Trail Therapy: Is Snowboarding Dying?

Marc Peruzzi, an author for Outside Magazine, released an article yesterday conveying a depressing message.  The snowboarding sport is dying... and the industry themselves might be the ones pulling the plug.  Peruzzi grew up skiing.  He learned from his parents and grandparents and has passed on the sport to his children.  He dabbled in snowboarding a few times, but the sport never drew him in.  Although he chose skiing over boarding, he never stopped fighting for the rebel sport's continued existence alongside it's purist cousin.

But why is the sport dying off?  For the same reason skateboarding is experiencing the same fate.  Snowboarding was invented in the heart of the Midwest and in Vermont and that legacy has dwindled down to a few elderly rugged men decked out in flannel.  The rest of the sport hangs on the industry's chosen target audience: teenagers.  Enter baggy pants, scraggly hair, large shirts, flat-brimmed hats, and a bad-boy image.  Although not trying to stereotype snowboarders, Peruzzi does have a point.  If you look at a catalog or a video of Burton athletes, you won't find anything that depicts a mainstream sport for the everyday winter adventurer.  Today, the image is being perpetuated by the new found popularity of the sport in the X-Games, Olympics, and icons like Shaun White.  But even those brought into the sport through this outlet have since retired and moved on to real jobs and real clothing.  Look at Shaun White today.  He's not the Flying Tomato anymore.

But again the problem isn't the athletes or the participants.  It's the industry.  Peruzzi says "Industrialized snowboarding hates diversity."  And it's true.  Burton stopped sending product information and media photos to Ski magazines, because it didn't want that kind of publicity.  Jeremy Jones wanted to market backcountry spiltboarding to the older snowboarding crowd to bring them back to a more stress-free, low-impact area of the sport.  What did the big brands do?  Gave him the proverbial middle finger.  That doesn't really say much for the CEOs' integrity of the sport they support.

The sport has some other fundamental drawbacks; like it's more dangerous than skiing and your more likely to get a concussion or break something.  This is one reason young adults are backing away from the sport: and pushing their children to ski rather than board.  The biggest reason people stay with the sport?  It's fun.  I've been snowboarding many times and although I fall more times than I ever had skiing, it's a rush.  If we can perpetuate that idea into the minds of the heads of marketing for the big snowboarding companies, the sport actually might stand a chance.  It might be time for a rejuvenation of this crazy sport.  or it might be time for it to die.

*It is my view that Marc Peruzzi may not have 100% credible knowledge of the snowboarding mindset, since he's not active in the sport and by indicating that skiing is a way of life is limiting the realities that snowboarding, for some, holds the same powerful life desires.  However, he has worked in the industry for many years and has most likely seen first hand the deterioration of the sport and its followers.  While dedicated snowboarders may find his words inaccurate, there may be truth behind them.  Sometimes we have to look past what we don't want to hear, to find the message that needs to be heard.