Hey Y'all,
Someone sent me a link to the following article from the NYTimes in which the author claims that snowboarding is "losing its edge." I figured I would post and get everybody fired up a little bit before the weekend.
Here is the link:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/travel/has-snowboarding-lost-its-edge.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
The general thesis that this guy seems to make (and I fully suspect that he may very well be a gaper), is that the sport is falling off because, I kid you not, riders that started during the boom years of the 90's are now in their 30's and are focusing on families and careers instead of snowboarding.
For me, I say good riddance. I am 31 and I make it to the mountain at least four times/week. What's their excuse? They are too busy to ride because they are giving their boss a rimjob so that they can get the big promotion? If toolbags are focusing on climbing the corporate ladder instead of riding, then they weren't true riders in the first place.
As a rider, I am not at all bothered by the fact that the masses are no longer descending upon the mountain to learn the "new fad" that they saw on the Olympics. Most of them don't make it through the first lesson anyway. I say keep the sport pure, and if it means that less of us are doing it, so be it. Personally, I am not a supporter of the "more the merrier" club. There are already way too many assholes on trails and in terrain parks that have minimal riding skills and fuck it up for those of us that know what the hell we are doing. We keep our renegade edge if the community is small. Those that really want to learn for the right reasons will always find the sport. Those that don't, I say don;t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
So, what does everybody think?
Someone sent me a link to the following article from the NYTimes in which the author claims that snowboarding is "losing its edge." I figured I would post and get everybody fired up a little bit before the weekend.
Here is the link:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/travel/has-snowboarding-lost-its-edge.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
The general thesis that this guy seems to make (and I fully suspect that he may very well be a gaper), is that the sport is falling off because, I kid you not, riders that started during the boom years of the 90's are now in their 30's and are focusing on families and careers instead of snowboarding.
For me, I say good riddance. I am 31 and I make it to the mountain at least four times/week. What's their excuse? They are too busy to ride because they are giving their boss a rimjob so that they can get the big promotion? If toolbags are focusing on climbing the corporate ladder instead of riding, then they weren't true riders in the first place.
As a rider, I am not at all bothered by the fact that the masses are no longer descending upon the mountain to learn the "new fad" that they saw on the Olympics. Most of them don't make it through the first lesson anyway. I say keep the sport pure, and if it means that less of us are doing it, so be it. Personally, I am not a supporter of the "more the merrier" club. There are already way too many assholes on trails and in terrain parks that have minimal riding skills and fuck it up for those of us that know what the hell we are doing. We keep our renegade edge if the community is small. Those that really want to learn for the right reasons will always find the sport. Those that don't, I say don;t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
So, what does everybody think?