It's a time old question when it comes to winter sport, which do you prefer:
skiing or snowboarding?
But has this topic become more about your age, money, and generation
differences then the actual love for the sport?
In this clip from Johnny Tsunami, a popular Disney Channel movie
from the late 90's, we see a young athlete boy who wants "to get back on a
board," after recently moved from Hawaii to Vermont, and is suffering
from not being able to surf anymore.
During the last minute and half of this clip we can see that there is a wealth issue between the two sports, which before snowboarding became popular in the 80, was a big issue when choosing between the two. After snowboarding became popular, many skiers’ looked down upon snowboarding because they looked at snowboarders with certain stereotypes of young reckless kids who look trashy and vandalizing the ski resorts. With this perception of snowboarder being a younger uncontrollable crowd, skiers slowly fell into the category of being an older crowd, with little tolerance for young snowboarders.
First off we need to clearly define what a “gaper” is, well this can be describes in one basic picture.
This picture shows a skier or snowboarder with a goggle gap--The
gap between the rider’s goggles, and the helmet- this is where the term
"gaper" comes from. However, don't confuse it with the next picture
of the skier, who does this on purpose, whereas gaper's are unaware of their so
called "dorky-ness." With a sport that involves covering yourself up
head to toe in gear; it’s an essential as to dress for the sport. One of the
main aspects of this sport is the clothing that people wear it’s all about
the swag-- having the brightest jackets/ pants, nice goggles,
and coolest beanies. When going up on the mountain it’s easy to tell from the
way people dress whether they are locals, or tourist, experienced riders or newbie’s.
Many of the locals are decked out in the best gear; one example may be having
the new Oakley Splice goggles, as seen in picture. Locals are often the ones
that participate in the sport the most, and thus have the most opportunities to
set the new trends of styles, types of boards, and other types of gear. Whereas
tourist who are often new to the sport and have hammy downs, or rented gear
that doesn't fit them properly- truly not their fault.
Some recent
changes in the snowboarding culture have come from clothing trends; for
instances, about three years ago one of the main trends in snowboarding and
skiing was having baggy pants, which was also very popular in the Hip-Hop
scene, whereas now the new trend is to have tight pants, which is a big trend
recently from hipsters, who wear tight pants. A big way that people judge you
when on the mountain is your clothing, many younger generations dress in
brighter clothing. While older generations might where bright colors too, but
they are usually retro one pieces. Older generations often say that they wear
bright colors so that others can see them better so others will not run into
them, which can be an issue while snowboarding of skiing. So while younger kids
on the mountains may wear bright clothing to show off to their friends, older
generations might wear something bright but only to help with their safety on
the mountains. This is just one small example of the culture of snowboarding,
and the many aspects that come along with this sport.
