Competition
As the original ethos of freeriding was to break away from (amongst other things) the restrictive confines of ski competition, it's somewhat ironic that freeride competitions are surging in popularity on the international stage. However these competitions mirror the sport itself in their random variable formats, and in the fact that usually there is no set course, and very little (if any) rules to abide by.
Freeride competitions basically involve negotiating steep natural terrain fluidly in a similar approach to slopestyle competitors in a terrain park. However unlike the freestyle discipline of slopestyle, there are no perfect man-made takeoffs or landings - each individual rider's route varies, and is personally plotted out in pre-run inspections. Constantly changing weather and snow conditions add an extra element to these events, and the unpredictably random aspect of freeride terrain contributes to a high risk of personal injury.
World Heli Challenge: From 1995-2001 New Zealand's World Heli Challenge invited the world's extreme snowboarding and skiing elite to compete head to head amidst the many peaks which form New Zealand's Mt. Cook National Park. The helicopter-accessed competition occurs over a ten day period to allow for perfect weather and snow conditions.
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Famous quotes containing the word competition:
“All adults who care about a baby will naturally be in competition for that baby.... Each adult wishes that he or she could do each job a bit more skillfully for the infant or small child than the other.”
—T. Berry Brazelton (20th century)
“Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)
“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.”
—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)