A Bleak Future for Snowsports Industries.

Maximumsushi

Maximumsushi

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First, please read this article from the New York Times: http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/travel/has-snowboarding-lost-its-edge.html?_r=2& It's really interesting and informative. I promise.

We've known snowboarding's popularity has been dwindling for a while now. This article sums things up well, and attributes some factors to the decline.

I think both sports are almost the same thing now. The animosity between two-plankers and knuckle-draggers from the 90s is essentially gone. The big wave of snowboarders that started during that time are all in their late 20s or early 30s now and have better things to worry about. I ride with a lot of snowboarders and can share the same stoke for the sport with snowboarders. I go on trips with snowboarders and they do the same with skiers.

Given that, I think the two sports will thrive or survive in tandem. Whether it's a dismal economy or a loss of general interest, things don't look good for the future of the skiing and snowboarding industry. Of course, this doesn't mean that all of a sudden you won't be able to ski or snowboard. If it's still fun, keep doing it. A shrinking industry does mean that there will be less money being earned by resorts and you will see shorter ski seasons, and much smaller or diminished terrain parks.
 
Pretty good article. I also feel like Kids nowadays would rather spend their money on xbox games then to go out and ski/snowboard.
 
i wouldn't say it's bleak. it's definitely in a lull but that happens with all industries.

the big difference between skiing and snowboarding is that snowboarding is a trend. it became mainstream in the 90's and 2000's because it was cool and different. skiing has been around for a couple thousand years and is more established as a sport.

you're going to start seeing snowboarding drop off in about 5-10 years as the people that first got on the bandwagon as teens in the 90s start getting jobs, mortgages, families etc... and stop giving a shit about being cool. on the flip side, people that ski are probably less concerned with being cool and more concerned with having fun and getting exercise.
 
I read the first paragraph and then stopped. Calling snowboarding "Shaun White's sport" is outrageous. That's like calling skiing "Nick Goepper's sport" just because he is one of the more paid skiers out on the mountain these days. Neither of the two industries are losing their edge; I would actually make the argument that they are growing. As the limits of both sports are being pushed, they are going through a tremendous shift from being all about competition and money-making (Goepper, Brown, White), to being more about filming, culture, and creativity. As this shift continues, those who don't really care about the sports (the money makers and most of the general public who have become enamored in competition culture), will be weeded out, as the two sports are returned to those who truly have passion for them.

It's just a fact that a sport grows and progresses when those who partake in it share a great passion for it. The industry may change dramatically, but I believe that it will continue to grow at an exponential rate, regardless of whether or not the Shaun Whites of the industry are taking home 6-figure paychecks.
 
If you have paid any attention at all to the industry you would see that snowboarding is on the decline. I mean, you may not get out of the jib jab park much, so that is clouding your vision on the rest of the ski area...
 
The main points in this article deal directly with snowparks. In fact, there is litte or no mention of any other type of boarding in this piece. And all the proposed solutions target park riding. So I don't think getting out of the 'jib jab park' is clouding his understanding.

Anyway, I don't think the situation is as dire as the industry spokespeople say. They have no true understanding of predictions and forecasting, and are really in no position to be acting as if they do. Yes, they may notice what appears to them as a trend, but that does not mean they comprehend its underlying causes, the direction it may go in the years to come, or even if this pattern exists to the extent they claim.
 
Meh, idk.

We have to do something the world is going to end! That's sort of how it seemed that was approached.

The biggest factor for park decline is twin tip skiing. It isn't that people are growing up and have families, and that kids are scared to learn to ride parks. The skiers and boarders both have to learn the same features. You can't blame the lack of beginner oriented parks on letting snowboarding die out while talking about how skiing is taking over.

They also failed to really deal with park skiing.

I grew up skiing. That was what I loved, I was all about it. When my local hill closed they started busing us to another mountain about 45 min away. At one point that mountain built a halfpipe.

I had regular skis, no twin tips, but I loved ripping up the half pipe. Unfortunately there was a big sign at the top of the half pipe that said "SNOWBOARD ONLY". They gave the skiers the mountain and the boarders their stunt ditch. I used to get my pass pulled a bunch riding in the damn thing. Sometime in the late 90s I got my first snowboard.

On skis you couldn't really do what you could do on a board in the park. Boards were made for this stuff, hell some places had snowboard only parks and pipes so you really had to ride.

