“Yesterday when i did a mistake and landed with my head first and when i was lying there not moving at all with all of my friends around helping me out and giving me positive words, i wasnt sure if nowadays progression is the right thing for the sport.  When i was flying in the chopper…  i was thinking of only one thing. “Will i really be able to ski all those fun lines and jumps with those same friends again?” There was no answer at that moment.” Bine Zalohar

More and more, as I grow older, I find myself standing atop high consequence lines wondering if it’s really worth the risk.  As my skill level continues to rise, it requires more dangerous acts to push myself outside my comfort zone and obtain that elusive, yet contagious buzz that is adrenaline.  Like many of you, I have lost a number of friends in this sport over the past couple of  years, and have seen even more suffer life altering injuries.  I, myself had a game changing injury nine years ago that kept me off skis for two years, and my knee reminds me daily of the consequences of that misjudged landing.  Seven surgeries later, (four knee, two shoulder and one hand) all from skiing related accidents, I’m still at it, in part because I’m addicted to the buzz, but also because I’m yet to find anything as enjoyable as  gliding down snow covered mountains, and flying through the air, especially when shared with friends.

The following is an excerpt taken from Bine Zalohar’s personal blog.  Bine is a professional freeskier from Kranj, Slovenia.

AGAINST THE NEXT CORK

April – 3 – 2011

Let me be clear at the start. This post is not about hating the progress of the sport. It is just a reflection.

I decided to open the theme just because a lot of stuff has been going on lately in the sport. Skiing lost many legends ( Shane Mcconkey, Cr Johnson, Arne Backstrom,…) a lot of them also lost ability to walk ( Pekka Hyysalo, Marc Andre Belliveau,…) almost 1/4 of pros got hurt so much they had to miss the season ( Tj Shiller, Tom Wallisch, …). I praise all of you buddies!!!!
And all of this just to make skiing look cooler, gnarlier, more extreme, despite the fact that skiing is what all of us are doing because we love it and is already cool no mather what.

I want to progress as much as i can more than you imagine, but sometimes it is better to think through what does it mean if the landing is too icy to fall on that trick that you got in your head. Event organizers want to make a profit, sponsors want to make youth stoked because of their idols, viewers back home wanna see the gnarliest trick ever, every filmer want to get the shot of the year…Everything is worth of trying, going for it, giving up a lot of things to achieve even one of these goals. IT IS DAMN WORTH IT!

Most of us skiers achieved one of personal most wanted goals this season again. Sean is probably killing it in pow right now, Candide will hand out one of the best if not the best ski movie project ever made, Tanner just returned to skiing after all those injuries, Sammy took it to the next level already in the last season, Sage is not even human any more… IT IS CRAZYNESS! I had many goals this season…some of them are still out there waiting for me but some are already the presence. One of the main goals was definitely to try and learn at least one double. Jon started with these tricks freaking 4 or 5 years ago and till now no one has landed them here in my home country. Yes there were attempts and yes there were double backflips…But even now when i learned some, we all know that this is still far from being close to the top of the worlds best skiers. And if you are not there you dont get money from any sponsor to make all that happen.

Jacob [wester] told me one thing i will remember for a long time “I Like being here where not many of others can. Maybe it sounds ego centric but there is only place for some. Some of the best.” It is such an honest statement. Why on earth would anyone who is not really capable of stomping the trick even have a chance to learn all that stuff and showcast it to the audience.??? My body agrees with Jacob, but my head sometimes does want to try all that and does want to stomp the shit out of those ice packed landings and does want to fall so hard to feel the real pain and does want to do the next cork…

Yesterday when i did a mistake and landed with my head first and when i was lying there not moving at all with all of my friends around helping me out and giving me positive words, i wasnt sure if nowadays progression is the right thing for the sport. When i was flying in the chopper for the second time this season, but this time down the hill, i was thinking of only one thing. “Will i really be able to ski all those fun lines and jumps with those same friends again?” There was no answer at that moment.

Today i am lying in my bed waiting for phisio and strenght to get back up.Everything is fine with me (almost). Fortunately that next cork was not my last one, but fuck it. The next, the third, can be taken by the chosen ones!

To learn more about Bine Zalohar, check out his website, binezalohar.com

Unofficial Networks Newsletter

Get the latest snow and mountain lifestyle news and entertainment delivered to your inbox.

Hidden
Newsletters
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

One reply on “Knowing when to say when. How far should we push ourselves, and the sport?”