Race Coverage In Steamboat Paper

[Dave Winters]

Well, it's not every town that has hardboot coverage on the front sports page in the middle of summer!

Here's the text:

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/section/sports/story/31878

[Guest FlyinSolo]

link didnt work for me, so

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/section/sports/story/31878

[Guest Randy S.]

Thanks for posting the fixed link Solo.

Yet another reminder that these guys are doing all this on their own nickel. It amazes me that the US Team can't afford to support more than two Alpine Riders. There's something very wrong with that picture.

I'm thinking more and more that we need to do some grassroots fundraising to help support these guys. Anyone else think that's a good idea? I'm going to think about it while I'm on vacation next week and post my thoughts when I return. Email me if you have thoughts on the situation.

Randy

[NMU Alpine Boarder]

Thanks for posting the fixed link Solo.

Yet another reminder that these guys are doing all this on their own nickel. It amazes me that the US Team can't afford to support more than two Alpine Riders. There's something very wrong with that picture.

I'm thinking more and more that we need to do some grassroots fundraising to help support these guys. Anyone else think that's a good idea? I'm going to think about it while I'm on vacation next week and post my thoughts when I return. Email me if you have thoughts on the situation.

Randy

I agree 100% with ya on that one Randy, but unfortunately, it's the nature of the beast... Alpine just doesn't sell in the US... It's not the Racing at the US Snowboard Grand Prix that puts people in the stands and makes them watch on TV. There are 15 Halfpipe riders, and 6 SBX people that are getting full rides (I am assuming that the "Pro" Halfpipe team is the same as "A" team). The US Team definately is supporting those who support them. I know this is stretching it, but I really wonder what the USSA's and the Snowboard Team's reaction would be if we were able to earn enough cash to fully support a male and female rider for an entire season? Maybe they would get the message that some people do care about racing here in the US... I'm all up for this fundraising idea....

Derek K.

[Kent]

Randy - That's a very nice gesture....

It's truly unfortunate because (this might be new-news) USSA and FIS are violating the rules mandated by the IOC to support a National team for an Olympic sport. I don't want to go into details, but the entire set-up of FIS/USSA/US Snowboard is a complete and utter mess/joke. It's even more tragic that the medals won in SL were mostly from non-US Snowboard funded riders.

IMO, USSA just really needs to spend more "Bode" cash on the snowboard program...there's A LOT of money already there. At the same time, money MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST be spent on the feeder programs to support an Olympic sport. The western/eastern USSA races are NOT ENOUGH. My goodness...look at what USSA does on the skiing side!!! J1,3,4,5 and so on down the line...fully supported teams, etc.

The kids are there, they want to ride.....just no one is stepping to the plate with the vision...as they only see one season at a time. Bless their heart...the folks at USSA-snowboard are doing what they can, but are in desperate need of some clout to change things.

It MUST start with development of young riders..........and USSA isn't donig a darn thing. USASA has all the kids.....

Kent

[Guest Ghostrider]

Dont forget USCSA (collegiate)!!

Weve got alot of "kids" too...I just got on the board of directors there. It's amazing how the snowboarders just seem to slip through the cracks when there isnt an organization started specifically with them in mind.

One of my duties is on the marketing commitee and they wanted to spend all the marketing money to advertise on a ski racing site. HI!! SNOWBOARDERS DONT GO TO SKI RACING SITES!!!! I told them we need to do something big like an ad in transworld and they told me to write a letter to the editor.

Its time to spruce up the USCSA. Weve got lots of racers and tons more all in college but they just don't know its there. I talked with a few US and ex-US riders and they all agree that the collegiate is one of the better organizations (or at least has most potential) because were giving experience of riding with a team. We could be a huge feeder program but just gotta keep reminding those skiiers that the competative sport is still growing at an imense rate.

-Bill

edit:

Were also trying to grow through sponsorships...any board makers out there want to get in on this? I'm expecting some growth in the next few years...I'm gonna work hard to see that it happens.

[Kent]

Bill -

A couple thoughts..

- When I say kids...I mean kids. Ages 8-18...mostly around 12-13. It must start then.

- Hate to say it, but if I were spending marketing $, I'd put them in ski magazines. There aren't too many great snowboard racers that started off as snowboarders...most were skiers. Racing on snow is racing on snow.

Good luck, sounds like a great gig.

