Snow Sports are strictly for the upper middle class.

You can get season rents from a shop for about the price of two or three rentals from a mountain. Get in a ski club or cheap tickets from school and you can easily go skiing on the cheap as a family. Thats how I started. I ain't rich, I've spent maybe 2 grand on all my ski gear over about 20 years of skiing, and that currently puts me where I am with a pair of old park skis, old all mountain skis, and old pow sticks. Yeah I ain't rockin this years shiny new top sheet or fancy curved up tips but it doesn't hold me back on the mountain.

Skiing can be done on the cheap, but you can't be a trendwhore about it.
 
exactly!

on my gear: skis, bindings, boots, outerwear, I probably spent like 500 or less on it.

Some of it might be used but its still good and works for me :)

Im just a cheap jewish bastard that gets all my hand my down stuff from my friends lol
 
My hill is called minority hills, due to the large number of minorities that ski there and its close proxmity to boston/lower income areas. Almost all of the kids that ski/ride there work there.
 
Nope skiied every day since my mountain has opened only spent 400 on skis/gear. Working at a mountain is the best.
 
"Members of the middle class belong to diverse groups which overlap with each other. Overall, middle class persons, especially upper middle class individuals, are characterized by conceptualizing, creating and consulting. Thus, college education is one of the main indicators of middle class status. Largely attributed to the nature of middle class occupations, middle class values tend to emphasize independence, adherence to intrinsic standards, valuing innovation and respecting non-conformity.[2][5] Politically more active than other demographics, college educated middle class professionals are split between the two major parties.[6] Income varies considerably from near the national median to well in excess of $100,000.[2][4] Household income figures, however, do not always reflect class status and standard of living, as they are largely influenced by the number of income earners and fail to recognize household size. It is therefore possible for a large, dual-earner, lower middle class household to out-earn a small, one-earner, upper middle class household.[5] The middle classes are very influential, as they encompass the majority of voters, writers, teachers, journalists, and editors.[7] Most societal trends in the US originate within the middle classes.[8]"

Im disappointed James. Usually you are spot on.
 
skiing isnt really that much more expensive it just seems expensive because of its high upfront costs. almost anything fun will start to add up in cost after a while.
 
The previous post was made by James' entertainment oriented cerebral processes and as such does not represent the beliefs, values, and opinions of James' mind at large. Thank you. We'd now like to open the floor to any questions you all may have.
 
Right, but I can kayak on a river for free any time I want. Unless you're hiking or work at the mountain it is gonna cost you unless you find a way to get cheap tickets. Skiing is expensive in that way.
 
$1000 for a season pass? Where the hell do you ski? I paid about $600 for passes this year and i can ski at:

Spirit Mountian, MN

Giants Ridge, MN

Breck

Keystone

A Basin

and 10 days at Vail or Beaver Creek

And once you make the initial investment in your gear when you start, you never have to spend a grand on gear in a year. I just rotate replacing pieces of gear every year, never pay more than $400 a year unless it's time for new boots, and I race and do freestyle.
 
I play golf more than I ski, and it is easily more expensive than skiing I would say. Especially when you start getting into custom clubhead/shaft combinations....jesus.
 
If you don't have $500 in disposable income you're too poor to have kids is what it means. Poor people can barely support themselves, most spend their money of frivolous things rather than insurance and planning for an undecided future. Add a kid and it may seem like they are raising them ok (they're still alive!), but once they (the parents and then the children taught the same principals of cable cars and kids over self reliance) age there will be a massive deficit with the state left to pick up the bill for their retirement and medical. Just really irresponsible and selfish, sad for the kids too to miss out on fun things in life because of their parents.
 
Still bullshit.

It's not like skiing is the fucking lifeline of fun things in life and the deciding factor of having kids or not, you idiot.

 
This wasn't really a rant to you, just saying.

Thats why when I used to do it with my sister and dad when I was younger we bought used stuff. I think we spent 50-60 bucks on the full settups including boots. And I rode those red atomic straight ski for years. I threw down on those things and I def didnt bitch about them, they allowed me to ski.If youre lucky enough to be in the mountains( we moved from the city when i was like 6) a lot of schools have programs to get kids skiing. Ski club or discounted passes.When my parents bought me a snowboard we went to a few places trying to find something affordable, ended up getting something new because we heard about one of those big ski sales less than an hour away. My board was around 100, old model bt it was fucking dope to have a new board. Got and old model burtonn freestyle binding and a pair of used boots. I used that settup with the same settup fore at least a couple years, might have gotten a bigger sized boot. I rode that board/bindings till I was working at the local mountain. 2 years in a row my parents surprised me and my sister by getting us season passes to a mountain about a half hour away.(oh yeah and the mountain before was a dirt cheap real small mountain)They had youth passes for 250 ish. Didnt need a 1500 camera, 2000 worth of outerwhere and 50 other things, that was the big present. And it was something that I could use every weekened.

