Stereotypes

A snowHead

I went on a ski tech course recently and a guy I spoke to who skis with the British Air force snowboard team told me of a story where a skier spat in a boarders face for 'cutting him up' Shocked

I would have b**ch slapped that fool with a board to his face. This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable. Resorts should employ people who observe mountainside etiquite and eject those who are basically aholes. Whether you board or ski there will always be one.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I pity the fool ... Something worng with my Mr. T.esque reference. As a skier I feel less hostility towards boarders as I ski more. I think with alot of skiers you get a great deal of pomposity. you know the rich skiers who go once a year to St.Moritz and feel they are too good for lessons.

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sambmx, very smart, doing an A-level that involves working on something, presumably, you love doing.

When Boarding first started it was a poorly understood in terms of technique and equipment, it was very much a jfdi school of learning and this and it's counter culture image, attracted a very young and often reckless following. The scariest thing on skis was to hear that harsh scrape behind you as some out of control Boarder was about to take you out. There was also a counter-intuitive snobbery. Look at those dorky skiers, they're not cool like us . . .

And of the flip side skiers with their nice, controlled 'pastime' looked down on Boarders as dangerous, ignorant bums. They just didn't appreciate how physical learning to Board is, how much it hurts and how imprecise you are in terms of where you put yourself on the slope and, god forbid, a cross mountain trail. And the fact half your turns are made towards a direction you can't see fully, unless you're that girl from The Omen.

However, as it progressed and due to the experimental, no barriers school of thought, it revolutionised skiing and only for the better really. The gear got much better because snowboarders need more flexibility, better breathability and tougher clothing as, when learning, you spend half your time with your chin in the snow and it's much, much more physical. And probably the biggest change it influenced was in ski design and tricks. Personally I'm not a huge fan of gymnastics with skis on but it is very, very impressive what people can do on skis now and it didn't originate with but it went through a step change due to, Boarding. How long before anyone on skis would have tried a rail if it wasn't for Snowboarding. Ski design it's just a different world now and basically we've got Boarding to thank for that. It would be really interesting to try and ski off-piste on old style long and thin skis. Humiliating would probably be another word and less fun would be another (two).

The technique for snowboarding is now much better understood, although it's still very much a jfdi learning experience after a couple of days lessons. It's much more intuitive than skiing but, whatever anyone tries to argue, because they resent the implied superiority, sking is a much more technically demanding sport. Boarders can go off-piste after a couple of weeks and look bloody good, try that on skis. Really, if you don't believe skiing is technically more challenging, try skiing backward after a week say, or going off-piste after 5 weeks.

Skiing and Boarding is a bit like rugby league and rugby union. They share a lot of the same skills and if you're good at one, you'd probably be good at the other but maybe not as good and that is often what decides a preference. In the early days a lot of people who switched to Boarding were 'failed' skiers. They could ski OK but Boarding was more natural and gave them the opportunity to go where their skiing never would of. You'll always get the banter between the two but until you've tried both, any comments you make will automatically be biased to what you do. I've done both and I prefer skiing, because I'm better at it and because I find the bindings on, bindings off, for lifts and/or flat bits fobbed me off. I have an old injury that makes this quite a big factor, otherwise I'd of Boarded a lot more, definitely. There's much more 'serenity' to a good turn on a snowboard.

There's guy who writes for The Times, called Doug Sawyer or something like that, he forecast that snowboarding was a fad that would fizzle out and die. How wrong was he. That and some of his other views would make a good quote for your work if you can dig it up.

There was a picture posted on this site recently of a big powder bowl. There were some nice neat, harmonised 'aesthetic' ski tracks and a bunch of all over the place boarder ones. There was the inevitably debate about the merits. I'm on the 'Boarder's side' on that one.

Ultimately I'd say that Boarding was the best thing that ever happened to skiing, for the equipment and for the try-it attitude. My 'ski' buddies are more Boarders than Skiers now and that's fine. It's the person on the equipment and not what the equipment is that matters.

I like that last sentence, sounds deep and profound.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Nickski, Great post Cool

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Nick_C, oh i unbderstand why instructors do it, when i take people round the mountain that are a lot slower than me i have to do it too otherwise i'm gone before they know where i am. I just do wish they'd only use 3/4 so people can get round without cutting up the snake.

