Is skiing a sport or recreation?

[Philpug]

Recreation--People who ski
Sport-Skiers

 

[Crank]

Driving in NYC. I like driving in NYC. My son called it "close quarter combat." As he said, "Dad does it well."
It's not about being aggressive. It's about being calm, smooth and knowing what you want to do. Low speed maneuvers and proper vehicle positioning. Not herky-jerky movements. Not stomping on the gas and brakes. The ability to read traffic is paramount. It's all about smoothness and patience.

The difficulty is not in the street layout. The pain in driving around Boston is the clueless Massholes.
Their attitude is if I don't look at you, you do not exist. That works until the drivers side swipe each other. Seen it many times.
New Yorkers are much smarter than that.

The thing about driving in NYC and environs is that, for the most part, the drivers are good and will give you the room you need to maneuver. The thing to bear in mind is that he who hesitates is lost.

Driving in Boston just plain sucks.

BTW. Skiing = Sport.

 

[crgildart]

Is shooting/car racing/video gaming/golf/cycling... I could go on forever.. list sport or recreation? I'm going to say any and all of them are recreation UNLESS you are competing against someone else, either IRL or in some formal organization of some kind..

 

[raisingarizona]

Is the sport vs. Entertainment mostly a question of perspective? A basketball game from the stand point of a player, that's a sport. From the view point of a fan, it's entertainment.

It's completely based on personal perception. That can be different from one person to another and even for one person depending on mood, day or other situational conditions.

I'm a moody fuck with a healthy (more like unhealthy probably) side of depression. Every day is different for me.

 

[Rich_Ease_3051]

I would somewhat separate sport and recreation by the amount of adrenaline that's produced by the body.

In ball sports, adrenaline is produced with a win. Although winning with points is an artificially constructed concept, it still triggers our primitive brain to produce adrenaline. That's because we equate losing with danger. This is the same reason that a close call game produces more adrenaline, not just with the sports participants, but with the fans.

It's also why swimming by yourself to meet a target number of laps is recreation vs competitive swimming. The latter artificially triggers the losing/danger areas of the brain, which produces adrenaline.

With transport driven sports like ski, kayak, car race, etc, the adrenaline is produced with speed and acceleration that's out of the range of normal human running speed or swim. If it's faster than a human sprint or the faster than we can swim, the human brain is triggered with a danger sign (because we could get injured with the speed) and produces adrenaline.

For car racing, because we are so used with driving at 20-100km/h in normal traffic, our adrenaline threshold no longer gets triggered. It's when we drive and drift at higher speeds at the race track that the danger signs start flashing again and produce adrenaline.

Normal skiing like skidding on a gentle slope is really no faster than a sprint or a run, which is why it's not really exhilarating or produce more adrenaline compared to barreling down a steep or pulling fast G turns. The skier at this point is getting recreation (unless it's a beginner skier just learning to pizza or french fry for the first time).

 

[tromano]

Is shooting/car racing/video gaming/golf/cycling... I could go on forever.. list sport or recreation? I'm going to say any and all of them are recreation UNLESS you are competing against someone else, either IRL or in some formal organization of some kind..

Even fashion is a sport. Who wore it best?

 

[Rod9301]

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games" - Ernest Hemingway​

He only said this because he wasn't a skier

 

[cantunamunch]

Is the sport vs. Entertainment mostly a question of perspective?

I submit that the distinction between the two is a completely modern semantic construct. We have any number of 19th century and earlier writers that absolutely do not distinguish between the two meanings. And no, calling bear baiting 'sport' was *not* ironic.

Conflation of sport with athletics and games is part of that modern construction.

 

[KingGrump]

Is shooting/car racing/video gaming/golf/cycling... I could go on forever.. list sport or recreation? I'm going to say any and all of them are recreation UNLESS you are competing against someone else, either IRL or in some formal organization of some kind..

Don't forget video games. Ahhh, I mean Esport.

 

[cantunamunch]

He only said this because he wasn't a skier

Err...wot?

Austria: Ernest Hemingway in Schruns — Mens Adventure Travel

mensadventuretravel.com

 

[bbbradley]

I hate to say it, as this is a ski forum so it sounds sacrilege. But compare to "opposition sport" (tennis, basket ball, soccer etc.), skiing is... boring by comparison!

You do know many people, myself included, regularly oppose other skiers. DH, SG, GS, SL, dual SL....

If skiing is boring to you, find another activity. I find some sports boring...I don't participate in them.

 

[Johnny V.]

You do know many people, myself included, regularly oppose other skiers. DH, SG, GS, SL, dual SL....

This. Even though I'm a slow old guy, going for it to the best of your abilities is exhilarating and addicting.

 

[crgildart]

Don't forget video games. Ahhh, I mean Esport.

Whattabout Pro Wrestling "Sports Entertainment"??

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Here at Killington we love to take this sport to the crazy side. Sliding on mud and rocks can be the norm at the end of the season. Anyone that comes for recreation tends to get their butt kicked.

 

[tromano]

I submit that the distinction between the two is a completely modern semantic construct. We have any number of 19th century and earlier writers that absolutely do not distinguish between the two meanings. And no, calling bear baiting 'sport' was *not* ironic.

Conflation of sport with athletics and games is part of that modern construction.

I hear you. The distinction seems very arbitrary.

 

[cantunamunch]

I hear you. The distinction seems very arbitrary.

That sort of thing tends to happen when connotation usage becomes thought of as primary meaning.

*Shrug* the language is older than any of our individual notions of it.

 

[crosscountry]

If skiing is boring to you, find another activity. I find some sports boring...I don't participate in them.

Yes, I had already found them, before I took up ski as a regular pass time.

But I can't mountain bike or white water kayak in the winter. (I would have to move to warmer climate)

I've gotten too slow to play the sport that are REALLY exciting. So I'm going to recreate by white water and MTB in the summer(*) and ski in the winter. Wish I'm still 30 and can jump as high and run as fast.

Yes, it's boring in comparison to what I used to enjoy. But it beats sitting on the couch.


(*) I've also gotten too slow to do lift-served downhill any more. Nowadays, I just cruise on smooth single tracks. Having tree branches passing inches away but at 5 mph feels gave some semblance of excitement without the real risk (of passing tree trunk a foot away at 40mph!)

 

[Bad Bob]

Is adrenaline chasing essential for something to be a sport? HELL NO!
The technical side can be the draw as well. It is still sport but some, at times, might be looking for the sensation produced by execution. The Zen side if you will. Think flowing into a turn by projecting your COM down the hill to catch your balance, or a pure golf shot. The effort is removed, and it just happens. Sure, pulling off that turn on something really steep will put more spice in the mix but it is not required to create the pleasure of the experience.
The need for speed is not stronger than the quest for proper execution.
Sport is something we do for recreation, physical or mental.

 

[BLiP]

I'm going to say any and all of them are recreation UNLESS you are competing against someone else

I agree. A sport involves an element of competition. For the majority of skiers, skiing is not competitive. Unless you want to get really meta and claim that a skier is competing against the hill, the elements, etc. But that's too highfalutin for me.

 

[KingGrump]

From my observations, adrenaline is the gate way drug to injuries. Often life long and life altering.

Now, I go out there and try to do more with less (effort).