 Poster: A snowHead
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I know we've touched on a similar vein before and I am barking at the moon on this, but I picked up a copy of ski and board magazine at hemel yesterday and just got around to flicking through it.
In 98 pages there are precisely 5 pictures of people on snowboards, three of which are paid adverts ( thankyou Tignes, thankyou Sunweb).
One is on the one page interview with Mia Brookes so it'd be very weird not to have her riding
The other is hiding on p61 in an article about ski trips in British Columbia... that's it.
There are genuinely more pictures of plated food in this than of snowboarding.
For the surprisingly large number of people learning to ride at HH last night when will this pretence at representing and catering to the whole UK snow community end?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Richard_Sideways, well Concept in Cham don’t have a snowboard rental fleet cos it’s old person’s sport …
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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If snowboarding is an old man's game then isn't that squarely in SCGBs demographic? Greybeards with disposable income?
Suppose the mag did have several articles devoted to telemarquetry and an article about how to get fit by standing on a small bit of wood to cover that market... And all the plated food.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@ski3, you're in Cheam? Tell me, The Red Lion, the railway or the Arrah?
@under a new name, can you let Concept know they aren't renting snowboards as nobody has told their website...
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@Richard_Sideways, A bit further across near Morden. Our area layed out in 30s by Quaker builder, no pubs inside, just periphery 
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@under a new name, You are wrong about snowboarding being an old person's sport; I have seen some young people trying it.
Perhaps the magazine should be called "Food, and some skiing and some people on snowboards" But perhaps it should be pointed out that that is the main point of glossy magazines - sell things.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@johnE, yes it's a sales brochure in all but name but you're selling an image, a lifestyle and you have to see it to be it. Two photos of snowboarding in 98 pages is paltry! Particularly as this is the issue they are giving away free at preseason events like the one at HH and bet you it'll be the one they carpet bomb the snow shows next weekend with
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It's people like me that stopped snowboarding being cool. And I'm proud of that.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Boarders only makeup around 5-15% of all snowsport participants worldwide in 2023.
Finding 5% of the mag's pages filled with snowboarding is not far off an appropriate ratio.
The plank is mightier than the tray.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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A lot of skiers smell of urine and are sex offenders
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There used to be whitelines snowboard magazine. Think absolut snow used to send a copy with orders.
Going by what I see at airports, there are usually a lot of snowboards coming off the planes. A lot more than ski's.
So there may be an overall more skiers - but who is likely to buy a magazine? someone who owns their own gear or someone who goes once a year on a break?
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You know it makes sense.
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General fashion on the high street has switched to skinny jeans too. There is no coincidence that snowboarding's decline happened in lockstep.....
(Reformed snowboarder here). I'd still take a snowboard over skis on an epic powder day though.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Richard_Sideways, maybe it's a relatively new thing for them then. Or they sub them out. I'll check next time I'm in.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@ski3, titter
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
Going by what I see at airports, there are usually a lot of snowboards coming off the planes. A lot more than ski's.
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That's interesting. What are these transporters of snowboards doing in the resorts. Is it harder to rent a snowboard than skis? Or are they waiting for that perfect day?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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On the OP, SCGB Ltd is presumably selling holidays mostly to skiers, I'd guess. Presumably the images reflect their target demographic, which apparently isn't snowboarders.
Nielson (is that TUI?) were around in force in Hemel; how does their marketing compare?
In Chile in the summer there were only snowboards coming off the planes. I don't know why those guys took their boards. For me, I can carry my board for free, and it guarantees I have an excellent board for the terrain. It may be driven by actual availability of decent gear, or it may be a hang-over from the days when most snowboards were actually garbage. Depending on where you go, it may be hard to find top-notch snowboards "for rent".
Magazines... it's surprising they still exist. I think UK skiing magazines were almost always... "advertorial". Endless "buying guides" (sales brochures), endless beginner articles, and endless "resort guides" sponsored by the resorts. Never a negative word or truth. Powder was different, and there were maybe one or two others which were ok for a while. Overall, the business model never worked in the UK. Do people actually pay for SCGB Ltd's magazine, or does it come with the subscription?
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@johnE, I think it's (much) harder to rent decent snowboards.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @johnE, I think it's (much) harder to rent decent snowboards. |
This pretty much. If you want something decent you're probably looking at a store's relatively small demo fleet rather than a rental shop. Mind you chicken and egg probably as people buy boards fairly early in their snowboarding career IME and thus not the demand for higher end rentals.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| phil_w wrote: |
Magazines... it's surprising they still exist.
Do people actually pay for SCGB Ltd's magazine, or does it come with the subscription? |
Both. Yes, it comes with the sub, but you can buy them in newsagents as well. Four or so issues per year, IIRC. Towards the end (of our membership/leading; finally got around to cancelling it three or four years ago) ours used to sometimes just pile up unopened for months at a time.
