Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • The Great Outdoors

Snowboarding May Not be Cool Anymore?

  • May 14, 2015
  • Ben Osborne
Total
8
Shares
8
0
0
0
0
0
Total
8
Shares
Share 8
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

Thanks to the underground influence of skate and surf culture, snowboarding burst onto the scene decades ago as a give-er-hell way to say F You to the skier elite. It was vilified across the world of skiing, which up until now had been a sport of refined grace and poise. There still exist resorts across America open to skiers only, even to this day.

IMG_3075
Radical! Tubular! Day-Glo!

How things have changed. The punks have grown up and are holding onto the cred of yesteryear, as well as diaper bags and ski leashes for their own little groms. Meanwhile, everyone and their mom – sometimes literally – is trying out snowboarding, and this report says that snowboarding might be on its way out.  The Los Angeles Times looked at information from Snowsports Industries America and found that sales of snowboards and related gear have slipped 21% over the last four years, while skiing, admittedly not much of an increase, saw sales go up by 3%.  

Many snowboarders are making the switch to skiing for a number of reasons. From the relative ease of getting to the backcountry, to simply a new way to experience their favourite areas. Also, any snowboarder will tell you that you can’t learn in a week, so people learning to pick up a snow sport on their family vacation are more likely to enjoy their time on 2 sticks rather than one plank, so there’s less of an influx of newbies.

Add to that, the sports movie industry isn’t really gearing towards park and street edits, preferring the vastness of open mountain ranges and heretofore never before skied terrain. When they are urban, it’s usually with a twist (rest in peace, JP Auclair). Face it: it’s no longer acceptable to simply wander out with a case of beer, a couple of shovels and a POV camera. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4L8T2kFFck]

So, has snowboarding sold out?

Let’s consider the tagalongs to snowboarding, the animalistic party scene that came along with the introduction of the snowboard park and all of its flips, flatspins and McTwists. In the years since, skiing has evolved into so much more than clean even turns and effortless moguls. We have technology that came from McConkey’s Earth-shattering idea to take waterskis into powder, shredding an alpine line like never before. Skiers then came into the park and made it a sport all its own, and slopestyle and skier cross became the highlight of the X-games and the Olympics, respectively. It could be argued that skiing may have died a slow death without snowboarding, the last of the 210 skinny skis gradually gathering dust in the front closet, their owners’ knees far too shot to take them out for one last glory run.

Not pictured: the future.
Not pictured: the future.

In all honesty, no one gets to decide what’s cool and what isn’t. We’ve said it before: if you’re out there having fun what difference does it make? (It’s not like you’re on SnowBlades or something.)

If this truly is a “trend” then with any luck the pendulum will swing once more into the realm of a snowboarder being a rare sight – another individual (in more than one sense), doing things his or her own way.

Just don’t tell your mom.

Total
8
Shares
Share 8
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • Stay & Play

Back in the Day: Whistler’s Rail Baby Buggy

  • May 7, 2015
  • Ned Morgan
View Post
Next Article
  • Mountain Biking

Six Fabulous Freak Bikes

  • May 14, 2015
  • Colin Field
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • The Great Outdoors

Helly Hansen Presents: Adventure Planning 101 with Squamish SAR

  • Sarah Bulford
  • May 16, 2022
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • The Great Outdoors

Blower Pow and Disappearing Pants

  • Sarah Bulford
  • April 26, 2022
View Post
  • In This Issue
  • The Great Outdoors

ML Launches Mushroom Life

  • Sarah Bulford
  • April 1, 2022
View Post
  • Leslie Anthony
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Stay & Play
  • The Great Outdoors

Spring at Sun Peaks

  • Sarah Bulford
  • March 8, 2022
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • The Great Outdoors

Backcountry Skier John Baldwin Headlines VIMFF’s 2022 Best of British Columbia Night

  • Sarah Bulford
  • February 22, 2022
View Post
  • FALL GEAR
  • SPRING GEAR
  • THE GEAR SHED
  • The Great Outdoors
  • WINTER GEAR

The Legend of San Poncho

  • Editor
  • December 9, 2021
735990496 1280x720
View Post
  • The Great Outdoors
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Island of Plenty

  • Sarah Bulford
  • July 2, 2021
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • The Great Outdoors

Win Adventures to the Filming Location of the HISTORY® Channel’s “Alone” Season 8!

  • Sarah Bulford
  • June 8, 2021

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Featured Posts
  • 1
    End of an Era: Another Double Chair Bites the Dust
    • March 28, 2023
  • Skiing at Hudson Bay Mountain in Smithers 2
    Where Eagles Dare
    • March 27, 2023
  • Mountain-Life-20th-showreel 3
    20 Years of ML
    • March 24, 2023
  • Mustang-Survival-WOMENS-HELIX-CCS 4
    Gear Shed: Our End-of-Winter Picks
    • March 23, 2023
  • natural-selection-Redbull 5
    Friday Flick: Natural Selection Tour Highlights
    • March 17, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • Powder-Highway-BC-ski
    Powder Highway Revisited
    • March 21, 2023
  • AleTrailsSouthernInterior_Vernon_MikeGamble_LookoutTrail_BenHaggarPhoto
    Ale Trails: Southern Interior Part 1, Vernon + Shuswap
    • March 20, 2023
  • Elements-Outfitters-Filson-cabin
    Elements Outfitters Partners with SALTS to Protect Alberta’s Incredible Landscapes
    • March 16, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
No one called me Feet Banks back in 1987. In those days, most people called me by my given name—except for my ski buddies, to whom I was known by the most badass moniker to ever schuss the slopes: Twinkle Toes.
We’re celebrating 20 Years of Mountain Life!
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
The Southern Interior region of BC holds an ecological cross-section of the province with alpine meadows, arid Douglas fir grasslands, damp cedar and hemlock forests of the Columbia Mountains and the warm expanse of Shuswap Lake.
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Conceived by superhuman snowboarder @travisrice, the @naturalselection Tour highlights earth’s premier riders, from big-mountain mavens to Olympians, all competing on the most stoketastic—and unpredictable—terrain known to humankind.
Built upon a shared desire to enjoy, respect, and advocate for Alberta’s incredible landscapes, it was a natural fit for @elementsoutfitters to work with a local conservation organization @saltslandtrust to highlight the province’s rugged beauty and outdoor apparel to match.
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

No one called me Feet Banks back in 1987. In those days, most people called me by my given name—except for my ski buddies, to whom I was known by the most badass moniker to ever schuss the slopes: Twinkle Toes.
We’re celebrating 20 Years of Mountain Life!
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.