On 11 Mar 2004 04:52:55 -0800, phil said (and I quote):
I'm not sure how much the design of the gear and how much marketing.
Are snowboarders as a group unable/unwilling to ride most steep/ bumpy
stuff because their gear is bad (eg they use soft boots intended for
aerial ballet moves), or is it because the marketing is all park
focused? This last is interesting because with most boarders knowing
only sideslip turns, trick skiers are blowing them away. Do we end up
with snowboarding being just sideslip-drop-sideslip, a sort of
resort-bound snow-skateboarding?

At the places I ride, the park and pipe are practically empty, and
all the good riders are carving up the groomers. That seems to be all
they do, and they're all doing it in soft boots, which seems so
suboptimal.

I ride mostly on weekdays, and the general standard of riding is very
very good. On weekends it's a whole other story, and there are so many
novices scraping down the hill that it's hard to get a feel for
anything going on.

But amongst the hard-core mid-week riders, it's carving carving
carving, all in the latest fashions (one-pieces, believe it or not),
and the latest soft boots and boards.

Not resort-bound snow-skateboarding at all, except for the clothes and
equipment.

It's a strange world.
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