Snowboarding blew up, people wanted to do cool tricks, skiing was lame. Around 03-05 it seems everybody bought a board and started trying to make the switch.

Once the twin tip wave really hit, we saw that same trend building in skiers, and it's still on the increase. You don't have to choose snowboarding to be able to hit the parks and really throw down. Kids have an equal choice of skiing of boarding. Both have great technology, ability to destroy the park, solid contests, and plenty of pros/heroes to admire and strive to be.

There just isn't that need to be a snowboarder to do that anymore. I don't think it's ever something that's going to die, and I don't think it's really something they can change. Action sports are HUGE right now, it's not something that's going to die.

Instead of worrying about that I think they should just embrace how far skiing came, and where we ended up. I'd MUCH rather have less snowboarders out there and have the ski/snowboard relationship I see now out there. People get a long great and ski/snowboard only seems to matter to gapers.

Yes it's important to protect your companies interests and worry about anything that might scale down profits. I just don't think this is something that can be controlled.

We may have lost some numbers in a few percent on some guys stats, but we gained a whole new aspect to the parks, and a lot of new friends in the process. I can live with being down a few percent if that's the trade off.
 
Bleak? No, not a bleak future, different yes, but bleak? No.

Sure skiing and snowboarding might be on a downfall right now, especially since 2008, but within that - the backcountry side of the industry is growing, the 'park' side of things is growing in the sense that slope and pipe are Olympic sports now. Sure, the general public isn't coming out as much, and this may lead to some not so nice results if the trend continues (think terrain parks being private and only available to 'members' of a team... kinda like how aerials skiing has been for years - you can't just go and hit an aerials jump due to liability and public access. - this could suck.

On the other hand, I don't really ski park very much these days, but spend a lot of time in the backcountry. It's obviously regional, but in the mountains of Western Canada - and I think it's safe to say: the mountains of everywhere in Western North America/the world even) recreational backcountry skiing is becoming a big thing and as long as the product exists, we don't necessarily need massive resorts to enjoy skiing. Whitewater is a good model as to what a successful ski resort in the future could be like. Funny thing is that Whitewater is a relic of old, so things aren't really going to change, they're just going full circle.

This 'sport' of ours is as old as time, what with the oldest known existence of a pair of skis is over 8000 years old, I think it's safe to say that skiing (and now snowboarding) isn't going to die for a very long time, it's just in a state of change, which is good. Without change - it probably would have died decades ago... luckily we are humans and have a knack for changing things as we go along.

Progression doesn't always have to be in the form of bigger and shinier. Downsizing can be considered progression if done with purpose.
 
Yeah, in the public eye, snowboarding has been on the decline, and now that it's being handed back to those who actually love it, and it's becoming waaaay cooler than skiing, at least in my opion, as it is growing away from competition and more into urban, and creative riding
 
Don't have time to read it now (I'll probably make a much more intelligent post a bit later)

but really I think it is ski resorts are too afraid to take the risk of lowering prices. Generally when I talk to my non skiing friends the reason they don't ant to ski/board is ticket prices.

In the 50's/60's when the skiing population was probably the highest, in New England almost every town had a little ropetow hill, and if you didn't the town next door did. Prices ranged from free for town residents to $2.00. Unless we see a sudden increase in these areas (which is unlikely due to insurance) then yeah, we will probably see a decline in the skiing population.
 
I would never say bleak, in all honestly i think it's the opposite of that. although of course resorts are getting bigger, better and in turn more expensive, they're just as busy as i've ever seen them. I go as far as to avoid places like this because the sheer masses of people that show up at places closer to the city.

Another interesting thing i read was the explosion of skiers in china. the amount of people skiing there is growing exponentially and it's becoming a serious sport for them.

I didn't read the article but i have to say that the future of sports on snow is not bleak, but will continue to be what it is, a popular winter recreation activity in layman's terms.
 
There still are free to cheap areas actually. There's a free tiny tiny rope tow thats a 100 yad parking lot slop about an hour from me and there's one in indian lake with a tbar and 2 trails maybe 200 yard long with a little bit of pitch to them.

Things are expensive though. For resorts they aren't getting all that money as profit. Insurance is very expensive, electricity, snowmaking and a ton of other things that eat up the $ fast.

