Aspen Times writer Roger Marolt recently wrote an oped for the always-in-touch Aspen newspaper about what he termed the “devolution of skiing.” Marolt, who appears stuck in a mid-1980s Warren Miller film, based his piece on this premise: that “snowboarding set the evolution of winter sports back about three decades.”
In the poorly researched and mildly coherent piece, Marlot, in my opinion, lazily tries to construct a theory that somehow skiing, and snowsports in general, would have somehow advanced further while holding onto participation numbers if snowboarding hadn’t become the focal point for the winter sports industry over the last two decades. And while he does correctly point to the absurd cost of skiing as a reason for lack of growth, he somehow blatantly ignores an economic recession and lackluster snowpack in many areas as a factor in non-growth participation numbers.
Since Marlot points to his own experience as an expert snowboarder (he really did complete that three-day snowboarding clinic), I’ll point to my own skiing and snowboarding experience to counter his poorly constructed drivel. I started skiing in in the early 1980s and by the late 1980s, I was bored with it. No matter how many times I watched Aspen Extreme, I just couldn’t buy into the idea that the pinnacle of snowsports was constructing the perfect figure eight with a partner in what appeared to be a synchronized snow dance.
Snowboarding has as much skate influence as it does surf. Photo: Youtube
By the early 1990s, snowboarding had started to forge its own identity, while Marolt correctly points to surfing as an early inspiration for snowboarding, he ignorantly misses the influence that skateboarding has had on snowboarding and would eventually have on skiing. With the advent of the twin-tip snowboard and the strappable binding, freestyle soon took center stage. Instead of bashing gates and being relegated to stiff and uninspired equipment based off of antiquated ski designs, snowboarding and snowboarders found their own rhythm in the jibs, jumps, and halfpipe riding that defined not only a generation of snowboarders, but revolutionized winter sports.
Snowboarding took off like a bat out of hell. There is no disputing that it had three decades of unprecedented growth. Any industry that sees exponential growth for thirty years is bound to plateau, especially when that industry has a capped potential due to cost, environmental conditions, and geographical location. Hence the surf industries race to build a functional wave pool that would open up landlocked markets to the surf industry and increase participation rates. Regardless of participation and sales numbers associated with snowboarding and winter sports in general, to not give credit to snowboarding’s huge contribution to both modern skiing and snowsports growth is asinine.
I was working for a ski and snowboard retailer in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s. During this time, snowboarding was still growing. Snowboarding had revitalized the Winter Olympics, boasting large viewership numbers. The X-Games were introducing the sport to millions around the world and a younger demographic that alpine skiing was failing to reach were rabid for the sport. During this time, skis started to take on a new form: for years they resembled overhead toothpicks that offered limited creative options due to their directional and restrictive shape. By the late 1990s, skis started to have a kicked up tail, mimicking the twin-tip freestyle shape that had dominated snowboard design for well over 20 years. Skiers started to gain interest in freestyle riding, and began to approach park and halfpipe riding in a style that resembled, well, you know, snowboarding.
Modern skis? Or a snowboard for each foot?
There is no doubt that with the advent of the twin-tip, skiing began to regain some of its market share in the snowsports industry and young people now feel like they can choose between skiing and snowboarding without sacrificing performance. Marolt, like a true Aspen local, claims that skiing wasn’t declining due to lack of skiing being fun. However, prior to snowboarding introducing freestyle snowsports to the world, it was certainly declining due to a lack of excitement. Especially for those that lived in non-mountain regions. For the hoards of young people that chose snowboarding over skiing in the 1980s, 1990s, and the early 2000s, it was certainly due to the fun and coolness that snowboarding and the snowboard industry represented. Snowboarding during that time looked like the most radical thing ever, and skiing looked a bit like a dried turd.
Snowboarding never set out to be the “salvation of the ski industry” and although its contributions to skiing certainly saved skiing from complete extinction, we, as snowboarders, have never seen ourselves as the end-all, be-all to enjoying the mountains. Snowboarding has, and always will be, cooler than skiing. And while I respect and enjoy watching many of today’s big mountain and freestyle skiers, as long as they are riding parks, pipes, and jibs on short twin tip skis, they will be tipping their hat and paying homage to snowboarders.
In 2017 there is still the stuffy old guard like Marolt that represent exactly what snowboarding was rebelling against in the first place. Aspen was deeply anti-snowboarding until they realized that excluding snowboarders was costing them millions of dollars. So it’s no wonder that someone like Marolt would try to write an enlightening op-ed and come off sounding like an out of touch elitist. I can’t wait for his article about how rollerblading is just as relevant as skateboarding. Until then, rest in peace Dexter Rutecki.
