Can snowboarding be saved?

[Puddy Tat]

"Dang it, a mainstream media magazine realized we're invalid. I know I'll suggest softboots can carve as well as hardboots again. It's 2013 by this point there shouldn't be anybody alive who can refute that."

Dave

[Puddy Tat]

And Bob yes you actually carve the snot out of your, albeit modified, soft set-up.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Puddy Tat

[neanderthal]

It seems skiing has caught up with the technology and experience of snowboarding. When I started boariding my cruize 155 could float on powder, carve and had maneuverability in the trees far superior to what standard sticks 195-205s could deliver. Sure there were powder skis and I am sure race skis could carve but for mere mortals these were out of reach. Another benefit was the learning curve which was steep but brought a reasonable snowboarder in a short time to a level that would take many years to attain on skis.

Now I find my situation is not uncommon. I am a fat old man - my wife skis (she grew up @ Alta) and I have two little ones 7&8 who have been skiing since about 2yrs old. From about the time you can stand and walk you can start to ski, not so much with snowboarding due to the steeper learning curve. Also kids laying in snow make cold kids which any parent knows means a trip to the lodge and a much abbreviated day on the slopes. With the newer skis things are better, they float, carve and being shorter are also maneuverable. It just isnt as difficult to ski as it was in the days before shaped skis or as I like to think skinny carving boards.

Can snowboarding survive? I am not sure that my kids will learn, though my son has recently expressed interest. It isnt as compelling a contrast to skiing as when I started. My hope is that there will be enough of a divergence in the current snowboard market that more will be acknowledged than just park boards. Perhaps Burton and some of the other companies will focus a line of products at adults. I have no doubt that a carving allmountain board would be more appropriate for most of the people older than 27-30 that I see on the hill. How many of them ride fakie? I bet less than 25%. The shapes are getting better all the time and with some of the soft boots I dont know that there is the difference there once was. Its not like soft boots means sorrels and 2 strap bindings ( damn I was happy to have that 3rd strap they said I didnt need)

I am not ever going back to skis but I can see why people ski. I remember a while ago the common refrain "a lot of snowboarders used to ski BUT I dont know any skiers that used to snowboard." This is probably still largely true - We just are not catching the new crop. My belief is that the marketing over promised an Xgames lifestyle.

[NWboarder]

Snowboarder Mag. ? yea right....90 % ads and all the Photos show Riders in the Air ? if they would call it Airboarder than I would have known years ago to never bother picking it up in the first place, and Transworld...yea...same thing ? Snowboarding is done on and in the Snow...this is just One Snowboarders Opinion :p

EXACTLY! Well said.... yet another facet to soft-booting that I can not relate to because if Im in the air for an extended period of time, Im in trouble.

[LambertoMI]

I think this article made a lot of great points. As a 25 year veteran of the sport I can see the lack of attention to people still riding after age 30. The industry that started with guys like me seems to have forgotten us.

As as for the sport dying, I am not sure that will happen. Like most fads we are past the huge rise that came with the x games. But the sport will settle into a natural state an occupy that portion of the market. We may be closer to that now??

Being from the midwest, west, the ratio of skiers to boarders is 60 to 40 most days. But these are small resorts under 400 vertical feet. I think as a recreation for smaller resorts, snowboarding offers more there compared to Colorado large resorts that have more to offer with more terrain. It's a way for small resorts to offer more with less.

Again none of us have all the answers, but with 30 years of snowboarding I cannot see it going away. But the future remains to be seen

Edited February 3, 2014 by LambertoMI

[lordmetroland]

Having been watching the evolution since the late 80s, I'm convinced the snowboarding industry hasn't done itself any favors by promoting an increasingly narrow image of snowboarding. Let's say Ford Prefect returns to Earth to update his entry on winter sports. Given his normally spotty research habits, he'll learn that snowboarders ride wide, duck-foot stances on short boards with detuned edges optimized for riding on everything but snow. This set-up seems specifically designed to make carving a pure turn a near impossibility, thereby robbing new riders of one of the true joys (and advantages) of snowboarding. In a sense, the narrow view that the industry has chosen to promote makes it more difficult to learn how to actually snowboard. You can make it down the mountain, but you may scrape off most of the snow with you. It's rare for me to see duck-foot, wide stance riders - even those with obvious experience - set a firm edge and hold it through the turn. The soul of snowboarding has been somehow lost to dumb marketing. And younger riders may not even know what they've missed.

Had Ford Prefect made his return in the early 90s he would have had a much harder time pinning down what being a snowboarder meant. The variety of styles - and absence of industry dogma - made for more experimentation and well-rounded riders. At 46, I can still feel the thrill of a nice turn, even though the days of high-flying antics are in my rearview mirror. At 46, what will the park rats be doing since they didn't get the foundations? Full disclosure, I'm a softbooter with a 22", +18/-6 stance.

[b0ardski]

obviously the answer is 42:rolleyes:

The rebuttal was definitely butt hurt(so puny) but both blogs are rather opinionated and I saw no real "misinformation".

Us vs them is part of human nature, though never in the last 30yrs did I think "vs" belonged on the mountain.

Skiing spawns from the depths of the ages as a faster means of travel on snow and always seemed to me as a bastion of mountain etiquette; something most boarders failed to grasp since they were allowed on a SKI LIFT at a SKI AREA.

1 plank or 2, hard or soft, poles or not, it's all the same sport, glisse.

I started out thinking I skied on a board whatever the stance(still tend to say I was skiing afterward), so the animosity always blew my mind, maybe that's because I grew up an only child and sibling rivalry is beyond me.

As for the "soul" of snowboarding, it is to skiing as the human spirit is to god, one and the same.

One planking will never go away, neither will free heel skiing( or even teen angst). They will settle to a population balance just like foxes & rabbits.

Edited February 4, 2014 by b0ardski

[neanderthal]

obviously the answer is 42:rolleyes:

The rebuttal was definitely butt hurt(so puny) but both blogs are rather opinionated and I saw no real "misinformation".

Us vs them is part of human nature, though never in the last 30yrs did I think "vs" belonged on the mountain.

Skiing spawns from the depths of the ages as a faster means of travel on snow and always seemed to me as a bastion of mountain etiquette; something most boarders failed to grasp since they were allowed on a SKI LIFT at a SKI AREA.

1 plank or 2, hard or soft, poles or not, it's all the same sport, glisse.

I started out thinking I skied on a board whatever the stance(still tend to say I was skiing afterward), so the animosity always blew my mind, maybe that's because I grew up an only child and sibling rivalry is beyond me.

As for the "soul" of snowboarding, it is to skiing as the human spirit is to god, one and the same.

One planking will never go away, neither will free heel skiing( or even teen angst). They will settle to a population balance just like foxes & rabbits.

Scratch what I said. Ditto b0ardski's comments

[BlueB]

1 plank or 2, hard or soft, poles or not, it's all the same sport, glisse.

Amen, brother!

Scooby has reported to me at one occasion, after I had carved up a run on skis, few people at lift line have commented: "Look, he skis like he snowboards! "

Back to the future of snowboarding... I actually se some very positive trends. After a decade of only twin tip shapes coming up and selling, many companies now have interesting directional rides and experimenting with various technologies. Pow hunting seems to be very in. I see a bit more people trying to carve on groomers. New alpine boutique makers start up every few years.

On the down side, snowboard lesson sales are really down with my snow school, while ski lessons are sold out. It used to be other way round few years ago...