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Headline RSS FeedBurton's "Sabotage Stupidity" campgaign fuels ski-war
January 5, 2008 —
There’s a lot going on in the world of snowboarding right now: The Burton Demo tour came through town, offering free rides and lessons, while simultaneously the Burton company is engaged in an onslaught of the four U.S. ski mountains which have yet to allow snowboarding.
In their “Poach for Freedom” campaign, Burton has offered up a prize of $5,000 to snowboarders who offer up the best video documentation of snowboarders riding one of the four remaining resorts which do not allow it: Mad River Glenn, VT; Alta, UT; Deer Valley, UT; and Taos, NM.
Throughout the campaign, which began Dec. 5, Jake Burton has styled himself as snowboarding’s Martin Luther King Jr. He references the Constitution of the United States, and tells snowboarders it’s their “patriotic duty” to poach the four resorts.
As a skier, I would love to ride a resort without snowboarders – not because they’re moronic, knuckle-dragging lowlife’s who smoke cigarettes and wear their pants around their knees, because that’s not true of many, if not most, snowboarders.
The reason snowboarders bother me is that inexperienced snowboarders, when they ride something beyond their ability, turn sideways and ride down the slope bulldozer style, scraping away powder and screwing up the contours.
But you know what? If there were a resort which didn’t allow telemarkers, even if it was for a fairly good reason, I’d be highly peeved. So I say let it go, relax, open your resort to snowboarders. It’s not that big a deal.
Taos is getting smart, opening up their resort to snowboarders in March, and I plan to be there to celebrate the newfound freedom of the knuckledraggers.
In the meantime, I’m making sure I reach out to snowboarders like my friend Jed, pictured in this blog, who is an upstanding, decent citizen of the snowboard nation. It helps that he doesn’t “bulldoze,” because he doesn’t suck. He knows how to ride.
Anyway, while this goes on I'll be enjoying the fun and play had by snowboarders who submit videos to Burton. You can check ‘em out, too, by clicking HERE.
2 Comments on "Burton's "Sabotage Stupidity" campgaign fuels ski-war"
Jed Gottlieb — January 6, 2008
Let's not be fools. It's not about what you ride, but how you ride. Skiers, boarders, teli skiers that are good don't cause problems. Bad riders get in the way. That's just how it is. And no one should be upset about it because we were all bad once. Live and let ride.
Justin VanVleet — January 7, 2008
As a snowboarder from the days when no resorts allowed snowboarding, I have many poaching stories of my own. I can't help but give a little cheer for Burton's contest and begin to dream a little about how I should go about winning that $5000.
As a tele-skier who loves to ski at Alta, this just reinforces my admiration for that resort. Sure there are bad skiers and bad snowboarders that cause problems. At Alta they've been able to eliminate ALL the bad snowboarders, and in many parts of the area, all the bad skiers. It is an incredible feat that very few ski resorts have been able to accomplish.
This poaching contest is sure to bring some dialog about snowboarding and skiing together. However, something tells me it won't be favorable to snowboarding.
