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What happened to alpine/race boarding?


sealcove

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I live down on MDI, and with work and other obligations, I doubt I will be getting out too frequently.  It is also hard to come back to it after 8-9 winters of being paid to be on snow to having to pay $70+ for a day on the mountain.  It's the kind of thing I would likely do only a few times a season, though if the snow bowl has good conditions, $27 with the new chair is pretty reasonable (granted the terrain is pretty limited).  

 

ECES does sound like a good time though, so perhaps a week in VT would be worth considering.  Are the dates set for 2016?

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ECES is a very worth while event, even if that will be your only time on snow. Ability to try new boards and talk with the builders themselves, ride with others from all over NE and beyond. Absolutely worth your while. MDI to any mountains is an investment in drive time...if you have time to ride, just put a PM out there and your likely to find others to join you

Derek

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its funny how many of us seemed to have a break for a number of years (making babies/other interests/whatevea) but still keep coming back.

 

I started in the early 90's and took a break for about 4-5 years in the mid 2000's. came back to it about 3-4 years ago and now cant get enough of it!!! everyday I think of it....and its summer where I am haha

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When I got my upz boots sent down here they came with 2 magnetic cards. With pics of 2 sponsored racers on them. They are on the lid inside my tool box. So every morning at work they are one of the first things I see? Spurs me on!

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In a word - Marketing.

 

As a 14 year old kid, I remember the focus in magazines of the 90's becoming more about the image and the scene. Fun, equipment, technique was replaced with "are you cool enough to ride?" 

 

I remember seeing a bit of that in the 90's too, but it seemed like there was also steady flow of skiers that were interested in alpine riding.  That was also when parabolic or shaped skis were making their big debut, so there was a new awareness of carving in the skiing community. I also remember teaching out at Mt. Bachelor a half a season in 1996/97 and they kept me pretty busy just teaching alpine.  I was at Sunday River the rest of my time, and while there were far fewer alpine students there, we had a pretty solid hard boot community and some really good riders.

 

My remaining question on this subject: Did the hard boot population go into decline in the early 2000's, which caused bigger companies to drop the discipline, or did the companies bail on an already small subset of snowboarding, which made it prohibitively expensive to attract many new participants, thus causing the decline in riders?

 

There probably isn't data to support a definitive answer, but I do wonder which came first.

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Erik J "are you cool enough to ride?"

As cool as the rider on UPS(UPZ) fruits-salad hardboots who squeeze his Plenk PinTrip ?

actiontime.jpg

Was a great time then where the kid's had to "fasten your seat-belts" !

Any similar pictures today you find on internet? Isn't hardbooting became a lame sport.

sealcove Did the hard boot population go into decline in the early 2000's

Yes.

ISF stumble on season 2000/2001 and was grounded than later on spring 2002 (forced with all one's might of FIS).

There is a remarkable correlation that and the Years after to start decreasing sales of snowboards. This is still going on (decreasing) by more then 10 percent over the last 3 Years in the USA.

For Alpine snowboarding bleeding to death of ISF was much more significant.

Even in Europe. While some vew Years before around the half of all sold bindings had been platebindings and a third of all sold boards had been Alpineboards/raceboards, we are now on around some hundreds of ppm's.

Edited by snowmatic
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Well it cost me less to get my new Coiler 178 Nirvana VCam sent from Canada to USA then to Australia, than it would have directly from Canada. And, the USA to Australia leg was cheaper than the Canada to USA leg.

50bucks, insured from USA to my door. Plus I can declare it at less than AUD1000, so I don't have to pay 15.5% duty + GST.

Shipito.com check it out. It's legit. Used it probably 10 times. They consolidate all your stuff and store it for as long as you want. They remove packaging, receipts and you do your own customs decs.

Edited by purpletiesto
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Not affiliated with them.

With all the export restrictions these days on certain brands, this service is necessary if you want decent gear and don't want to pay through your nose for it. Campsaver and backcountry often have sales, which even when considering the exchange rate and shipping cost, puts items at 30% of what I would pay here.