[Guest Ghostrider]

Hey Kent, just a few followups to your thoughts :D

-How did snowboarding become a little kids sport? I think there are a lot of people in that age group, and yes its a valuable age group but the older "kids" shouldnt be ignored. I know around here, we have tons of them on campus...building kickers using flights of stairs and snow from the zamboni machine. Shoot I'm one of them. Its like competative snowboarding just kind of skips an entire age group that shows more dedication to the sport than anybody. Sure we dont spend oodles buying board after board but there sure are alot of us. In my experiences, USASA is all little kids and USSA is "grown ups" and WAYYY too expensive. So the 18-22 year olds are stuck to perfect some amazing style until its time to get a real job and they are forced to give up on their dreams of going pro. Change the situation to basketball...sure you can go straight from high school to the pros but there would be alot less legends if they were forced to play streetball after high school.

-I guess I don't get why you would target skiiers.

We aren't just trying to promote collegiate racing since we also offer freestyle and BX. I think you'd be going at the situation backwards if you tried to beef up the conference by first promoting a racing league and waiting for the millions of freestylers to join the train. It seems like using the popularity to your advantage would be wise instead of possibly one at a timing your way through parents or waiting for skiiers to convert.

Just picking some brains...

-Bill

[Kent]

Where to start...

IMO, it would be a waste to throw development funds at anybody over 18. Many good racers were late-bloomers, but all the great ones started early. The problem with USCSA is that it's four years and out. No time to develop once you get them reeled in. Perhaps you guys could some-how lobby USASA for points or do a combi-sanction. But, I imagine the USSA agreement won't work to well.

USASA isn't all kids...especially in alpine. They do an okay job...although definately have serious-serious issues with how to run a National-caliber alpine race.

As for USSA....their biggest mistake is not offering youth snowboard programs.

You can target freestylers to ride the gates, but that just fluffs the numbers....and doesn't raise the level of competition. I hate to say it so blunty..but the ONLY reason to field a pro/national/olympic team is to WIN RACES so sponsors can sell **** and cities can build expensive venues with other people's money. This can only happen from grooming rider's early.

Right now, the US isn't doing a good job of that. It's not necessarily the rider's fault..the whole process is poor, although there are some REALLY good people.

As much as I like to stir the pot...I'm fine with the set-up. Its just when someone talks about progress, it's always so incremental....whereas I'm into radical improvement.

[dr. sandman]

With a young racer of my own with decent-to-excellent potential, this strikes close to home. I AM her sponsor. I am her coach, trainer, driver, tuner, boot fitter, confidant, and so on. Not griping, I feel so fortunate to be able to share this with her! (no to mention that is what helped bring me to BOL!) We have contacted local shops and some mfgrs directly. So far only one local shop offered to help with discounts and contacting their vendors to see what is available.

As we all know, go into any shop and see how much alpine equip you can find. No matter where I am, I check out the local shops and so far only a very few have had any alpine gear. I know this is ultra-redundant, but as many threads have previously addressed, our gear doesn't stoke the mfgrs fires so therefore it isn't a market focus. So what can we do to make Alpine more desireable?

We raced in USASA (min. 3 hr trip each way) last year for the first time and although there may be some shortcomings, at least they are making a concerted effort to flood alpine exposure (and the other diciplines) to the areas that host the competitions. Locally we only have the high school leagues - these offer a great starter program for kids. I've had a falling leaf at the beginning of the season improve enough by season end to qualify for states! But even with the State Championships at our local mountain, can you imagine that even with muultiple calls and knowing at least two of the local "media moguls" personally, we couldn't get so much as a blurb in the local media regarding the fact that 3-400 of the best high school racers (ski & board) from all over the state (and there $$$ dropping families) are in our community??!!?? Yah, it's a pathetic shame. Of course given the wide range of abilities, and limits of NO, ZILCH, NADA financial support from the school district there is only so high of a level of competitor that this venue can foster (thus our involvement in USASA).

Regarding age. As you've mentioned, USSA pours tons of resources, even if just by organizational support, to the very young ski racers and on up. If they want a strong board team, it would follow that similar support should be given to the young boarders. (and I'm with you Kent - I would prefer to see some radical improvement) The college scene shouldn't be overlooked - look at the ages of the US Alpine team members from Rays post: http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=6735

Looks like it's the college age + that are making the team?

Ghostrider: What colleges have actual "sanctioned"(??) teams that are above "club" status and thus better supported by the school? I've checked the USCSA site some time back and didn't have much luck. (doesn't help that my racer has a specific educational goal that most of the USCSA schools don't offer).

You've all given us lots of good food for thought.

Randy, keep us posted on your ideas.

[Guest Ghostrider]

Hey Dr. Sandman,

First off, I know what you mean about lack of community coverage. My school won the USCSA national championships this last season and we couldnt even get the school newspaper to cover us. Although we did make it in Ski Racing Magazine.... I just dont get the media sometimes.

