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Riding in harmony

Rift between skiers and snowboarders now nearly nonexistent

By Mark Morical | The (Bend) Bulletin • Published January 03, 2009

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On the slopes these days, most skiers and snowboarders give little thought to what is strapped to whose feet. They go about their similar goals of riding powder, catching air, or just reaching the bottom of the slope.

Skiers and snowboarders even ride together as friends. The image of snowboarders as young, rebellious outcasts is long gone.

On a recent clear, cool day at Hoodoo Mountain Resort near Sisters, most skiers and snowboarders stuck to their respective groups, but the occasional skier and boarder would carve the slope together, watching out for those below and respecting other riders. There was a general feeling of respect and acceptance that is, for the most part, the norm at ski resorts today.

But it wasn't always that way.

"Twenty years ago there were major problems with snowboarders," says Hoodoo general manager Matthew McFarland, who both skis and snowboards.

"The skier/snowboarder rift was huge. Snowboarders were looked at as the scum of the earth. They were looked at as the thugs ... the young punks doing everything they could to annoy the general population."

About 10 years ago, McFarland explains, snowboarding started to become more mainstream as the early snowboard generation aged and began teaching its kids how to ride. Now, snowboarders in their 50s and 60s are a fairly common sight.

The bad-boy image of snowboarders reached its peak in the 1990s when snowboarding was limited to a younger age group, according to Alex Kaufman, marketing director at Mt. Bachelor ski area.

"Now it's just another way to get down the mountain," says Kaufman, adding that his 66-year-old father is a snowboarder. "It's a lot less polarized, because a lot of people do both, or a lot of people have friends that do one or the other."

At both Bachelor and Hoodoo, snowboarders constitute about 40 percent of snowriders, according to Kaufman and McFarland.

There still exists a need among skiers and snowboarders to make fun of each other, but mostly good-naturedly. When I switched from skiing to snowboarding about six years ago - I still ski occasionally - my skiing buddies referred to me as a "knuckle-dragger." They complained that they would be forced to wait for me at the top of the chairlift while I "loitered" with the other snowboarders who were strapping into their bindings.