James Z. Glenn
English 103
Research Paper
IN 1965 Sherman Poppen, an engineer in Muskegon, Michigan, invented a toy for his daughter by fastening two ski’s together and attaching a rope to one end so she could hold on as she stood on the board and glided down the hill in front of their house. He decided ton ame his new “toy” the “Snurfer” because it reminded him of a surfboard on snow. The “Snurfer” became very popular amongst Poppen’s daughter’s friends, it was so exciting to all of her friends that Sherman decided to get a copyright to manufacture the product. It was marketed and sold at stores, newspapers and magazines.
A few years later Tom Sim’s, a skateboarding pioneer took the idea and crafted it to a more effective version. With the help of Sim’s this sport was introduced to a few ski resorts, that were eager to put these riders on their mountains. This was the beginning of a new sport that seemed to have big popularity amongst the younger generation, who are always looking for the next big thrill. If you fast forward time to now, you will see that snowboarding is now the nations most popular winter extreme sport for younger individuals and has possibly surpassed the popularity of the orginal sport of skiing. Although snowboarding is predominantly a young persons sport there are more and more adult riders participating every day. Has snowboarding become more popular worldwide than skiing? There is no definite answer but it seems as though snowboarding is the winter sport of the future. Sports are always in constant need of more excitement and snowboarding is the fastest growing sport . There are many factors that contribute to the overall appeal of the sport and there are more reasons to want to participate in snowboarding over skiing.
1998 was a big year for the sport of snowboarding; the sport was being contested in the winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, for the first time ever. Currently there are six different events in snowboarding (slalom, parallel slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom, snowboarder cross and halfpipe) but only two were held in the 1998 Winter Olympics. The events are giant slalom and the halfpipe, the broadcast of this sport on a worldwide scale was a very a big factor in contributed to the hype and excitement. According to Transworld Magazine in 1993 there were approximately two million snowboarders in the U.S and they forecasted that there would be about four million by the year 2000. Turns out by 1998 there were nearly 5 million snowboarders nationwide. There was also a significant decrease in skiers after 1998 many whom switched over to snowboarding, there is no definite way to prove that the winter Olympics was the cause of this decrease but it surely had some effect. This display of snowboarders at the highest level was sample for years to come. People everywhere were watching the Olympics, and seeing how intense the sport looked made it even more appealing.
Snowboarding started becoming very popular during a time of cultural experimentation, something about riding a board, whether it is a snowboard, skateboard, or surfboard was viewed as taboo. It was seen as rebellious and out of the ordinary because it wasn’t in the norm. A lot of skateboarders and surfer’s in the their off season choose to snowboard because it is what they are used to snowboarding has a hybrid culture which makes it popular, it combines the aspects of grunge, punk, and hippy cultures and more recently hip-hop. Comparing to skier’s who seems to have a very dry culture, almost as if you could picture old people drinking wine and listening to classical music. Snowboarding gives the rider the opportunity to adapt a number of styles in every aspect of life “ Snowboarders bring to the slopes an embodied, performative disposition associated with urban youth cultures, and a taste for knowledge of popular culture that contrasts with the bodily conventions and cultural capital usually utilized by skiers.”
Social perception is a big factor in the growth of popularity in the sport. One example is the “coolness” factor. Coolness being the way one is conceived by riding a snowboard versus a pair of ski’s. Snowboarding is seen as a more rugged extreme sport as where skiing is often perceived to be modern and boring. Just as someone who fences is perceived to be less tough than a boxer. Social perception also plays a role in swaying an older person to try snowboarding. It makes them feel more youthful and adventurous and it gets them more respect from younger individuals. Most snowboarders are in their teens or early twenties, and many of them come from skateboarding or surfing. But there is an increasing number of skiers who are in their thirties and forties who are trying out snowboarding to spice up their winter holiday.
In our society today we idolize celebrities and atheletes and we use them as motivation to become someone great. Such celebrities exist within the snowboarding world that are compared to typical baseball, football players. One of these people is Shaun White, a gold medalist in the olympics in various events and also in the x games which is the other yearly competetion for extreme sports. He is also a pro surfer and skateboarder. He has even pulled off tricks that have yet to be done by anyone else nor attempted. With such sponsors as red bull, target, and Hewlett Packard he is the gold standard for how to become a millionaire from snowboarding. His performance motivates people everyday to push harder in the sport in hopes of being like him. Although being a skiing gold medalist is extremely respected it doesn’t get noticed in popular culture on a mainstream level like snowboarding. It is a lot more common to see a snowboarder in a commercial promoting an energy drink than a skier because snowboarders are more appealing to viewers.
Like most lifestyle sports, they cost a lot of money to participate in because of the price of equipment and resort fee’s. Money has always been an issue of life but recently more than ever, with our economy in despair every dollar counts. As for Skiing and Snowboarding they are not cheap sports. Although they are both expensive skiing is by far more expensive because of the cost of equipment. An average pair of skii’s can cost someone anywhere from five hundred to a thousand dollars, this is not including boots, and poles. Compared to a snowboard where you can find a board with boots and binding for around four hundred to six hundred, almost half the price of skiing equipment. For example when Christmas season comes and parents are at the sports store deciding which sport to choose, often cost plays a big role in their decision. Besides the fact that most kids are more exciting about snowboarding. This is a major factor because usually if a child receives his first snowboard he is less likely to switch over to skiing.
More recently there has been a sensation for street snowboarding, a style of snowboarding that has picked up in the last ten years. Street snowboarding is when boarders take their skills to public places and perform tricks uncommon ground, where there is snow of course. This is a style that skiing has not picked up on and may never will. Skiing’s version is cross-country which is more like walking on skiis than anything. The fact that someone who snowboards can have fun practically in their own backyard makes the sport more enticing.
