Zaskoda

I am currently unaware of any snow resorts that only allow snowboarders. Until recently, I would have argued that there is no need for such a thing. In fact, like Adam, I never really agreed with the ‘all ski’ snow resorts that didn’t allow snowboarders.

A recent slew of news articles about snowboarders facing jail time for being involved in accidents has entirely changed my mind about the idea of having an all snowboarder resort.

‘Two snowboarders who triggered an avalanche that killed a girl at La Clusaz in February 2003 have been sentenced to 2 and 4 months in prison.‘ I don’t know the details, but if the little girl was with an instructor, how did she end up burried while he did not? Did he leave her behind? Regardless, these kids made a mistake and they’ll have to live with the knowledge of this the rest of their lives. Just to make sure they don’t try to console themselves with the notion that it was an accident, they get to go to jail for a while as a reminder that it was entirely their fault.

‘A Maryland teenager was sentenced to a year in jail, with half of that suspended, for a snowboarding crash in which he killed a skier from Massachusetts.‘ She was standing in the middle of the run at the bottom of a bowl. That’s like standing on the runway of an airport so you can watch the jets take off. Still, if she didn’t move, he should have been able to avoid her. Once again, the details might show that he’s clearly at fault. Regardless, he will be spending a year in prison.

‘The victim, 45-year-old Geoffrey Scott Bradeen of Portland, was found by other skiers and snowboarders. Investigators say it appears he may have fallen and was hit by a skier or snowboarder while attempting to get up.‘ This links to a video. If you watch the video, the news CLEARLY cites that the man was hit by a snowboarder. The thing is, no one saw who hit the man. It seems popular to blame a snowboarder.

‘Then, he said, “it was like I got hit by a train.” His head throbbed, and he couldn’t focus his eyes. Something dripped down the side of his face — doctors later determined it to be spinal fluid leaking from his ears.‘ This one came out following the media blitz created by the previous stories. This one is great, because the guy really doesn’t even know if someone hit him at all. Still, the article has a call back to other hit & run stories I’ve mentioned above.

I don’t want to dilute this post with a huge rant about the friction between skiers and snowboarders. I will say that I’ve done both and have seen both sides of the experience. As a skier, I never encountered problems with snowboarders. However, as a snowboarder, I’ve encountered many problems with skiers. I’ve seen accidents blamed on snowboarders who aren’t at fault. I’ve seen skiers knock snowboarders down on purpose. I expected this to go away over time, but each season it seems worse.

Technically speaking, skiers and snowboarders ride different. Snowboarders tend to ride faster, require longer distances to stop, and maneuver terrain entirely differently than skiers. A skier can ride slower than a snowboarder, and often times snowboarders are passing skiers on the runs. Skiers will often take large swipes across the mountain, using the entire width of the run at a slow pace. I remember one such time I did hit a young skier and I swear he was a heat seeking missile – no matter which way I turned he was locked on. When we did collide, I caught him and set him back down when we skidded to a stop (I’ve never caused injury). While I was completely in control and not going all that fast, I found him extremely difficult to avoid because of his unpredictable path and no bodily signs of directional change. In my experience, this type of collision happens a lot.

I recently read a post that suggested collisions happen because snowboards are blind to half of the mountain (their back side, either left or right). The thinking was that if a snowboarder was passing a skier to their back side, they couldn’t see the skier. Unfortunately, this theory is crap. I would argue strongly that a snowboarder takes in a wider range of view than a skier. Take a look over your shoulder, how far back can you see? If you’re over taking a skier, he will be in front of you before he’s in your blind spot. And finally, how often does a skier look back up a run? Almost never. However, you will often see a snowboarder looking straight back to spot friends or just check the traffic. And here in lies the problem, in my opinion. Skiers are usually oblivious to events unfolding behind them.

Here’s something I picked up from mountain biking. When I pass skiers, I usually yell at them, “on your left side” or “on your right side!” I often times get a “thank you” back. This should be the first thing you teach someone when you finally get them off of the bunny run. Those two phrases can be the difference between smearing someone on the trail and not.

I’m fairly familiar with the history of snowboarding as a rebel sport, the problems snowboarders once faced in even being allowed on the mountain, and how far we’ve come as an organized sport. Unfortunately, we’ve reached a point where people’s lives are being lost and destroyed by what I tend to believe are accidents. I think dedicated snowboarding resorts are a good next logical step.

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