 Poster: A snowHead
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Burton Snowboards, a major worldwide snowboard company, has offered a $5,000 “reward” for the best video of boarders poaching on to one of the four US resorts that prohibit snowboarding. This “reward” is the opening banner to the Burton US website. The contest is titled “Sabotage Stupidity”. The opening video banner features different boarders blasting through crowds of skiers, ducking ropes, ignoring warning signs and being chased....Website: http://www.burton.com/default.aspx
More info: http://www.burton.com/poachers/
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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seems like a bit of a stupid idea. i ski with boarders and we all get on perfectly but everyone knows there skiers out there that refuse to get on with boarders and vice versa - why any company would openly add fuel to the flames and see it as a good marketing and pr idea, even if they're are doing it in jest, is beyond me.
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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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shoogly, I agree....but surely the ones fanning the flames are the resorts that ban snowboarders?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Seen this elsewhere. The idea is somewhat contradictory - Jake Burton "sticking it to the man" while failing to acknowledge that he is is probably the single most powerful "man" in snowsports.
& the vids while obviously made with the help of co-operative skiing stooges esp re Deer Valley may only encourage idiot behaviour in those emulating the set up in the films.
Sense of humour failure by Taos ski patrol quite amusing.
The idea that boarding is some underground rebel sport is risible however.
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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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Purely from a skier's perspective, I think it's a great idea.
Already snowboarders account for a disproportionately high percentage of accident and insurance statistics. Boarders who are a little higher up the evolutionary chain, like the ones shoogly refers to, are hardly likely to be lead astray by this sort of irresponsible rubbish, whereas it will be all the encouragement the other end of the spectrum will need to get themselves arrested, injured or killed. Once they are out of the picture, the reputation of boarders improves and the resorts no longer have reason to ban them.
Natural selection in all its glory 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Boring, boring, boring. Oooh, well done Burton, practically intoning the more grandiose elements the the American constitution. Should sell a few more £500 jackets.
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hahaha awesome.
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The opening video banner features different boarders blasting through crowds of skiers, ducking ropes, ignoring warning signs and being chased....
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I didn't see that  and they weren't just boarders but burton pros.
Now I think of it, is El Hen a bot?
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Jake Burton "sticking it to the man" while failing to acknowledge that he is is probably the single most powerful "man" in snowsports.
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It's a bit sad actually.
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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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x7, 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Do people really think that the boarding in that video is reckless and crazy? I genuinely don't see it. If people are going to ski with fox tails or whatever was hanging from their asses they should expect harrassment.
Be a bit different if it was the other way around though wouldn't it?
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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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Received over email:
| Jake Burton wrote: |
STATE OF THE MOUNTAIN : POACH FOR FREEDOM
Since the release of our Poachers web story on burton.com, several people have contacted Burton complaining of our actions. While I fully respect their prerogative to voice their opinion, they should in return grant us the same courtesy. We have been snowboarding at major resorts for well over 20 years now and in the process, we have demonstrated our sport to be for real, and of no threat to society. The fact is that two of the four resorts operate on federal forest land, which makes this issue even more frustrating since the taxes of many snowboarders help finance these resorts. I'm confident that if these four resorts outlawed skiing tomorrow, there would be a protest long before 20 years passed, and rightfully so. I want to add that we have been careful not to break any laws, nor to encourage anyone to break any laws (see the Poaching 10 Commandments on burton.com/poachers) in our efforts to liberate these mountains. If you have spent as much time in the mountains as I have, you would know that every mountain has a personality, and while they can be brutally cruel at times, discrimination is not in their DNA.
Jake Burton
Founder-Burton Snowboards
Burton Snowboards | 80 Industrial Ave | Burlington, VT 05401
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You know it makes sense.
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Power to the Poachers - I ski & board and think that should be the way the slopes are, dont segregate.
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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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Nice work Burton marketing - now you're patronising the skiing & snowboarding public who don't have your 20 years of history. Yes its unfair but if you want to make a statement buy one of the places - Mad River Glen is practically on your doorstep and make it snowboard only.
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Poster: A snowHead
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fatbob, MRG was one of the first resorts to allow snowboarding, in 1986. The flaw in the email is that no person is discriminated against.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I think it's a great idea. I think the people who are bitching here need to lighten up a bit. He's having some fun, and it's good PR for his company. Besides, the videos are funny.
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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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| Timmaah wrote: |
| I think it's a great idea. I think the people who are bitching here need to lighten up a bit. He's having some fun, and it's good PR for his company. Besides, the videos are funny. |
Sorry, I don't share that "idea". No more fun than watching bored teenagers stealing traffic signs in the name of "having fun".
That's pretty much my impression of the video. Teenage childishness.
