a hurricane right?
Dylan: A variation.
My teammate Speedy invented that trick.
He was a pretty rad dude and a huge inspiration for me.
Only a few people have ever done that trick, maybe 10 people at this point.
Being one of them is pretty cool.
Hank: Do you think that park skiing is progressing towards an aerialist approach to jumping?
Dylan: Kind of.
I hear coaches telling their freeski athletes what to do.
and you aren’t necessarily spotting the ground right below you.
Every year the way that kids are doing tricks is more like aerials.
Like that blunt cork 7 that people are doing a lot is similar to a crappy back full.
It’s partially becoming that, but park will never fully be like aerials.
It should be an expression of style, not just flipping and spinning to win comps.
Hank: Is there anything that park skiers could take away from aerialists, or vice versa?
Dylan: There are, yeah.
Hank: Is it true that some aerialists can’t really ski?
Dylan: For sure.
Hank: Would you say that aerials is still skiing?
Dylan: Yeah, technically.
It’s gymnastics, landing perfectly with your arms to the side and standing up.
It looks so dumb.
It’s freestyle skiing, style should always be a factor.
They can kind of learn how to ski along the way.
When you travel on the world tour, nobody is going skiing.
Hank: you could make the same argument for park skiing though.
They don’t grasp how to control your ski.
Dylan: Yeah, exactly.
Hank: What ski culture do you identify with most personally?
Dylan: Definitely freeskiing.
No offense to aerials, but it’s such a competitive scene.
All my friends that I go freeskiing with make the best days of the year.
Hank: What’s harder, a dub 10 or a full full?
Hank: Do you ever see style ever making its way into aerials?
what about switch takeoffs and landings?
There’s gotta be some sort of creative part of the sport.
Hank: How’s your kick ass blaster?
I don’t really do that anymore, but I’ve been known to rip a kick ass blaster.
Hank: Word, thanks man!
Dylan: Thank you!
