I think holding steady is a pretty accurate statement too. As a younger M2 skier, cost has always played a factor in my skiing. Not so much on the practice side of things, but more so the tournament side.
It's easy to throw in a few gallons of gas for a practice set. But when we are talking $100+ for single round regional and national tournaments plus travel expenses and time off of work, that's a tough one.
@bdecker I would agree that websites like BOS have bridged the gap for us as a community. It's opened a line to be able to communicate with other skiers. I like that you mention throwing in some manual labor to gain access to a site. If you don't have the means to build a lake or live on a premier site, it's an easy way to get invited and keep getting invited back.
@RazorRoss3 I hear you on the skiing with your best friends thing. My average set lasts 8-15 minutes. Tournament, probably more like 6 minutes. I skied a tournament this spring with a couple of buddies and I think we had the most fun out of everyone at the event. Just having friendly chatter in between rounds and pumping each other up. When we talk about holding onto the people graduating from collegiate skiing and the current state of things, I think it's important to note that 15 years ago, we weren't as well connected as a sport. That kind of left a missing link for the folks that were coming out of school. As of right now, there are more skiers in M1 than in M2 and M3. My thinking is that the M2&3 guys are the ones that just kind of left because they didn't have a place to go or don't get out enough to be competitive in tournaments.
@UWSkier the South Korean model of skiing is just smart. It's practically identical to collegiate skiing here in the U.S and maybe over time, we will shift to that model. In saying that, I get why we do things the way we do here in the States. Some of my favorite days are spent skiing, kicking around the lake swimming with a few friends, having a few cold ones and calling it a day. But getting to that Korean model would be ideal and is just going to take some time as the younger group comes up.
But overall, I think the sport is going to be just fine and on the tournament side, I think things will continue to improve. Maybe not as fast as we want it to, but things will evolve.