Should snow boarders be allowed to be ski patrollers?

It seems like it would be tougher to get around the mountain quickly because they have to strap in when they get off the lift. Also it seems like it would be tougher to break quickly with a sled, but idk
 
Of course they should. Strapping in and out could be an issue in an emergency I guess...but certainly general slope policing wouldn't be an issue at all. I believe some mountains already have them, no?
 
my aunts has hired alot of ski patrolers who snowboard at my mountain. they cant really do catwalks with the stretchers well, so they are required to be a really stong rider, but besides that its not that bad for them i dont think. also, i dont see why else they shouldnt do it.
 
Granted my hill is not a mountain, but there are totally snowboarders who are ski patrol where I ski.

And they didn't hurt me when they took me down in the sled. I can see it perhaps being a bigger problem in the bigger mountains and perhaps the back country but can you think of an argument as to why they shouldn't? Just because they don't strap in fast enough? That doesn't quite make sense to me.....
 
My hill has boarders on the ski patrol and they seem to do fine with the sled. There's a run with a fairly long flat part though and they get stuck, which is pretty funny.
 
I can definitely visualize some situations where a snowboarder patroller would have a tougher time than a skier in terms of manipulating a sled or accessing an injured skier in certain places, but again, that doesn't mean they have no value or shouldn't be able to be a patroller. Patrollers have a lot of responsibilities, helping the injured is just one of many...no reason why a boarder couldn't help with avy control and the like. After all, a ton of patrollers are volunteers, and help is help whether they have one or two boards on their feet.
 
Agreed. I never even considered avy control (welcome to ontario) and it would probably be pretty hard for a snowboarder to reach someone who's injured themselves in the bumps. But either way, it's not like only one patroller shows up to an accident scene anyway, and here at least, there's always a good mix between the skiers and snowboarders.
 
I don't see why it would be an issue on a day to day basis, but i've only seen one problem with it. Last year i did ski patrol at blue mountain in PA and someone fell real hard on the landing of a jump. He was on the landing, and it was so icy that none of the snowboarders i was skiing with were able to get footing on the jump to get to the patient.

So me being the only skier, I had to like ice chip into the landing to get to him. But i'm not exactly a big person muscle wise, and we had to call a bunch of skier only patrollers to actually get him off the ramp and onto a backboard and sled
 
Actually at some resorts they already are. A snowboarder buddy of mine was on the ski patrol at Snowshoe in W.VA. In Vail we skied a lot of chutes that dropped down onto the Vail Golf Course. Once we went out with a group and a guy on a snowboard took an Aspen across his thigh. We thought he might have cracked his femur and he was definetely going into shock. We didn't have a sled and we couldn't leave him to get help, so we made a gurney type thing from two small Aspens with a tarp draped in the middle that the guy layed on. We had to drag him on this make shift litter. We decided that our best chance was to just go fall line with it. It was deep powder and very steep tight trees. Nobody on skis could drag the guy on the litter in those conditions. My snowboard buddy Sando, the x patrolman, saved our butts. He could slip straight down on his heel edge dragging the litter. If he hadn't been there, the other guy probably would have died with houses only about 1000 feet below him, or one of us would have died trying to get him down. The point is that there are circumstances where being on a board is an advantage.
 
at my mt. there are like 4 patrolers that use boarders, and i know of a mountain where more then half the patrol is on boarders. when transporting sleds snowboarders are a hell alot more efficient then skis. most of the boarders on the patrol im on are pretty damn fast to
 
Bumps are not a problem for boarders at all. I'm going into my 3rd year of patrol and I work alongside with a ton of boarders at my hill. Most of them are damn good at what they do. Some of you have brought up the issue of pulling the sled, but it's not really much of a problem, because you can either keep your speed up to get to where you need to go or if that is not possible then they simply unstrap one foot and start skating. I am sure it is a little different in the mountains, but in the midwest it isn't an issue.
 
who cares? I don't give a shit if someone rolls up to me and my broken leg on snowblades. As long as i'm getting helped.
 
i'd think a boarder would be fairly limited on AC duties. an AC route may have a lot of uphill and sidehill trekking to reach a number of shots along a series of chutes, and I would envision a lot of wallowing in deep unconsolidate snow. can a snowboarder kick a cornice without unstrapping? ski poles are also fairly useful when using stringlines or trams to place an airblast charge.
 
Yeah, that all certainly makes sense. Obviously, my general lack of knowledge around ski-patrolling is evident. Thanks (and to nomensteven) for clearing it all up.
So, what I'm hearing is that boarders should be allowed to patrol, but are limited in their abilities and are better suited for general slope "policing".
 
i dont want to sound racist but id rather a skier bring me down in the sled than a boarder.
 
there are boarders who patrol at my mountain. frankly, theyre better than many of the skiers so i dont see any reason why they shouldnt be able to. most of the skiers are still wedging, and besides, the boarders have to pass the same test.
 
good point. but the prarie ski patrol squad is dominated by skiers so I've never seen a board patroller.
 
sure you can

there is one at my mtn and he is cool shit he rided ob with us and gets me out of trouble when I get caught poaching
 
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