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As cool as the rider on UPS(UPZ) fruits-salad hardboots who squeeze his Plenk PinTrip ?

actiontime.jpg

Was a great time then where the kid's had to "fasten your seat-belts" !

Any similar pictures today you find on internet? Isn't hardbooting became a lame sport.

Yes.

ISF stumble on season 2000/2001 and was grounded than later on spring 2002 (forced with all one's might of FIS).

There is a remarkable correlation that and the Years after to start decreasing sales of snowboards. This is still going on (decreasing) by more then 10 percent over the last 3 Years in the USA.

For Alpine snowboarding bleeding to death of ISF was much more significant.

Even in Europe. While some vew Years before around the half of all sold bindings had been platebindings and a third of all sold boards had been Alpineboards/raceboards, we are now on around some hundreds of ppm's.

Correlation is not equal to causation. Hardly anyone riding recreationally gave a shit about the ISF/FIS fued. You are living in the past.
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That's actually pretty silly cheap, considering it'd be about that or more to ship one within the lower 48, depending on origin and destination.

Yes. But this company has such a large shipping volume that they can do it at that price. I got mine sent by TNT Express, 3 days door to door. You can use this company to ship within USA as well, that may not help you unless you can drop it off at one their warehouses in person or cheaply though.

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Yes. But this company has such a large shipping volume that they can do it at that price. I got mine sent by TNT Express, 3 days door to door. You can use this company to ship within USA as well, that may not help you unless you can drop it off at one their warehouses in person or cheaply though.

 

Holy crap, that's awesome.  I just checked what it'd cost to ship a 185 from Utah to Vermont.  UPS wants $84.16.  TNT will do it for $32.37.   :eek:

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very fast and very rough is my translation of sigi grabner from his 2003 book but anyway here it is ...

(original quotes in german at https://freecarvers.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/its-alive/ )

... the pioneer's ascend ended at the top: burton dominated the snowboard market in the 80s and 90s. today burton is one of the leading snowboard brands and a global enterprise

in 1997 the executives of the american company started to slowly but surely decrease the financing of the burton alpine team.

'alpine is dead' was what they said and of course that [sarcasm] was very motivational for an alpine boarder, especially considering the common wisdom in the scene at the time that whatever burton says others will say too [ adopting the ideas and concepts of the dominant leader ]

after hearing such word we had no illusions as alpine snowboarders about our future ...

... ...

i think the reasons are purely economic ones. on the one hand freestyle snowboarding developed into a fashion sport or was developed into that and there is easy money to be made with whats in fashion. at the same time alpine boarding and racing were [thrown in the same pot / communicated in marketing as if alpine equals racing and that alpine gear is something for racing only]

boards for regular / recreational riders were hardly produced anymore

And at the same time burton's marketing people publicly called / positioned alpine as something uncool. IT WAS EVEN RIDICULED IN THE OWN CATALOGUES.

surely it was also a pure matter of costs: a freestyle board is considerably cheaper to develop and produce than an alpine board but can be sold at the same price. a freestyle boot sewn / produced in taiwan can bring a profit of 200 euros - a hardshell boot for the alpine boarder at most some fraction of that.

what was pushed / advertised was what allowed for higher markups. in my humble opinion.

[ goes on saying that jake was cool but second generation managers only had numbers in their heads ]

... it would need a few companies that do something in that niche ... producing vids doing advertising . at the moment there is no universal all purpose alpine board for slope and powder when that kind of board would be best though for most recreational riders

i am sure that the industry if it wanted could display / position / communicate/ market alpine as something that is as cool as everything else. alpine has no marketing at this time.

Edited by stokely
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Holy crap, that's awesome.  I just checked what it'd cost to ship a 185 from Utah to Vermont.  UPS wants $84.16.  TNT will do it for $32.37.   :eek:

They're Tha Shiznit. They're currently holding onto a pair of arcteryx pants I've got and I'm going to send a used Apex plate there soon and ship it over to me. BOOM

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