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| Quote: |
The plank is mightier than the tray.
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If by mightier, you mean heavier, then yes.
@phil_w, with regard to the Chilean luggage, I'd suspect that the kind of people who go skiing in Chile are the kind of people who have N+1 skis to take with them, so the practical answer is a snowboard bag - Practical luggage for kit fetishists is just one of the things that Snowboarding has given back to the snowsports community. I know when we go to the Alps, my bag usually has at least 2 snowboards and 2 pairs of skis and poles in it.
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Disappointing thread. Thought it was going to be about some hipsterish trend in volume adjusted sub 1m boards.
SCGB doesn't understand snowboards is a headline on a par with Daily Express is for wannabe fascists.
| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
@phil_w, with regard to the Chilean luggage, I'd suspect that the kind of people who go skiing in Chile are the kind of people who have N+1 skis to take with them, so the practical answer is a snowboard bag - Practical luggage for kit fetishists is just one of the things that Snowboarding has given back to the snowsports community. I know when we go to the Alps, my bag usually has at least 2 snowboards and 2 pairs of skis and poles in it. |
This is exactly what I did for a Chile/Argentina trip. Had a Burton back with backpack straps that made all the usual backpacking travel possible.
Need to reboot my old man snowboarding to stick it to the man.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Dave of the Marmottes, one of the (several) plates of cheese and charcuterie in the mag was on a board about 30cm across... would that work for you?
Thinking about it, maybe thats why they call it 'Ski & Board' rather than 'Ski & Snowboard"
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That sort of Board? I thought it the magazine covered accommodation for skiing trips.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
@Dave of the Marmottes, one of the (several) plates of cheese and charcuterie in the mag was on a board about 30cm across... would that work for you?
Thinking about it, maybe thats why they call it 'Ski & Board' rather than 'Ski & Snowboard" |
I think that's where the snowboard industry has been going wrong in its efforts to inspire a new generation : too much thinking about moustache rocker, traction control and volume adjustment. Not enough on the basics of a decent comte and rillettes.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Dave of the Marmottes, less terrain parks, more terrined porks?
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You know it makes sense.
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| ster wrote: |
| That sort of Board? I thought it the magazine covered accommodation for skiing trips. |
Ski + Bored of reading this awful mag
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
| @Dave of the Marmottes, less terrain parks, more terrined porks? |
Not sure I can ever give terrain parks their official name ever again.....
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Poster: A snowHead
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The second of this seasons editions also scores a big Eurovision "nil point" on snowboarding again. I was pretty surprised that the didn't manage to at least shoehorn in 1 mention of splitboarding into a fairly lengthy article on ski mountaineering.
We had a phase of (bit naff) tuition articles, fitness and kit reviews but that seems to have gone by the by. I signed up my membership when I spotted the discounts available outweighed the subs cost a few years ago. Haven't cancelled yet somehow... I quite enjoy a bit of the read, especially in the lead up to a holiday, but it's an expensive magazine for just reading about ski kit and the best lunch in some obscure Austrian resort.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| some stupid troll wrote: |
| Boarders only makeup around 5-15% of all snowsport participants worldwide in 2023. |
[sic] making up nonsense doesn't make for much of a discussion.
The US National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) is the easiest free place to find that type of data.
NSAA demographics are for the US, but show numbers around twice that which have been stable for over a decade.
As above, SCGB Ltd as a company will know their target demographic, and their print publication presumably reflects that.
They don't break it down in their annual report, but I counted identifiable rider images there and found 18 skiers and 1 snowboarder. Someone made that choice.
The word "snowboard" appears once in the entire report. Ditto.
Their focus is very much what their company name suggests it ought to be.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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The Ski Club of Great Britain spent some years trying to work out how to attract more snowboarders, including renaming the magazine from "Ski Survey". I recall as leaders we were being encouraged to try to sell the club to more boarders, but ultimately it was realised that the sort of people we being asked to attract were, in general, the last sort of people who would want to join a club of that sort.
IIRC the boarder membership wasn't even close to the 5% or so mentioned above, although exact figures were not available; there were four or five boarding reps (including one who was a very close friend of ours and had found the club through us) that I knew of among the couple of hundred active skiing leaders.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| BigSouthernJesse wrote: |
| I signed up my membership when I spotted the discounts available outweighed the subs cost a few years ago. Haven't cancelled yet somehow... |
After a season in which I went on two Freshtracks trips (both of which had issues that, while not huge, were also not insignificant), I didn't renew my membership. I'd rejoin if going on another Freshtracks trrip (I think at a subsidized rate: I think they give a discount if you join in the process of booking a holiday), but doing so isn't massively high up my priority list, given the offerings from Inside Out, Snoworks and others.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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