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I was just reading some other threads about Shiga Kogen and Kusatsu Kokusai, and the way they have snowboarder restrictions (especially Kusatsu).

 

And I was thinking, why do they continue that policy now? I can maybe understand earlier on 4-5 years ago, maybe, but in the current situation - I wonder why they keep that.

 

There must be some reasoning behind it.

 

Let's keep this thread at least semi-intelligent shall we? If you just want to mouth off calling the resorts idiots, then please don't post.

 

Cheers

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I think it's because there are many skiers who sincerely believe that boarders are dangerous, especially if they have children.

 

There's probably also a belief that boarders must be dangerous because they're mostly self-taught and haven't learned the krek etiquette from ski-instructors as they themselves may have done.

 

As for the reasoning of the resorts, I heard it works - they get more customers, skiers only, than they did before with mixed skiers and boarders.

 

I don't know what the reasoning is with restrictions on boarders. Echo Valley has done away with its licensing system, while I believe 'Malnuma' still has it (you used to be able to use your 'license' at both, though god knows why anyone would want to). That would seem to me plain dumb, whereas limiting the resort to one kind or the other makes more sense.

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Jared

 

You seriously think someone runs a business "for retrabution"?

 

If the skiers-only resorts are finding a way to increase their business, and plan to do it that way - great.

 

It would be interesting to know if that actually were so or not.

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I dont think the business is run FOR revenge, but the rule disallowing skiers may be. Not allowing skiers may give the majority of the customers (snowboarders) a little satisfaction knowing that the discrimination runs both ways and make the facility seem a little "cooler" to some of the wannabecool customers. Another reason may be the annoying learner skiers that bail after every hit loose all their gear and spend the next 10 minutes holding everyone up while they put it back on right under the jump - easily fixed with a little education - what do you think?

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I am not sure if I would go to a boarder only resort.

 

< rant mode="on" >

In .au, we have a lot of testosterone driven little prats that I don't really want to be near on a slope.

As has been said, a lot of boarders are self-taught or have been taught by self-taught friends, so they don't learn the Alpine code (not that I recall it being over-emphasised in ski-school anyway), and they have no respect for anyone else. I have had to "spray" a bunch of snowboarders who were throwing snowballs at people in the lift line.

How does their behaviour help snowboarding become an accepted sport?

< /rant >

 

Do you have these problems in .jp?

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Yabuhara is closed off on their top runs to boarders. Makes my blood boil as they are the best runs. I choose simply not to go to the place. unless we got a discount for not being able to use the full course.

 

As with everything it doesn't seem to phase the Japanese and if it did the would never ever think about complaining about it!

 

as for boarders being dangarous, that would have to be a case by case situation, skiiers are also dangerous, just look at the p$%cks who want to do massive 90 degree turns all the way down the mountain! thats a joke!

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I think the perception that snowboarding, and therefore snowboarders are dangerous stems from the fact that demographically a higher percentage of boarders are young males who tend to enjoy reckless/dangerous pursuits and perhaps causing a bit of gratuitous mayhem. Snowboarding has also made getting big air,jumps, freestyle riding etc far more prevelant than it was in the ski only days. Combine this with a larger percentage of people new to the sport riding beyond their ability, and you come up with the snowboarder=dangerous equation.

It's worth considering that without the massive boost snowboarding has given the industry (particularly in Japan) grumbling old timer skiers wouldn't be sharing the slopes with boarders so much because the slopes would have closed down. People behave dangerously not sports. However, if resorts can make bigger profits by catering to a niche market then fair play to them.

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It's not surprising that skiers think boarders are dangerous - this mantra gets repeated uncritically by the media, most of whom are skiers. I often hear news reports that quite unselfconciously assume that boarding is dangerous to the rider and dangerous to everybody else.

 

Personally, I'd hate to go to a place where everybody thought they were 'safe' because they were all riding the same sticks. There's much more to safety than that. But, if it keeps snowploughing kid skiers from impinging on my line, great. I'm all for it.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Ocean11 - this mantra gets repeated uncritically by the media, most of whom are skiers. [/QB]
Now O-11, where's this stat on media skiers been prised from? My unsubstantiated stab, probably leans towards a general boarder bias being noticed in the mainstream media(TV, mags, movies, cm's, etc) these days. Like you know it's sooo coool. Perhaps the aging hapless editors & execs are skiers,
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snobee, it's not a statistic, it's an observation.

 

While certain parts of the media certainly play to the coolness of boarding, the news media (which is all I meant here) will often refer to rope-duckers being 'young snowboarders'. They'll go to a resort and will interview snowboarders exclusively. They will smilingly tell you about some resort which is now 'safer' and 'better for families' because they've banned snowboarding. They will do a whole report on some old farts who are lobbying to make Nagano a 'ski heaven' and not cock an eyebrow and say 'Hey wait, which century are we in now. Didn't somebody tell these stupid farts that they're going to have to appeal to boarders?'

 

Now, do you really think a boarding news person would say that sort of thing?

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Incidentally and kind of related to another recent thread, but does anyone know the ratio of deaths,serious accidents etc that are ski vs snowboard related? I guess these figures aren't available, but any guesses? or from things uv heard?

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0-11, Media? News Media? - do you in general mean newspapers?

I agree some would certainly have those opinions as I alluded to when mentioning editors etc. It's just that I personally haven't seen much negativity re. snowboarders in the "media - news or otherwise" esp.in recent times. Of course not to say it doesn't appear. I think the cool/trendy/kakkoi exposure in all media, is presenting a far more +ive image to the public at large, than the occasional twerpy statement from "the press." Let's face it - boarding is HOT at the mo'. It's selling Mazdas that no-one wanted before. \:\)

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