Grays On Trays

Too many people get caught up in “snowboard culture,” being “real” instead of a “poser,” and so forth. Fortunately for us Grays on Trays, we’ve left high school a while ago.

Here’s what I recently wrote in a forum (not on graysontrays.com) in which someone (a youngster, I believed) had asked about identifying “real” snowboarders.

Snowboard culture? What’s that?

Seriously, I pay no attention to it. I just go out and ride whatever suits me at the time–gentle cruising, bombing it down the hill, experimenting with the pipe, watching some people do freestyle tricks that I will never attempt, let alone master. As long as I treat people with respect, I figure that life it too short to worry about social status, pecking orders, whether or not somebody is a “real” snowboarder, or what anyone else thinks of my riding gear, clothing, skills, etc.

I am alternately amused and appalled by one hardy perennial: the anxiety over whether snowboarding has “lost its soul” through “going mainstream.” This was most famously evident in the 1996 Olympics, when “the snowboarding community” did not know if it should rejoice or reject the invitation to enter.

I believe that you see a similar phenomenon at work in skateboarding. (I recall reading something about this in the August or September issue of TW Skateboarding.) And in the 1960s, you probably (I was too young to notice) had surfers lamenting that the Beach Boys were, by promoting surfing in a superficial way, destroying the sport, the life, the universe and everything.

Whether you see riding as a fun diversion from life or something approaching a religion, what other people think of it–and whether or not it is used to sell cars and trucks, telephone service, or denture cleaner–shouldn’t matter. Enjoy it for what you get out of it, not how it is popularly defined.

Snowboarding is great, in and of itself. So why do business leaders feel the need to lace their presentations with “edginess?”

Shortly after my post on making snowboarding safe for boring people, I received an e-mail from someone who pointed me to a snowboard-related commercial website. All in all it was a worthwhile view.

But there was something about it that bothered me. The copy on the site was informative, well-written, and even useful. But from time to time it veered into sexual innuendo, juvenile humor, and more simply, crude language. Actually, this happened only a few times, which means that when it did appear, it was even more out of place.

I guess that this kind of language that makes a publication “edgy.”

If you say so. But does that make it attractive? Not in my book. It’s something I put up with rather than find attractive.

There’s a difference between going up to the line and crossing it. There are, for example, a number of popular songs that talk about having sex in the back of a car. And automakers have used seductive models in their advertisements, just like many other companies. But it would be a stretch then for Chevrolet to run a print advertisement with the tagline “Because it helps you get laid,” or something like that.

If grandpa wants a new snowboard for Christmas, will the young-uns still want to ride?

People used to take up snowboarding because it is cool. Perhaps some people still do. If you read snowboarding magazines and web sites, you will find that “steeze” (style) is important. So is image and presentation: witness the emphasis in boards on creating the right graphic art. (Graphic art … I mean that in both senses of the word.)

Teenagers and young adults are still the largest single segment of snowboarding, and there is nothing that some of them fear more than their ideas, likes, habits, and so forth, being picked up by the older generations–going mainstream, selling out, what have you.

The web site Digital Media Wire says that apple’s iPod faces a new challenge in the marketplace: so many adults are buying the MP3 players that the product is losing its cachet among the young. (I admit to finding an iPod useful to dealing with the monotony of work outs at the gym.)

“The biggest year over year increase in iPod ownership: People between 30-49, who comprised 12% of iPod owners in 2005, and 33% in 2006.”

Is that a good thing for Apple? Not entirely, says the site. The rise of the older market may mean a decline in the younger one. “Teenage perception that [the iPod is] Yesterday’s News because of Grandpa’s fancy new Nano could mark the beginning of a product shift.”

The article then mentions GraysOnTrays.com, and the phenomenon of adult ridership. It notes that the old folks haven’t driven the younger crowd away:

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There are certainly products that go beyond trendsetting rules. Snowboarding, for example, continues to be one of the largest growth sports in the U.S. Between 2000-2005, the number of snowboarders increased 50%, and between 1997-2002 the number of snowboarders aged 35 and up rose 400%, according to graysontrays.com. In fact, during the largest period of growth, 1996-2004, the median age of snowboarders remained about the same at 21, which means the increase in old folks on snowboards has not affected the teenage perception that it’s a cool sport.
——————

See? We can all play together, tweens, teens, twentysomethings, and grays on trays. Whatever your initial motivation for getting on the slopes, you’ll find that snowboarding is a great activity. Hip kids? Sure. Boring adults? Come join the party!

Look at snowboarding magazines and web sites long enough (say, 20 minutes, max), and you’ll encounter all sorts of blather about “the snowboarding lifestyle.” This is usually accompanied by complaints about those who have “sold out.”

In bald terms–never stated this way, of course–”selling out” means things that the rest of the world has taken for granted: getting a job to support one’s self and one’s family, and recognizing that, by golly, snowboarding is a great activity, but it is not a means to achieve world peace or some sort of spiritual state.

Oh sure, I am thankful to God for the ability to ride, both fiscally and financially. Tonight, I’m going to hear some people describe a trip they made to west Africa. And when I consider that some people struggle to get by on less money each year than I spend on my season pass, snowboarding looks, not like a “lifestyle,” but a frivolity. Something to enjoy and be grateful to, but that’s about it.

“Selling out” also means, I think, the quite ordinary and commendable acceptance of the fact that there are other things to do in life besides strapping on a board, no matter how deep the powder, awe-inspiring the terrain, or remarkable for the moves you made on the slopes the other day.

Yesterday morning I went out to my home base–the third time this season, and the second trip for which more than a single run was open. It was a blast. Snow lingered on the trees, and powder, a rare event quantity around here, was on the ground.

I could have stayed until late the evening. Instead, I bailed out around 1 in the afternoon.

Why? I had a Christmas party to go to. And though it was hard to leave, I enjoyed myself at the party, and it was a smart move to go.

This morning, I sense the appeal to strap on the board again. But I also have other things to attend to, and, perhaps this is the old guy status kicking in, I’m not feeling great. Combined with an ongoing cold, I feel a little sluggish. So I will most likely not ride today, and instead wait for another time even if the conditions are not as good.

Selling out? Perhaps. I call it having a life, not a snowboarding lifestyle.