The Snowboard Shrinkage Crisis?

These photos were taken from more or less the same place, on the same day, at almost the same time.

Much like when the My Alaska teaser dropped, the release of the full movie last week got me thinking about this whole ski vs snowboard thing, again. Last time I pondered if we should all just get along , but this time, a commenter brought up a very good point.

Yeah I know the general consensus is the snowboarding/skiing war is over and we should love each other and probably start mating. Hear me out, though: If we keep mixing these two sports people will inevitably compare the two. And guess who looks like they go bigger, faster, AND have extra gear to let go when bailing? I thought so, too.

Now I don’t know that we actually came to a consensus about the war being over, and even since the last time I beat this horse, plenty of other people have too, but I do think that the “bigger, faster, AND have extra gear to let go when bailing” has some merit. Add to that the fact that at a certain session, of a certain summer camp last summer, ski campers out numbered snowboarders nearly three to one, well, it’s got me a little worried. Is snowboarding going to be the one to suffer because of this freeski/shred unity movement? Will someday we all just start skiing again? Are we suffering from a sort of non-cold related shrinkage?

Well, since I asked, there are a few reasons I don’t think free skiing will overtake snowboarding in the winter sports ranks, and since we’re a damn snowboard site, here they are.

1. A wise man once said “if I wanted to see someone spinning around holding onto poles: I’d go to a strip club.” No matter how much of your awkward looking body position that tall-t is covering, bouncing around on skis in the park is always going to look a lot more like rollerblading than skateboarding. Remember, we’ve already established everyone wants to be a skateboarder.

2. Skiing still sucks to learn. You gotta figure out what do with with all that extra equipment and how to keep both those sticks pointing the same way. It can take years just to get semi okay at it. Snowboarding takes three days, tops, before you can make it down the hill without looking retarded. Then you can spend the rest of your life trying to learn tricks.

3. You’re in it for the love, man. So while yes, the bigger, faster thing might be more compelling footage for the average ESPN viewer, do you really give a shit when it comes to actually hitting the snow? Didn’t think so.

4. That said, skiers are in general way bigger jock-o-douchebags. Did you hear some of them are starting some sort of MMA training camp? Seriously.  So maybe if you fancy yourself a jock, then you should ski. But if you’re actually cool (or at least think you are), then snowboarding is much more likely to keep you that way.

5. No matter how much you make ski boots look like boxing gloves, they will never be as comfortable or as easy to walk in as snowboard boots. The end.

For all these reasons and many more, I’m not really worried about the snowboard shrinkage crisis. And hey, as long as we keep talking about it, we’ll all get a ton of traffic from angry young Newschoolers, and isn’t that what it’s really all about?

  1. Skiing is fun to watch, although I’ve never been good at doing it myself. The point is that my internet fun would be greatly reduced without skiers. I mean who else is going to chuck themselves off of a 100 foot cliff, land flat on their back, struggle out of their bomb hole, and then ski away claiming it like Shaun White after a pipe run?

    Just messin, there’s room for everyone, let’s see some more of those snowbike dudes on hill already!

  2. yobeat

    Rails are fucking GAY

  3. As the god of ski movies aka Warren Miller once said if snowboarding came before skiing no one would ski. Why would you want all that gear getting in the way.

  4. Just ride

    Check out the new video Eye Trip its a ski movie that kills a lot of spots from snowboard movies over the last 3 or 4 years. Snowboarding is still sick but other than shaun white and tanner hall on the skiiing side doesnt everyone just love snow

  5. scottie

    the worst thing would be moving snowboarding out of the “board sport” world where it gets associated with skating and surfing, and into some piece of shit “winter sport” world where it gets associated with skiing, chalets, agressive snowmobiling, 15 dollar cheeseburgers, gondolas, cashmere sweaters, etc. etc.

    as dylan said, “the times they are a’ changin”

  6. Falcore

    Why are skiers responding? This is a snowboard site. go back to newschoolers and lets us make fun of you in peace

  7. Snowboarders SUCK

    snowbaorders SUCk, you all are a bunch of POSER idiots who think your gangsta and awesome.

  8. americuh

    Blurred, boy i do like the way you think and express yourself. please keep giving us some of your insight on this here website. upstatemike, i bet you hop on your shiny little razor scooter and ride around Greenwich Village all day with all them weirdos round there hootin and a hollerin and carrying on.

  9. comment57 your a fag :)

    correction we are awesome. posers? we ride for the love of it, how is that a poser and your a douche, go die.

  10. B

    I like to skiboard. I’m one of those, whatever, as long as everyone’s having fun and the douche up his own ass can keep his mouth shut for more than 10 minutes (not from lack of clever things to say, obviously) kinda guys. You kinda have to be if you choose snollerblades. lulz

  11. B

    And @ Coleman: are names technically words?