It maybe good PR for his company, to certain customers. It doesn't change the fact it's childish.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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And lets all sit round the camp fire and hummmmm kumbai yah
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Burton really are the Microsoft of snowboarding and Jake Burton is as far from the underground as you can get in snowboarding. All the same, that doesn't stop Burton making a valid point in that these resorts are being very short-sighted commercially and socially by banning boarders... and setup for the camera or not, I enjoy the way this is getting up some people's noses as that's the exact intended effect. It woulda been cool to see some more advanced freestyle trickery or crazy free-riding in the videos though as these are top pros.
At any rate, it works. A mere week later and one of the 4 resorts has announced an end to the policy. If you want to ski in snobby solitude, go buy your own mountain! 
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| Quote: |
Do people really think that the boarding in that video is reckless and crazy? I genuinely don't see it. If people are going to ski with fox tails or whatever was hanging from their asses they should expect harrassment
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Stab, I agree, none of the boarding could be termed reckless. You have to admit though that the group boarding in Deer Valley were assholes though. That's what I'd think of any strangers, skiers or boarders who deliberately cut in front of me within inches or sprayed me with snow. Unbelievably, they were surpassed by the Taos ski patrol and the clutz that penned the introduction to inform us that what we were about to witness was to defend life as we know it.
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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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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Kerekip:
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| At any rate, it works. A mere week later and one of the 4 resorts has announced an end to the policy. |
I wonder to what extent Taos were influenced by this Burton campaign. After all, it took quite some effort by their ski patrol to end up looking even less cool than Burton in this whole affair after the über-schmalz American History 101 intro.
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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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It's clear a resort can not have commercial success without opening to boarding. Of the 4 resorts that didn't allow boarding, Taos is the most vunerable since it's at the far south, out of the way and most affected by the warming weather. MRG might be the next, if they hit a few bad winter in a row. Alta and Deer Valley probably don't "need" the boarders. So it'll take the boarding crowd "maturing", that is, NOT to do the stupid Burton stunt, for them to open up.
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abc, be sure not to tar everyone with the same brush, or someone might say something about those ridiculous hats so many skiers insist on wearing...  and anyway, tolerance is a large part of maturity. Not every snowboarder is a sick shredding dude hellbent on ruining it for everyone on two planks, and not every skier is an angelic mountain academic, incapable of bad behaviour.
The most unnecessarily unpleasant thing ever done to me on the mountain was when someone rode past me and quite deliberately clipped me on the back of the head with a ski pole as I sat under a tree off the edge of the piste. Not just any skier, this was a ski instructor. Therefore in my experience it's skiers who are immature, but I don't base my whole opinion on one or two bad incidents. Wider life experience suggests that there is every kind of person on both skis and boards, and friends can be made anywhere.
Back to the issue at hand: I can't accept that these dinosaur resorts are anything other than country clubs on snow, revelling in their snooty exclusivity while the world laughs and moves on without them. With regards to your final point: you suggest that the only way boarders will change the status quo is to take no action. I'm not so sure... while it seems likely that poor winters factor somewhere in the decision taken by Taos, consider the following coincidence:
- 1st week of Dec 2007: video of boarders poaching Taos posted on the web with accompanying PR campaign
- 2nd week of Dec 2007: Taos announces timetable for end of boarding ban
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You know it makes sense.
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Shallimus, I'm by no means painting the boarders themselves with a broad brush. But don't you agree the image of the boarders are what's projected by Burton?
Boarders have matured a lot. For one thing, a lot of older skiers had taken up boarding, and the teenagers are growing up. But not all, Burton certainly hasn't. And with such encouragement of irresponsible bahavior, why are you surprsed skiers have such a strong negative feeling about boarders?
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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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I find the whole thing mildly amusing in a student 'let's abseil off Debenhams' kind of way. On the other hand, why would I want to board (or indeed ski) with the sort of tosser who deliberately picks a 'skiers only' resort? Why not just leave them in their little ghetto?
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Poster: A snowHead
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In large part, boarding needs to project an edgy image to be commercially viable in the main target demographic. This is of course every bit as hollow as it sounds. In my opinion Burton are by far the worst offenders in this category, and I certainly won't let myself be defined by anything Burton say or do. They count some great riders on their global team but I like the riders, not the organisation (see video of Jeremy Jones promoting the latest binding 'innovation' from Burton... he looks awkward and is a lot happier talking about back-country lines he rode with Absinthe or whoever). In my opinion, Burton has a monopoly complex and is too busy trying to claim the non-existent 'voice of boarding' mantle to be mature (or not).
I don't have a problem with the poaching and I think it's funny, but then I'm biased.
Best day on snow is having the most fun with my friends without upsetting anyone who didn't upset me first. That's it. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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But don't you agree the image of the boarders are what's projected by Burton?
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abc, I don't see the problem with the boarders in the videos (Deer Valley apart) and I wouldn't notice the group particularly in any resort whether skiers of boarders. Funloving and good on the snow isn't that bad an image?
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FAQ