About the ages...I totally agree. I had somebody from Stratton Mountain School contact me about the USCSA because its not really fair that these kids are expected to go to high school and then either go pro or quit snowboarding and go to college. Its very true, they just dont know that you can still compete in college!

Right now, I am the student snowboard rep on the board of directors for the USCSA. That means I'm appointed to help out students and also start up new teams. And yea the USCSA site sucks as of now :D I'm personally putting the finishing touches on a new site that'll be in place very shortly.

As far as actual "sanctioned" teams...I wouldnt really say that any of them can claim that. Some have paid coaches and the students barely pay anything but are still "club status". Some get some funding from the school but just enough to lower the costs. Still though, many schools are offering $0 because technically snowboarding is an "off-campus" activity and shows no profit for the school.

Although, we have safety in numbers working in our advantage as we can get some help from shops or companies easier as well as pro-form discounts. Finding coaches who are willing to give some time to an organization is also easier and resorts offer us discounted lift tickets. When we stay overnight places, we also cram the room the max capacity + 5 to cut costs even lower. If you have a moderate business sense, you can try and play ball with the schools administration and usually come out ahead also. I was able to get them to fund a week long trip to our nationals. So it really varies but I would say that shortly you could expect change. We are growing at a rate that about doubles every year. In my local division, over the last 4 years we have grown from 3 racers starting to a steady 40+ starting and thats just GS. With the prospect of freestyle competition and BX, I had over 500 students show interest from one 30,000 student school in the midwest!

One of the great things also about USCSA is that we have had divisions pop up all over the country. We also let students race as individuals. You can start your own team and its super easy...just have to fill out one extra piece of paper. Just because you dont have a team doesnt mean you cant compete. I started a team when I was a sophomore with me and one other guy and by my senior year we had 20 members and swept every team victory for the season including divisionals, regionals and nationals.

Hope theres some useful info in there for you.

[NMU Alpine Boarder]

I believe St. Olaf is the only "Varsity" team here in the Midwest. Everyone else here is a "Club" team. I am sure there are many more nationwide, but the only other school that I know for sure that has a "Varsity" program is Sierra Nevada college.

Bill, you mentioned the prospect of BX and Freestyle. Where do we stand on that? I think that will be an excellent recruting tool I can use up here in Marquette.

If the kids are at the hill, they will run the gates anyways, and might generate some new racers that didn't realize the talent they had. BX gives you the best of both worlds as long as USCSA doesn't eliminate Hard Boots and Alpine Boards from the equasion . I really think we can make this work here in the Midwest.

[Guest Ghostrider]

Hey Derek,

St. Olaf is varsity skiing but not snowboarding. I'm not sure if sierra nevada is actually "varsity" but I am sure that they get lots of funding.

As Kent suggested, were in the very early stages of a USASA/USCSA combination. We started last year in the michigan division and it seemed to work good. The Midwest is kind of the pilot to give it a test so we are going to work with a dual sanction. Last year, the individual overall boarder got a seat to the USASA nationals so were on our way to a partnership.

So far, we are going to try and set up a college division of the USASA. That will let you go to their events. The national event has been dual sanctioned for about 3 years now. So far the only reason we cant really run a BX is because of insurance reasons and I guess also because most hills dont have the proper start gates. I'm going to be talking to Robin soon to see where we stand on freestyle stuff but I know were close.

Since i graduated, I'm not going to be competing, but Robin has invited me to be the Regional snowboard coordinator. So that means I'll be putting on the midwest championships. I'm hoping for GS, BX and slopestyle. Last year the "quarter pipe" sucked and the SL sucked. So we'll run the GS like last year and I promise the course will be just as wild or wilder.

With the BX though, hardboots are allowed, speed suits are not and alpine boards are not either. If it were up to me, I'd put them in but were under USASA insurance so its their rules.

[NMU Alpine Boarder]

Sounds like a good deal you got there Bill. The USASA cosantion sounds like it will generate some interest and recognition for us, and any exposure is good at this point. Keep up the good work :)

As far as the BX thing goes, I should have been clearer... I realized that Alpine boards were not allowed, and do not expect that to change. I read somewhere towards the end of last season that USASA was going to go "Soft boots" only in BX. That was my concern. I believe that hardboots and a "hybrid" board like a F2 Speedcross is the way to go unless it's a super gnarly course.

[dr. sandman]

Thanks guys, that's some encouraging info!! My daughter is a H.S. Junior this year so that gives us some time for things to come together. She wants to study to be a Doctor of Pharmacy like her ol' man, so that really limits which institutions she can go to - but it sounds like she could be a one woman team if nothing else.

Thanks for your commitment to the betterment of the racing community!