The Effects Of Snowboarding On The Skiing Industry Essays

The Effects Of Snowboarding On The Skiing Industry Jones 1 The ski industry has been around since the beginning of the century. Since that time the retailing industry of the ski world has been on a steady increase. At the beginning of this decade the increase began to skyrocket. However, skiing was not the reason for the growth. The reason for the dramatic increase in industry sales in the retail world of skiing was due to snowboarding. By now almost everyone in the country has either seen a snowboard, ridden one, or knows someone who has. The purpose of this paper is to discuss what snowboarding is, and to shed some light on the financial aspects of this new sport. Snowboarding hit the scene in 1972. Jake Burton, at the age of 15, decided that he had enough of skiing and wanted to do something a little different. With a little ingenuity and some of his dads tools he began working on the first snowboard. His project lasted about three weeks and when he was done he decided to take his invention to the slopes and she how it worked. This was almost the end of snowboarding. Every slope Jake went to denied him access, saying that they only allowed skis on the hills. Jake was a very determined kid and this did not stop him. He began hiking every back-country trail he could find and he became quite efficient at snowboarding. At the same time he continued to knock on all the ticket windows at every resort but still had no success. He decided that the only way he could prove his invention was nothing more than a different version of a ski would be to make a video of himself riding down the back country hills. This was no easy task, keep in mind the year is 1972. Jake was Jones2 determined and he met up with a guy named Craig Kelly who at the time was into video production of skateboarding and skiing. Jake gave the sales pitch and Craig bit hook, line, and sinker. The next week the video was complete and Jake took it to all the resorts with Craig and they pled their case. By this time Jake had made about a dozen more prototypes of his snowboard and all his best friends were riding them. Finally a small mountain, Okemo, said O.K. Jake you can ride, but only during the week This was all it took and from then on almost anyone that saw this crazy kid zipping down the hill on a wooden board with both feet strapped to it began to ask questions. From that moment on Burton Snowboards, INC. was created and is now the number one manufacturer of snowboards in the world. (Burton 1988). In the 1980's snowboarding was still not extremely popular and it was very rare for a resort to allow it on the hills. As the yuppie age ended and the Generation X'ers began to get into skateboarding, BMX bikes, bungee jumping, and roller blading, snowboarding took off. By 1991 eight-five percent of all ski resorts allowed snowboarders to share the mountains with skiers. (Gatlin 1993) According to the same article over 73% of the people snowboarding in 1991 were under the age of 25. This age group typifies Generation X. Along with snowboarding came an entire new image. Brad Wilson, the marketing director for Big Bear Mountain in southern California summed it up well with this quote: It was kind of like the 1960's all over again, snowboarders dress differently, they have different haircuts and they ride on this different-looking board down the hill. (Feldman 1995). In an age where being different is normal, snowboarding Jones3 just seemed to fit right in to the picture. Now, in 1996 only 3% of ski resorts do not allow snowboarding. The resorts have realized that if they want to stay in business then catering to snowboarders is one of the easiest ways. Many resorts have begun to add new trails to the mountain just to accommodate snowboarding. Most of these extra slopes have huge jumps, half-pipes, tables, trash cans, metal pipes, and even cars for snowboarders to jump on or over. The most important feature of these special slopes is the fact that skiers are not allowed on them. The reason that many resorts have added these snowboard parks is because of the problems between skiers and snowboarders. (Feldman) Roger Hauser, the director of Massanutten