Last season i had this guy who said he could snowboard well so i said if he wanted to join me he could. He was the slowest rider i've ever seen, and it meant i had to snake big time so he could see where i was. Funniest thing was that on returning to his wife and my hubby he was saying, 'i kept up with her' I just about managed to keep a straight face!

After all it is free

snowangel., Laughing

Brilliant! The annoying thing is: I always try to use only a part of the piste (of course I only have max 4 behind me), but say you go left to middle and make regular turns with the students neatly behind you - do you think that the other mountain users go middle to right? Nah! They come right through the middle of us!! Twisted Evil

There is one thing about the skier/boarder thing though: it seems to me that boarders are not nearly so worried about getting close to others as skiers. this may be because they're often younger, or may be because a board is slower - but it does tend to frighten the skiers half to death. At least 3-4m berth would make all the difference.

Actually I think that if all boarders still did alpine carving it would be better. they face forward, they have more control of their edges ....... wink

I think a lot of the problems we've had have been lack of understanding: for skiers the easiest thing is to go straight - one of the hardest things on a board. Skiers don't understand that a boarder turning backside CANNOT see, so they don't always allow for this - personally I hate not being able to see right around the corner, so I tend to board alpine stance on a soft board!!!

Nickski, Interesting post, but I absolutely take issue with you about boarding being more instinctive. How do you normally stand? Feet sideways on or feet forwards? How do you normally walk? feet separate or feet together? Do you actually hop sideways down the road???? No - it may be more difficult to master skiing, but if someone had 5 weeks lessons with me they'd be fine off piste - "self taught" is another matter. Actually, if conditions are suitable, my beginner skiers are off piste in the first week! Very Happy

Nickski, as most people have said, that was a great post, and sums up my topic, and you have given more ways of describing how boarders and skiers are the same, yet different at the same time.
I chose to the topic, as part of 'Sport and the media', and i love skiing and want to make something of a life using it, and photography, rolling eyes

ha, so it just made sense to me, i was looking at the stereotypes of skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding and bmx, but it all got a bit too much, as you can imagine,so i went with skiing/boarding as there were more prominent stereotypes that i could dig stuff up on.
You have all been so helpful, i couldnt imagine such a big response to this topic, but i hate you all at the same time for giving me so much material to sort through before friday, grrrr Laughing

Thanks again
Sam

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easiski, I suspect we're going to have to disagree on this one, especially the 'stance' argument (argument in the debate sense). Skiing and snowboarding, to a lesser or greater degree, are controlled slides and if you were going to slide across a piece of ice how would you do it ? With virtually a snowboard stance.

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DB,

Not sure if I'd give you one though Toofy Grin

You know it makes sense.

I've done both. I'm a better skier, and I ski almost exclusively now, but I agree with what Nickski says about snowboarding reinvigorating the world of snowsports in general.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Horses for courses - Bulletproof early morning groomer - skis or an alpine board, late afternoon spring "leg breaker" slush - board. Powder - take your pick just make it fat and long

Don't really agree with Easiski's view on stance - it only very occasionally I have been blindsided on a board - when first learning & that was before I'd learnt to concentrate on listening and the "lifesaver" glance. Alpine carving is a) much harder b) less accessible (very few shops stock the kit) c) requires more space to arc full turns. Now the skilled can ride an alpine set up anywhere but I think you really have to have learnt on it to maximise its potential. I've only ever concussed myself skiing/snowboarding on a alpine board- higher speeds/less easy to adapt to terrain variations.

A snowHead

A snowHead

Robbof, welcome to snowHeads

I think you might get a prize for 'longest first post' wink

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Robbof, definitely not a criticism...

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After all it is free

sambmx, clearly there is a freestyle stereotype for boarders and IMO this has been heavily reinforced by the media. Just go and buy a snowboard mag and count the number of pictures that are not tricks.

snowangel., you are right about the predudice of holiday makers. I went with Mark Warner a few years ago and was not allowed to board with the ski guiding group because of being "incompatible" with skiers.

In the local's places here I think it is just not a big deal. Teens go around in packs doing jumps of course but often mixed skiers and boarders. There are plenty of older boarders just using a snowboard as another way of getting down the piste.

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