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Hi there.

I'm new here and new to winter sports, but hope to take it up this coming winter.

 

I have sometimes got the image from skiers and snowboarders that they often diss each others. I'm kinda just wondering if that was just joking for fun, or if there was some reason why they didn't seem to like each other.

 

I haven't decided which to take up meself, but lookin gforward to it.

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I think it's usually just joking - I'm a recent convert to boarding and some of my best friends are skiiers. We usually go together in a big mixed up happy group. As long as there's enough snow for all, everyone's happy! gap.gif

 

 

 

------------------

Cheers,

C.Frog

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Of course, in jest.

 

The fact is though that skiers and boarders often want to go play in different areas, so you will find skiers and boarders playing together more often than not.

 

Nice smilies C Frog!

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I ski with a boarder all the time!

 

Makes no difference to me whether it is one plank or two. It's the want for the sliding and terrain that should matter.

 

I think this kind of s#$! about bad rellies is old and deserves to be buried under this years snow forever.

 

Take a look at many of the pro's. Most look up to a rider of the other sport.

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I do get really pissed off though when the Japanese news media puts on its very angry schoolteacher face and tells off snowboarders for being 'dangerous', riding out of bounds and so on. Then they give free advertising in the guise of news to ski resorts that ban boarders.

 

I'm of the opinion that although skiers and boarders are all just people, there are good reasons for splitting them up in some circumstances, especially if they want to be split up. There are enough mountains with snow on for people to enjoy them in their own way. So just as some skiers feel safer on hills with no boarders, I'd be willing to bet that the opposite is also true.

 

I also think that the reason resorts are often uptight, boring places has to do with the history of skiing. If you had snowboard-only resorts, I think you'd see a necessary evolution of the whole concept.

 

It's nothing personal, but it's strongly felt nonetheless.

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It's just fashion. If boarding had come first, skiing would be the renegade badboy. Actually, with the new skis(parabolic, shorter, fatter), there's a trend towards skiers being the 'bad boys' on the hill.

 

As for boarders 'n skiers hating each other, it only really exists in the minds of a few old farts, and of course the jerks in Gifu (with their mandatory snowboarding license to prove you can do it, non-transferable year to year!)

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It's not only Gifu miteyak, there's loads of places like that. And if it's not licenses, it's restrictions on boarding of one sort or another. It's too late to change the fact that skiing came first, with all its tiresome old baggage, which amounts to more than just fashion.

 

As to who the 'bad boys' are, isn't the whole concept rather tired? I just hope flash gits stay out of my way, whatever they're on (although with very few exceptions, they've been on conventional skis...)

 

Personally, I'm suspicious of those who want to sweep the issue under the rug. I'm glad I'm not one of those old farts who hate skiers, but I do think it's time the skiing establishment in Japan gave up all their tricks before it's too late.

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Over two hundred boarding days in Japan, and Eastern Gifu's the only place I avoid when I want to slide (even if I'm telemarking, half my friends board, so spot still avoided). Everywhere else, from Hokkaido to Biwako, every skier only/snowboard restricted resort has a better resort five mins away with no boarding restrictions. That's why I think there's no real issue, the choice is enormous.

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Probably of very little relevance, but there is one aspect, in my mind, that Euro and US resorts have figured out early on:

 

It took skiing to breed boarders and it took boarders to bring skiing back.

 

If it hadn't been for the boredom of skiers there would've been no snowboarding regime. And if it hadn't have been for the snoboarding regime taking all the potential sliders there would've been no reason for ski manufacturers to come up with the Free Skiing movement to lure them back.

 

It may be working, it may not be working, but the Free Skiing movement is definitely out in force these days.

 

It may take a while for many Jap. resorts to grasp the concept of co-existence, but they certainly cannot ignore it if they wanna survive.

 

[This message has been edited by mogski (edited 04 July 2002).]

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Jibbing, pipe, terrian park, big mountain skiing etc. All the stuff that the baorders were doing.

 

The reason for all the twin tip and shaped skis.

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Marunuma.jpg

 

I'm not friends with this sort of thing, from Marunuma Kogen.

 

"In order to deepen communication with all the skiers, and so that you may enjoy safe and enjoyable snowboarding, at Marunuma Kogen we have introduced a snowboard license system. ... Please observe gelende manners and enjoy a safe and enjoyable snowboard life."

 

I think I prefer the cheaper and more traditional form of communication when presented with hypocrisy of this magnitude - the middle finger and a few choice epithets.

 

A quick search through Google.co.jp suggests that Echo Valley's elimination of a similar 'system of communication' is considered to be a big deal. I think I'll give them another two years before I go there again, close though it is.

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Even qualified JSBA members and instructors (!) have to pay for that licence. For the privilege of boarding on a mountain full of unlicensed skiers.

 

A couple of years ago, someone posted info on an American campaign where boarders would sneak onto boarding-prohibited resorts at night to bring more attention to such foolishness. I can't see that happening here, but it was good to know some people don't take it lying down.

 

Rather than simply boycotting such places, maybe it would be more productive to gather data showing that there is no significant difference in the number of third-party accidents between skier-only resorts and mixed ones. As long as they can implicitly peddle some "snowboarding is dangerous to other people" type BS to ordinary people who naturally assume ski resorts know what they are talking about, the loss of custom in the form of boarders may well be made up by the number of (overly) safety-conscious skiers who don't want their kid in hospital.

 

Arai's website has some detailed info on the accidents there. I last looked mid-season, but there were surprisingly few in the half-pipe. The most common cause seemed to be people falling badly on the regular piste.

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A tarted up version of the same text can be found here for non-believers (not that I believe you don't believe)-

http://www.npd.co.jp/malnuma/

 

Note that once snowboarders have forked over their communication money, they're still not allowed to tanoshimu some 1/3 of the courses. Skiers at Marunuma can go there secure in the knowledge that those wicked snowboarders will be kept firmly in their place.

 

Enjoy too, the novel spelling of 'Marunuma'. Branding like that is a sure pull, even if one has to pay snowboarding tax.

 

Until such time as 'Malnuma' and the many other similar places knock it off, I for one will not take kindly to any skier who says 'oh but it's all a thing of the past'.

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Definitely idoitic practices like these that created the split boards. I would like to see if and when you used one of these on a skier only mountain if you would then be charged "boot taxing."

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Every year for many years a certain group of snowboarders visits Taos, New Mexico, where the slopes and pow-pow are excellent, but where boarders are verboten.

 

As they do this every year, it's gotten harder and harder to pull it off. Three seasons ago one of this crew managed to dupe the patrollers by going up on a Voile split board...they thought he was a free-heeler.

 

Then when he got to the top, he ducked behind a bush, snapped the planks together and busted out on his board.

 

They weren't able to stop him until well past halfway down, and had to use the radios to do it.

 

The article I read about this says the patrollers were genuinely pissed off. The intrustion seemed to personally affront them as a kind of moral infraction. The boarder likened their righteous petty anger to that of the rent-a-cops and Sherrif's Deputies who busted your ass out of this or that parking lot when you'd gone there to make out with your love interest way back in high school.

 

Haw haw haw haw haw!!

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