I had this dope sunkist soft lunch box and my mom would cram in mad pbj sandwhiches. Sucked at the other mountain cause people found out about my bomb stash and would steal my foodage.

I think when I was 17 starting out park crew and having come off a whole summer dishwashing was the first time I bought a whole new settup and a coat actually made by snowboard outerwear companies.

I dont even snow who I'm ranting to. Yeah you def need a little luck and to be int the right place but that can be said for anything. I mean if you live in the south you don't ski/snowboard regardless of what your income is.

I just hate when people add all these unnecessary $$$$$ as things that you 100% need. I guess it's become a different sport as the freestyle side got bigger and more $ came in but fuck it. At a certain age you can't buy your own shit and your parents really do have to hook it up. I lucked out and my cousin snowboarded so I got some old pants from him and stuff like that. So yeah if your parents can't get you going they can't and that sucks. Honestly depending on the situation, it can be pulled of for a season for less than some people on hears cheapest christmas present.

Thats why I fucking hate all the stupid wars about jiberish and shit. Seems like it would be a lot more of a bitch starting out in park with a lot of the kids these days.

Probably shouldn't hit send but that took some time to write out so fuck it.

Time to pop a pill or two and watch some late 90s/early00 snowboard movies.

 
has nothing to do with skiing dickhole. but if you're not financially comfortable enough to blow a few hundred bucks shit is really gonna hit the fan when you come across an unexpected emergency, or like I said the burden of living beyond your means will be transfered to your neighbor later in life. you stupid idiot head
 
woozah chief.

"blow a few hundred bucks". lol

just stop now, ok? shit can always hit the fan in extraordinary dimensions. even bill gates could encounter a "shit hits the fan"-scenario where he couldnt afford to feed his kids. a few hundred bucks will not save you from anything.

so where is the frontier? if you can burn 1,000$/year? 2,000$/year? 10,000$/year?

i am not saying that all couples should have children or that all of them calculated it in advance, but thats not the question.
 
Lies, just depends how much you love the sport.

Started when my dad took us skiing for christmas at the lovely Buck Hill. 1 day. Not a trip, but 1 day and it was a sacrifice and paid for by a small sum my grandma left when she died.

After, I saved my allowance and paid the $100 to cover 6 ski nights for my schools ski an snowboard club. Did this every year until 15 when I got a job at an amusement park, saved my money all summer and bought myself a pair of race skis and joined my schools slalom team. Then worked at Buck Hill every winter after to cover the season pass.

Moved to CA for College (which I paid for) became a ski instructor at Mt. High. Then became outside sales for Mt. High. Finished my Degree, moved to Mammoth and started working for the mountain. 5 years later, I make more than my parents combine and still ski pretty much every day. But I still live like a poor person wearing ski pants that are 5 years old and sharing a 1 bedroom apartment.

If you are willing to turn it into your life, it can be for any class.
 
I think that you just have to be smart about it- go work up at the mountain for a pass and grab your gear at local ski swaps.
 
this, i haven't bought new gear in 2 years not counting my skis, which i got for $180. You can be smart with what you buy. Try to buy quality equipment that will last a long time.
 
I've been thinking, maybe we should allow the upper class to partake in snow sports too. I hear they have a lot of money to put into the industry.
 
true.

middle class can swing it, and if you really love the sport you will swing it

Just wait till all your other friends grow up and when you wanna go ride, they are like..."dude I can't afford it right now"
 
pretty much

living pay check to pay check is cool and all if your debts are things like Cars and a credit card bill. If you don't pay the shit just get's repoed. But it's a dick move to live on the line with another person.
 
its not like a car loses value or the stuff you buy. but thats not the point.

i know that you want to have a point in a dream-world, but were not living there. literally anything can happen. of course you have insurances that should cover you against big losses, but what if they dont pay or only pay partially? what if you end up in a unjustified law suit?

this 6-12 months thingy is nice ans all but what if youre unlucky and need it two times within a year? four times within five?

are you safe in case you crash your car tomorrow and turn someone invalid (potential millions of $) and the insurance only pays 90% of it?

you cannot possibly be safe against all potential losses so a 1$ reserve makes as much sense as a 100000$ one, from a behavioral/riskneutrality standpoint.

even you said that a "good" family should be able to burn money on skiing rather than use that as a reserve.

just take a step back and let everyone who is mature enough to handle the consequences have children. and financial security =/= happy childhood.
 
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