PSA: 2024-2025 Ikon Renewal

[Mailman]

Delay in the Saturday results was due to a glitch with getting some of the scores entered into the Winfree software system used for tabulating the judges scoring of the turns and airs as well as the time for each run.

That 1 boy on Saturday who had the DNS, was the one who was late, and apparently from what the TD was told by his coaches, he has a habit of being late for practices atleast.

The punch thrower on Sunday was listed as one of the DNS's since the incident occured prior to her 1st bracket run

There;s a LONG, funny story behind the goldfish as prizes (they actually wanted to give out live lobsters, but that apparently wasn't in the budget ) and something like 20 out of the 30 goldfish one of the Mount Snow coaches bought prior to departing his house in CT on Friday, surviced the trip North

And if the announcer both days messed up your kids names, I will own that as I was on the microphone all weekend, and especially on Saturday, the start list print out trunacted after a specific amount of characters so for some 1st names I literally only had the 1st letter or 2 to work with

Ha! You did a great job on the mic! Thanks for putting the time in and helping make it a fun weekend for the kids and their families!

My son gave his goldfish to my daughter. I can't believe it's still alive! I was ready to administer last rights a couple of times yesterday, but apparently if a 10 year old girl pokes a near-dead goldfish enough times, it eventually swims for a bit longer!

 

[djd66]

Heck, at a mogul event Mount Snow hosted this past weekend, apparently 2 Dad's from an "un-named Mountain that might be locted somewhere between Mount Snow and Bromley who's 1st letter is an S" got into a fight inbetween the 1st and 2nd runs when 1 Dad apparently grabbed a pair of skis on the rack, that he thought was his kid's when it was one of his teammates skis (the majority of youth bumpers these days seem to prefer Kastle bump skis so there were lots of them in the racks between runs) and the Dad of the kid who's skis they actually were got into it with the other Dad, with some punches apparentyl exchanged......

Jesus,... wtf is with people? I feel bad for the kid of this parent. And my kids complain about me embarrassing them,... I can proudly say I have never thrown a punch!

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i dont know why this made me think of this, but just got a vivid memory of youth roller hockey. i missed on a breakaway and my dad was yelling something to me from the other side of the glass and i flipped him off and he basically dragged me off the rink and beat the shit out of me. i deserved it.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Pretty much 100% certain I am now around more race kids both on & off the mountain (off you can easily spot them by their jackets) this season than the entire sum of all my combined ski seasons ever, and I'm just not seeing all these obnoxious, nasty, entitled, bratty, spoiled rich children everyone speaks of.

Here me out here......... is it possible...... just possible..... that this could be a New England thing?

Like Ivy boarding school larva or something?

 

[KustyTheKlown]

utah has much more accessible skiing than here. you can pop a kid on a $2 local transit bus to go ski by themselves. so yea, i think the race brat may be a somewhat localized new england thing. also the skiing is way more fun out by you so i suspect more kids want to freeski and less want to be spandex'd running the same groomer over and over

 

[drjeff]

Pretty much 100% certain I am now around more race kids both on & off the mountain (off you can easily spot them by their jackets) this season than the entire sum of all my combined ski seasons ever, and I'm just not seeing all these obnoxious, nasty, entitled, bratty, spoiled rich children everyone speaks of.

Here me out here......... is it possible...... just possible..... that this could be a New England thing?

Like Ivy boarding school larva or something?

You may be on to something, as there is a greater denisty of ski academies in New England, than out West. And from what I have noticed personally, the overall small percentage of athletes who act like that, are more likely to have an Academy coat on than just a mountain team coat. The super driven (often parental) mentality, that push their kids into ski academies (many of whom don't remotely have the talent to ski into a poltential college scholarship, but their parents have the checking account size to make their dreams via their kids and attending a ski Academy happen. And that tends to realy play out when the athletes reach the U14 and U16/19 age brackets and have been in the bubble that often is a ski academy for a few years for those predesposed to thinking the world fully revolves around them.

I give some of the younger ones (the U10 and U12's) a bit of a pass, as for many of them, they are still of that age where without constant supervision, they will do something stupid, just because they are age 8-11 and it's almost impossible for them to not get into a snowball fight or try and go too fast into a lift queue to link up with their friends, regardless of how many times their coaches tell them not to! Hearding kittens for sure

 

[djd66]

Pretty much 100% certain I am now around more race kids both on & off the mountain (off you can easily spot them by their jackets) this season than the entire sum of all my combined ski seasons ever, and I'm just not seeing all these obnoxious, nasty, entitled, bratty, spoiled rich children everyone speaks of.

Here me out here......... is it possible...... just possible..... that this could be a New England thing?

