There are only four ski resorts in the United States that still don't allow snowboarding, Mad River, VT, Deer Valley, UT, Alta, UT and Taos, NM.Jake Burton, one of the founders of snowboarding and owner of one of the largest board manufacturers is offering $5,000 for the best video of boarders "poaching" these ski-only slopes.
Only one video is posted so far, but it's pretty darn funny, watch to the end. You get to see patrollers at Taos tackle a dude. Then they interrogate the group saying, "If we don't get all your names, you're never going to ski here again."
Don't think that threat's going to work.
See the video here.
7 comments:
I alpine, tele and on occasion snowboard....watched the video and I guess it's good marketing to sell snowboards and with it the perceived young or rebelious attitude of snowboarders. However, the video is kind of a good explanation of why these 4 resorts don't allow snowboards, so not sure if the "contest" is a good representation or promotion of the sport, either way it didn't help the cause, but instead hurt it.
But I guess it's all about selling snowboards.
I remember when Keystone use to be in that list.
LOL ... nice.
John, I agree, as a skier, tele, snowboarder, those guys were a little rowdy -- probably on purpose. I pretty much never see the much touted skier/boarder conflicts hack journalists wrote about in the 1990s. But I see your point.
Why can't we all just make fun of monoskiers?
Of course the only people who seemed to get violent through the whole ordeal was ski patrol at Taos.
Though harrassing beginning skiers at Deer Valley was a little dickish.
This is the type of thing that sullies the reputation of boarders, perpetuates their bad boy image and causes skiers to disrespect them. Having just spent a week skiing at Alta I can tell you what a pleasure it is not to worry about some out of control yahoo crashing into you with their big fiberglass plank. Yes, there are out of control skiers who ski too fast and close to people but it seems to be more of a problem with boarders. Boarding is a sport given to jumps and tricks which is fine as long as you don't endanger someone else. I am even more paranoid because I have a young skier who isn't very tall and harder for skiers and boarders to see. Lastly I don't believe I have ever crested a hill to find five or six skiers just sitting down in the middle of a run. Until boarders start policing their sport and demonstrating a knowledge of the etiquette required on slopes, boarding and skiing will continue to be an unhappy marriage of two incompatible sports.
Perhaps this comes a little late but...aren't we all being a little irrational here. First thing is first, the people that are out of control on snowboards are most likely people that either are beginners or never learned how to carve well and just went to straight to the park which is...sigh...a shame. I can see how skiers would get bad vibes from this but that's no reason why we can't all get along. Yes, at one point I did sit in the middle of the slope a lot...BECAUSE I FELL ON MY BUTT AND IT HURT!!! Not to mention, at that point, if I had tried to steer toward the edge I would have run off the course and tumbled into the tree-line. I'm sorry, learning takes some time. Now I'm not gonna blame it all on lack of skill. There are some jerks out there but they're mostly immature, younger kids. Eventually we get to a point where we can be mature and safe on the slopes. I would also like to say that skiers aren't so innocent themselves. I was about three feet to the left of a skier one day and she was not paying attention to her surroundings and she skied right into me...fortunately there was no horrific crash or injury. In fact neither of us hit the ground. However, if that had not been the case I would’ve stuck around to make sure the skier was okay and hoped that she would do the same for me had I been the injured one. There’s no reason why this is unacceptable. Skiers, you talk about us policing our own sport but why can’t you say anything? I know, It’s not your sport but rather than making rude comments under your breath why not ask politely for snowboarders to change a habit or two such as your worries about them sitting in the middle of the slope or even ask them to be more careful cause you’re worried about your kid? I think you’ll find most snowboarders are decent people and will try to help you out. So, why can't we just all agree to disagree and try to get along? It is not all snowboarders and it is not all skiers. I don't know why people feel the need to blame one or the other. There are "bad boy" snowboarders and skiers you can't deny that fact. Why must we be stereotypical and let a few bad apples spoil our views of the whole bunch. I mean come on, were all just enjoying the beautiful winter weather, the great outdoors, and snow anyway. Why not focus on something more important like getting people to stop smoking on the slopes? I mean seriously stop polluting our clean mountain air.
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