  12. Don't Worry About It

    I hope you guys realize that whether or not you want to admit it, the sports feed off each other to survive. We are a snowsport community that needs to learn to accept the other sports. As soon as we accept the other sports, we can truly progress our own.

  13. polar

    generalizations get us nowhere. there’s no need for hate towards any large group. certain individuals, for sure. hah.

  14. A Newschooler

    To Whom It May Concern,
    First of all, all of your points can be easily argued. In the terrain park, who’s the most known person? Shaun FUCKING White. We all know the X Games are completely centered around him. “He’s the only one doing double corks in the pipe!” That’s all I heard through the entire thing.
    You can’t compare the amount of people who ski and snowboard either, considering a kid who cruises through the park on racing skis and stands on the lips of jumps isn’t a part of our community. If you really look around at a terrain park, there’s so many less of us then you, it all depends what you count as a park skier. Who has a video game? You do, Shaun White Snowboarding, SSX, and quite a few others. Kids think snowboarding is cool, cooler then skiing. Open your ignorant fucking eyes and see the truth.
    Yes, ski boots aren’t even as close to as comfy as snowboarding boots. That’s an absolute fact. Is that really a reason that your sport is better? Skis don’t cost more then snowboards. How much is a decent snowboard? Above 400 dollars. So are skis. Don’t point out specific snowboards that are good but under 300 dollars either, I can do the same thing. The majority is expensive. So what if it ends up actually being more money to ski? If that’s a reason you don’t ski, then you don’t love your sport enough.
    Most of the people that commented on this are douchebags. None of you can come up with a reasonable arguement other then “go suck a cock you fag”. That was cool to say in 4th grade. Grow up. Don’t shit on me for writing this either, I’m just trying to shut all of you ignorant fucks up. I’m tired of hearing this, and would rather we all just do what we do.
    All you see is regular grinds on skis, with a lot of spinning. All we see are kids who are too scared to spin onto a rail because your’re afraid of falling. Nosepress dude! WE DO PRESSES AND KEWL STUFF. Shut the fuck up. So do we. You just don’t look for it enough. Ever heard of Ahmet Dadali? I thought so. Your all just more stereotypical people that can’t see past the obvious.
    I don’t hate snowboarding, the exact opposite actually. We get a shitload of inspiration from your sport. If your sitting there at your computer saying “YOUR SPORT WOULD BE NOWHERE WITHOUT US” then I don’t dissagree. Snowboarding is leading skiing in alot of ways, but vice versa.
    Love,
    FriedRice

  15. shmad

    for real, fuck skiing vs snowboarding. if you can’t show some respect for the things the opposite side does, you really should get the fuck off the mountain. and no one who posted anything hating on the other side above is going anywhere with their sport. who is it who argues about this shit? gapers and posers

    any way you get it, we are all in for the same thing- the love of bein out there, havin fun. we all do it for the same reasons

    i don’t care what you ride on, as long as you’re out their smiling. hate on anyone for what they are riding and you are out there for the wrong reasons my friend

    bless

  16. Rough

    to all of you that keep saying skiing looks awkward and shit? watch phil casabon, then come back on here and tell me its all looks awkward.

  17. Brent

    This article is a perfect example why snowboarding is not any better than skiing, if not the opposite. You have so much time on your hands to go and write something like this to get more people pissed then not. I know for a fact skiers have loads of respect for snowboarders, but I guess it isn’t the other way around.

  18. Alex

    2 is wrong, 4 is wrong, and 3 applies to both skiing and snowboarding. so i guess were equally cool

  19. jimmy

    Whoa,you are doing way to much generalizing. You honestly have no idea what you are talking about. Both are very fun but knowing that you ( an ignorant little scrub) are a snowboarder , I am now much happier about being a skier. Have fun taking twice as long to get down the mountain gaper 😉

  20. MAX

    tell me we don’t have style after taking a look at this. http://vimeo.com/15765931

    when i ski, half the guys i’m up with are boarders. do any boarders in my local park bitch about skiers? no. do any skiers in my local park bitch about boarders? no. we get stoked on each others tricks and progression, and learn new stuff together. where’s all the fucking hate coming from?

    skiing’s been around for thousands of years, you fuckers have been around for not even half a century. that being said, the only hate i have for snowboarders is directed at the hate you have for us.

    i watch almost as many boarding edits as i do skiing edits, and i’m just as stoked watching boarders ride as i am skiers. i went to as many, if not more, board movie premiers this fall than skiing movies. what does that say about me? i think the sports are equal. quit the hate.

    the whole 6XL tall tee phase is a part of skiing right now but shit, half of you guys are wearing the same stuff as us. the other half are hesh as fuck, us too. either way it all looks good if you can pull it off.

    quit your bitching, strap in and go shred. stop giving a shit what other people do, we all have the same love for the sport.