Like Ivy boarding school larva or something?

I would agree with your assessment. Most of the kids in race programs back east are traveling to second homes to participate in these programs,... where as in Park City, it is more likely a local kid.

 

[letitsnow1]

while I'm sure there are kids who aren't asshats wearing the mountain branded jacket, A LOT of them are. My 2 most recent experiences at Killington. I'm about to enter the Snowdon bubble RFID gate and a KMS kid literally hockey stops on top of me, because he thought he had the right of way into the gate. Then dude ducked the rope behind me and cut in front of like 4 other people so he could ride with his teammates. second instance, same day I mind you over at Ramshead there is a coach basically holding up the line while she wrangled her younger kids together. I muttered something loud enough she heard and she finally let us pass while she got her group together. Of course she gave me the stink eye, but I couldn't care less what she thinks of me.

I get that people pay a premium to be in these clubs/teams, but I also paid to use the lifts. How about teach the kids a littler courtesy especially when they are easily identifiable on the hill. The problem is the coaches likely came up acting the same way so they too think they are entitled...

The KMS brats at killington definitely seem like the worst to me. Sunday they kept gathering blocking 3/4 of the entrance to the canyon lift then a little later 3 of them jumped right in front of a chair causing an emergency stop. Early season on killingtons WROD i watched a KMS group led by a coach using people as gates.

At magic every time there's a race the racers leave their skis on the snow right in front of the sign that says no skis on snow

 

[thebigo]

Always strange to me that people assume every youth racer is wasting their time if they don't make the olympics. Do these people think kids playing basketball are wasting their time if they don't make the NBA?

I never set out to be a race dad, first seasonal program was more about the babysitting than the skiing. Racing is not for every family, there is a massive time and financial commitment but it is one of the best things I have done for my kids.

My daughter first learned about piches last year at champs. On the drive home she said dad 'i want to go to piches next year'. I told her she had to earn it. She then proceeded to do dryland 4x weekly all summer and make sure not to miss a single drill or gate run during the season, training 5+ days/week.

This past Sunday at champs the weather was terrible. She is a GS skier that tolerates SL. Snow was such shit they could not fence for GS, ran four SL. Run four she was on the outside looking in and ran the race of her life, qualifying with the #10 NHARA slot.

Kid set a goal, worked on it for a year and achieved her goal. She is not going anywhere near the olympics but this experience and the lesson will stay with her for life. Really is what youth athletics is about for 99% of kids.

 

[jaytrem]

And if the announcer both days messed up your kids names, I will own that as I was on the microphone all weekend, and especially on Saturday, the start list print out trunacted after a specific amount of characters so for some 1st names I literally only had the 1st letter or 2 to work with

Did you do play-by-play for the fight?

 

[deadheadskier]

My point more than level of achievement, was that many youth athletics, not just ski racing, have ridiculous commitment requirements these days. Things were not like this in my youth

Now mentioned above, I did make the offer for our son to join the GSC team instead of the casual program he does. But I was very clear about the level of commitment required and that our days of visiting 10-15 different ski areas a winter to explore would change drastically. He passed.

Thank God my kids didn't want to get into hockey. That might be the worst of them all. I have friends with elementary school aged kids who are either practicing or playing games 4-5 days a week for 9 months out of the year. Elementary school kids!!!

No need for the ski racing families to get defensive. Glad it works for you. I would have made it work too. Glad I don't have to. But if I did, my opinion would be the the exact same. Youth sports in 2024 are ridiculous.

 

[letitsnow1]

My point more than level of achievement, was that many youth athletics, not just ski racing, have ridiculous commitment requirements these days. Things were not like this in my youth

Now mentioned above, I did make the offer for our son to join the GSC team instead of the casual program he does. But I was very clear about the level of commitment required and that our days of visiting 10-15 different ski areas a winter to explore would change drastically. He passed.

Thank God my kids didn't want to get into hockey. That might be the worst of them all. I have friends with elementary school aged kids who are either practicing or playing games 4-5 days a week for 9 months out of the year. Elementary school kids!!!

No need for the ski racing families to get defensive. Glad it works for you. I would have made it work too. Glad I don't have to. But if I did, my opinion would be the the exact same. Youth sports in 2024 are ridiculous.

I played football in middle school and enjoyed it but when I got to high school we we expected to practice 6 days a week starting in the beginning of August. I didn't want to spend half my summer vacation in football practice so I gave it up. This was 20+ years ago.

 

[thebigo]

Thank God my kids didn't want to get into hockey. That might be the worst of them all. I have friends with elementary school aged kids who are either practicing or playing games 4-5 days a week for 9 months out of the year. Elementary school kids!!!