Some resorts will go through years of loss if the crowds don't come out. Many can't simply lower they're prices. They don't just pick an absurdly high number and run with it. A lot goes into determining the price to make sure that the resort will stay in business.

At least we still have ski programs for kids to get them involved, then from there you can get a season pass for much less than day ticket rates.

 
That was a really interesting read, thank you for sharing. I was totally unaware of these trends. Interesting stuff, good have really big consequences for the snowsports industry if the trend continues.
 
This. Been skiing for 9 years, and I have definitely noticed a decline in snowboarding.....or maybe an increase in skiers? Either way there are a lot more skiers on my mountain than snowboarders in comparison to prior years
 
I'd read the whole thing. That's not really what the article is about.

There are some interesting trends and numbers in the article which go against what you've been saying in this thread. I think it was in 2008 when the SIA industry numbers first indicated that the number of skiers was increasing and the number of snowboarders was decreasing which was, and continues to be, a pretty big thing.

I used the word "Bleak" to get attention and draw attention to what's happening. As I said previously, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden all ski resorts will shut down and you won't be able to ride a chairlift anymore. What it means is that there are fewer people hitting ski resorts (especially true with snowboarders) every year. As there are fewer customers, the hills make less money. They will no longer be able to put up new chairlifts, open new terrain, maintain cash sinks like huge terrain parks (especially true as they aren't the "hottest shit" anymore) and stay open far into the spring.

What D-Rail/Darryl said is very true. The backcountry/mountaineering/slackcountry aspect of skiing is on the rise. More and more people are venturing into the back/slackcountry to find snow. But, this isn't an option for the bulk of the ski industry. Most skiers in North America simply don't have access to mountains that allow for that type of skiing. In addition, that type of skiing doesn't really make resorts as much money. True, some will buy a season's pass and use lift accessible gates. Other resorts offer a discounted "one lift" pass which allows skiers to ride the chairs only once to access a certain gate. But, the real money makers which support the industry are buyers of day tickets.
 
Good! More powder for the rest of us!

But seriously, what's the solution? Seems like everybody credits snowboarding's rise to it's "bad boy" image. To that regard, I've always thought that keeping park skiing "edgy" and less serious is a great thing for the sport as a whole. Would having a gnarlier outlook bring more people into the sport? Getting rougher around the edges? There's so much talk about skiers being good role models, but I'm not sure that that's a good thing.
 
Rewording what I said, It's too late for places to lower there prices, with the amount of infrastructure most places have now it would be extremely difficult to maintain a profit. However, if we didn't have the decline of smaller ski areas in the 1970's due to insurance (and if insurance wasn't as dumb of a system in the ski industry in the first place) then prices would probably be much lower.
 
It's all ebb and flow my man....as long as their is still snow on this earth, the people who love their sport will be skiing and snowboarding...all snowboarding getting less popular means is the people who stick around are gonna love it that much more and be 10x as raw. onelove
 
all those things you just listed equal way higher insurance costs for ski resorts unfortunately. insurance companies are gouging the hell out of resorts and we end up paying for it.
 
I always put it this way: the ski and snow industry is saturated.

However, based on my observation snowboarding is exploding in the back country. Old snowboarders have that addiction attitude, they are still consumers, although they are a market minority. Snowboarding is dying for beginners. Think about it: no beginners, no future generation. The reason why it is dying is quite simple: hype.

For example, ski instructors will understand. You know that one kid who said he doesnt need a course; that he can "learn"on his own? Well, he goes out, gets hurt, comes back an hour later saying snowboarding sucks. The kid truly believed snowboarding was easy because boarding movies are awesome and games are easy. They go out with that expectation.

Skiing was going that way in the park. Then, one thing boomed: beginner and school oriented coaching programs. Seriously, in 2006, my english professor tried to failed me in a midterm test for attending a national mogul contest. I had to have several meeting with the dean and I was allowed to participate. In 2012, some kids spent more time on the mountain than the classroom, skiing.

So what about snowboarding? Nothing, the market for training park coaches in snowboarding is still under regulated. There is no leading body of snowboard instruction and outreach (except CASI which is under the control of CSIA, canadian ski instruction alliance).
 
Did you even try to read what you typed before you hit "Reply"? Thunderin' Jesus.

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