  21. who cares?

    you guys hate on newschoolers so much, but i dare you to check it out. its a far more respectful community than anything you will find from any snowboard site. since i have been on the site, i have not seen a single snowboard hate thread. we all respect what you guys are doing out on the mountain 100%, so why dont you respect what we do?

  22. First off, pretty good revision of the ’10 reasons snowboarding is better than skiing’ article.
    But in response to all the comments, why are snowboarders so concerned with hating on skiing? I know that most the hate must be coming from the gaper weekend warriors who buy everything burton has to offer and have posters of shaun white on there wall. All the good snowboarders i know are equally stoked to see sick skiing as most of us skiers are stoked to see good snowboarding.
    Be glad that there is as many people as there are wanting to do both sports or else we would have no where to ride.

  23. Kyle

    The people who wrote/commented negatively on skiing or snowboarding are the real douchefags. First of all it shouldnt matter, if you snowboard and love it thats great! if you ski and love it, good for you! But when your the guy who starts comparing the two…well you should just go fuck yourself. 99% Snowboarders i know are super supportive about skiing and also all of the skiers i know are cool with snowboarding. Also when people say skiing has no style i find that to be very hard to see. And on rails, ive seen skiers do some pretty gnarly stuff(they call them alien grinds i think??). But the same can be said for snowboarding. Also the other day i was watching fuel tv when it was talking about Jossi Wells walking into a hotel and then his FRIEND Louie Vito egged him on to play a guitar or some shit. So when you look up your Idols such as T-hall or Shaun White do you see them arguing about this or calling eachother names? No you see them having fun, so how about you stop bitching and go shred.

  24. Ty

    The guy who wrote this post is obviously one of those pricks who has to keep on bringing up this stupid argument that has been beaten to death already. Ignore this guy’s hate and listen to the decent guys like Kyle and Tyler. And stop saying that skiers and snowboarders can’t get along, watch the voleurz videos, I see a lot of chill skiers and snowboarders having fun together.

    Both sports are sick, do what you want and quit the hate.

  25. ok so ive skied my whole life but every year me and my buddies swap for a day, snowboarding is fun as hell but for me it does not compare to skiing. no one of my really good friends says just the oppsite.

    all i can say is this weekend a snowbaorder did a 180 on tail press 3 off a dfd rail, all the skiers on the lift, at least 8 of us, were extreamly impressed. then i was about to drop on a jump line and the boarder next to me was saying how nasty the 9 that a skier just threw was.

    my point anyone who really skis or boards could give a shit, if a person throws everyone is stoked

  26. moses

    You mad?
    Sorry man, but just because you went to a ‘summer camp’ and saw more skiers than snowboarders doesn’t really merit an entire article on why you think snowboarding is better than skiers.
    I say quit the b*tching and just ski or snowboard, who cares what other people think? I think if you are worried about snowboarders not having as many registered people as skiers you should ask yourself if your doing what you love because it is your passion or is it because it is popular? You sound like you do it for the passion, so who cares about what other people are doing.
    I’ve done both and while my base is skiing, I still have mad respect and enjoy snowboarding. One is not better than the other, it’s just different.

  27. lol

    You just gave biased opinions while in a bad mood. It sounds like you are just trying to come up with reasons on why snowboarding is absolutely better than skiing.
    Everyone wants to be a skateboarder? No, not really.
    Skiing still sucks to learn? Only if you have a quitter attitude, dude I learned skiing first and than after years I learned snowboarding. I could make it down a blue run within a week after starting to learn how to ski and snowboard. It’s not the sport’s fault you can’t multitask.
    Your in the love of it. I agree with this statement, but then you went off track and said something that makes no sense. You pretty much say that skiing is bigger, faster and more compelling, but then say no one gives a shit when they hit the snow. That is a pretty big fallacy and just being hypocritical. Each sport has their audience and their perks.
    Ski boots are less comfortable than snow boots. I agree, but then again they are built for two different purposes. Suck it up princess, if you can’t handle stiff boots then don’t ski, nobody is asking you too. But in all honesty, if you aren’t a moron and get the right size of boots they shouldn’t hurt.
    This article is pretty damn biased, and nothing but a snowboarder ranting after realizing that may be, just may be not everyone wants to snowboard.
    Dude, like I said, I do both and to each his own. There’s no point to rant and get your panties in bunch every time you see a someone ski or snowboard

  28. ayeeeeeee

    This could be the most biased article ive ever read. Snowboarding is now the “cool” thing to do. Hating on skiing is also the cool thing to do for some reason. Writer of this needs to cut themselves.

  29. not a skier

    skiers going ham on this

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