I have a buddy whose daughter is being recruited to play D1 college softball. He has spent the last decade flying her around the country year round to tournaments and camps only to sit on a metal bleacher and drip sweat. Absolutely brutal.

Subconsciously this may have been why I pushed ski racing? If the kids were going to get into a competitive sport, best be one we can enjoy together.

 

[drjeff]

Always strange to me that people assume every youth racer is wasting their time if they don't make the olympics. Do these people think kids playing basketball are wasting their time if they don't make the NBA?

I never set out to be a race dad, first seasonal program was more about the babysitting than the skiing. Racing is not for every family, there is a massive time and financial commitment but it is one of the best things I have done for my kids.

My daughter first learned about piches last year at champs. On the drive home she said dad 'i want to go to piches next year'. I told her she had to earn it. She then proceeded to do dryland 4x weekly all summer and make sure not to miss a single drill or gate run during the season, training 5+ days/week.

This past Sunday at champs the weather was terrible. She is a GS skier that tolerates SL. Snow was such shit they could not fence for GS, ran four SL. Run four she was on the outside looking in and ran the race of her life, qualifying with the #10 NHARA slot.

Kid set a goal, worked on it for a year and achieved her goal. She is not going anywhere near the olympics but this experience and the lesson will stay with her for life. Really is what youth athletics is about for 99% of kids.

That is AWESOME BigO!

My daughter had a very similar qualifying experience for Piche's herself when she was a U12.

Last VARA Council race of the season, a slalom as well which also wasn't her favorite, she was 12th in the rankings going into the race, had an OK 1st run that had her in around 10th place going into run 2, then via skiing arguably the best SL run of her life, and a few DNF's by a couple of girls ahead of her in the rankings, she finished on the podium in 3rd that day and made it into the 9th spot on the season for her council and qualified for Piche's. Such a great event, and have a blast at it with your daughter as it's quite an impressive Event!

 

[drjeff]

Did you do play-by-play for the fight?

If I had known about it while it was going on (I didn't hear about it until after the comp was done for the day) I certainly would of said stuff on the PA system! By this ski rack, wearing the teal Bogner 1 piece, out of Westchester County...

 

[BenedictGomez]

At magic every time there's a race the racers leave their skis on the snow right in front of the sign that says no skis on snow

Oh I freaking hate that.

These parents need to tell their 13 year olds that they're not in a World Cup FIS downhill race against 59 other elite global racers, and keeping the wax on their skis cold to shave the 1/10 of one second off isnt going to be a thing that results in a podium place for them.

 

[BenedictGomez]

My point more than level of achievement, was that many youth athletics, not just ski racing, have ridiculous commitment requirements these days. Things were not like this in my youth

I think it's more just the fact parents are requiring kids to "specialize" in ONE SPORT from a crazy young age. This, "jack of all trades master of none" mentality keeps kids out of several other fun sports they'd otherwise play.

I did tennis, baseball, football, karate, and skiing growing up. But it seems the millennial parents of today often have their kid JUST play baseball or just golf or just ______insert sport, and that's all you play or you wont be "good enough"......... for what exactly I dont know. Is it a college scholarship that's the prize? Are they naive enough to think that even with specialization little Johnny's going to make MLB? Or is it just so their kid is a high school all-star so the parents look good?

I have no idea, none of it makes any sense to me.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I played football in middle school and enjoyed it but when I got to high school we we expected to practice 6 days a week starting in the beginning of August. I didn't want to spend half my summer vacation in football practice so I gave it up. This was 20+ years ago.

Are you me? The insane macho man-child high school coaching staff had these things called "double sessions" in the summer where I grew up. It's basically all-day football practice.

That practice practice is, by the way, now banned (thankfully), but it's the reason I quit football. And I was a pretty good Pop Warner football player (wingback) who really enjoyed it, but I also wanted to play tennis, ride my bike, go swimming and fishing and be with friends in the summertime. Like, ummmm, a normal 14 year old kid - so I quit football.

 

[Smellytele]

I think it's more just the fact parents are requiring kids to "specialize" in ONE SPORT from a crazy young age. This, "jack of all trades master of none" mentality keeps kids out of several other fun sports they'd otherwise play.

These sentence are not compatible. If a kid was a jack of all trades then they wouldn't be specialized.

 

[djd66]

Oh I freaking hate that.

These parents need to tell their 13 year olds that they're not in a World Cup FIS downhill race against 59 other elite global racers, and keeping the wax on their skis cold to shave the 1/10 of one second off isnt going to be a thing that results in a podium place for them.

that’s why they leave the skis on the ground outside the lodge? For real?