The etiquette of smashing into people

[frannyo 2]

Tell us more about the Koreans that has made you feel this way. I'm curious.

[quattro 1]

I skied in Korea for about four years. Overall I had a fairly positive experience there, both skiing and with the people in general. My wife’s Korean. I think one of the problems with skiing there is skiing has become the golf of winter. You are expected to golf in the summer and ski in the winter. This puts a lot of pressure on the ski resorts.

Another of the problem there is that they don’t limit the lift tickets being sold at least not to my knowledge. The slope there can be extremely crowed at times. People running into each other can be common with multiple people pile-ups some times happening.

If your there when it’s winter check out the skiing in Korea. Korea is defiantly not the place to go just to ski for a vacation. I would recommend Muju or Dragon Valley. These are the two largest resorts and the skiing there is pretty reputable. They have held some world cup races at Dragon Valley. Don’t expect much powder.

[okiwetjet 0]

I'm the dude in the post that RIJ is referring to who got his teeth knocked out by the Korean chick. Good discussions about liability, etiquette, and right of way. Here are the observations and my point of since I was the victim.

 

I have lived in Korea for a year and have made spent over another year there on more than a dozen trips over 20 years. Have many Korean friends, beautiful country and love the food. Must be some custom for Koreans to make body contact as you can be standing on a nearly empty sidewalk and inevitably, a Korean will walk out of their way to bump into you. Hey, if I'm in your country, I'll respect your little bumping custom. If you're a Korean visiting another country, leave that little custom at home, and if you decide to bring it with you, leave it packed in you suitcase. It is pretty rude.

 

Back to getting my teeth knocked out by the Korean girl. This happened at the Rusutsu Resort. Love to board there because a large majority of the riders (mostly Japanese) are very courteous and cautious. There are a couple of places in the US that I will not go to because out of control riders make it too dangerous.

 

This mishap happened in the board rack area, well within a very large board rack area...not on an open slope. Somehow this girl barrels 20 meters through a very crowded area and smashes into my group of 3 and another adjacent group of 4 who were getting their gear off the rack. Did I mention this was in the board rack/no ski area...

 

If you want to correlate this to traffic and rules of the road, here's my take. If I'm out the slopes (crowded freeway), I am a lot more aware of where I'm going and who's around me, and I expect other riders (drivers) to do the same and keep a safe distance. More speed deserves more caution and awareness. However, if I'm in the board rack/resturaunt area (parking lot), this should be a safety zone. You wouldn't expect someone to drive through a parking area with excess speed and out of control. Yes, accidents happen, but this girl was completely out of control.

 

OK, so I'm now standing here trying to recover all of me teeth fragments, the girl apologizing profusely, one of my group members getting the ski patrol and the Koreans getting their tour guide. We then start into this 2 hour discussion about liability, medical treatment and ski safety.

 

Liability: we recreated the accident to everyone’s agreement and the Korean translator introduces partial liability. This is not a new concept for me as I've lived in Japan for 20+ years and have negotiated through 3 traffic mishaps and have never tagged at more than 10% at fault. So I'll listen, still patiently. Translator dude and his group come up with the consensus that girl is not more than 40% liable (I'm thinking 90/10 just to be sociable). Let's recap quickly, I'm standing with a group in the no ski area, holding my snowboard, chick comes in blasting out of control, and I'm 60% liable.... This is my first clue that I'm dealing with a bunch of nuts, and my patience starts rapidly declining. While we're standing at the "accident" site (did I mention we are in the board rack area), 3 more people (wanna take a wild guess at nationality) barrel through completely out of control, one dude plows into a board rack, one through a safety net into a snow bank, and the other does a summer sault face landing (seeing old boy hurt himself rather than someone else was good). Wanna guess what the ski patrol, standing right there watching does? NOTHING!

 

I'm already spun up about my busted teeth and our going nowhere 40/60 liability discussion. The inaction of the ski patrol to address reckless behavior kind of ramps me up a couple more notches. Then as we approach the end of our 2nd hour of discussion, Korean translator dude says that maybe I’m confused about who actually him me as… get this… a lot of Koreans look alike. At this point, the pain was taking hold and I just decided to walk away, now totally convinced, I was dealing with a bunch of nuts and I was getting a real urge to enact physical violence upon someone, especially when Korean translator dude walks after me and grabs my arm.

 

Conclusions:

1. Risky sport, danger expected on the slopes, but the rack area should be controlled. Suggested that they put a barrier net to the rack area since they have a problem with people being stupid. Bet they still haven’t put the net up….

2. The ski patrol provides nothing more than first aid and lost and found service (no balls for confrontation) and they nor any other resort staff will do nothing to address unsafe skiers. Now knowing this, I may at least obtain the satisfaction of shoving snow up sombody’s nose if they are reckless idiots… and I, like George Bush, won’t be seeking UN approval to protect myself. I’ve applied direct confrontation, with measurable results, to a couple of jet ski idiots who come blasting into crowded swim areas and are hazards to the general populace.

 

Just thankful that I was the one to get hurt rather than my wife or kids.

[xxx 2]

Interesting story.

 

 Quote:

get this… a lot of Koreans look alike

[window-cleaner 0]

Had a bit of a close call this season here in Oz. My friend was basically crashed into by a Japanese kid coming down a slope he shouldn't have been on. They caused a right fuss, wanting to put the blame for the broken leg on my friend - I was there is really was not his fault and so they had nothing to stand on (no pun intended!) but I was surprised at how much they wanted to pass the blame on.

[brett_jackson 0]

Whereabouts in Oz window-cleaner?

 

I once sneezed a couple of times really unexpectedly as I was making a turn and crashed into the gound, sliding into the path of a learner who was slightly out of control, in the middle of a lesson. I immediately apologized, since it was my fault, and tried explaining that I'd sneezed, subsequently closed my eyes and lost control ... and just basically stuffed it all up. He was really nice, and let me help him up, and I stayed with him while he caught his breath. Then Mr European instructor comes down and starts hurling abuse at me, even after I've explained. Learner dude who I took out ended up telling his instructor to back off. It all ended well, and the guy I hit carried on with his lesson.

 

Other than that, I've never been in another incident with another person on the snow. Simply by following the age old rule of giving way to those downhill from me, and being careful and looking back up hill after I've gone into the woods to find a kicker or two and heading back out onto the run.

[SerreChe 2]

Okiwetjet, Good to hear the story straight from the horse's mouth. Sorry to hear what happened to you. At the end of the day although I am sure that the Korean lady felt sorry, it all boils down to one thing: money!

 

The Korean lady wanted her liability to be as low as possible in order to pay as little as possible even though she was 100% at fault (remorses come last).

 

The Korean translator is trying to help his customer get out of a difficult situation, surely hoping for juicy tip at the end of the trip.

 

The ski patrol gets the same salary at the end of the month whether or not he helps you out or does anything at all. Although, it is also true that Japanese society (most often, although less and less) is non-confrontational.

 

I think that police might have been your only hope, but I am not sure they would have cared much for 2 foreigners having a go at each other.

 

This story brings out another point. Ski patrol is not an easy job, and I respect what they are doing, but it is a little bit irritating to see that they do nothing in such a situation, but yet will always be there to bust your chops if they catch some advanced boarders/skiers (properly equipped)going off-piste. Of course once again the reason being that they do not want to be liable if anything happens, not to mention that proper avalanche control also requires skills and money...

 

Anyway, sad story, but unfortunately I am sure we will hear many more such incidents over the course of this up-coming season.

 

ta.