The yobeat article took a clever and interesting idea about irony from the original times article, and somehow twisted it into being nice to gapers. There is really no connection between the two things. Yes snowboarding and skiing can be over concerned with image, but that in itself is not ironic.
Yes, you'll see the occasional ironic moustache, and heshers/bums basically dressing in costumes, but skiing is one of the sports that is more joyful, open, and unconcerned with irony.
Even our most ironic of events, gaper day, is less negatively or defensively ironic because it actively and happily mocks the styles of the past, rather than appropriating them as cool. It's a fancy dress day for fun, rather than the fancy dress being cool (which is what's happened in skating).
So no, not a very good article from yobeat, a nice sentiment, but unrelated to irony.