[net.rec.ski] "Persecution" of Snowboarders: Why??

ar563303@sjuvax.UUCP (rowley) (03/25/86)

[here line-eater, here boy here boy... *WHACK* yipeyipeyipe...]

   Much to my disappointment I have noticed that at ski areas all over the
 East Coast snowboards are rapidly becoming taboo. Most places now either
 ban them outright or ban their users from the chairlifts, forcing them to
 walk up the slopes at their own peril. I am interested in learning the real
 reason for this; the rather unsatisfactory excuse I have heard is that too
 many inexperienced riders are causing themselves and others to suffer from
 the consequences of their inexperience. I personally advocate administering
 a "safe rider" test to would-be snowboarders in order to weed out these
 unsafe riders and other troublemakers before they put their lives and those
 of others in jeopardy.


  To clear any possible misconceptions, I am both an avid intermediate skier
 and a highly experienced skateboarder. My interest in snowboarding came as
 a natural wedding of "the best of both worlds", to use a hackneyed phrase.
 Sometimes I wonder, however, whether such discrimination stems from ignorance
 rather than a true concern for safety (or jealousy 3/4 :-) ). I don't intend
 to bore the ski enthusiasts with a long-winded discussion of skateboarding and
 its problems; suffice it to say that the same type of discrimination takes 
 place on both concrete and snow.


                                         \________________
           "Thrash or be thrashed"         O            O
              Tony Rowley
-- 

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 Anthony J. Rowley    St. Joseph's University   Philadelphia, PA  USA
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