By MICHELLE COOK
Sundance has become the 12th Utah ski resort to allow snowboarders on its slopes, and Sundance personnel and local snowboarders are optimistic about the increasing acceptance of the sport.
The opening of Sundance to snowboarders took place Saturday.
Jerry Warren, director of operations for skiing and mountain recreation at Sundance, said he has been studying the idea of welcoming snowboarders to Sundance for years.
Several years ago when the sport was new, Warren said, Sundance was open to snowboarding. Because of concerns during the sport's infancy, however, the resort decided it would be 'cleaner' not to allow the sport.
Warren said he has watched snowboarding mature over the years into a viable sport. He said snowboarders are learning and the sport is maturing.
Sundance now supports snowboarding '100 percent,' Warren said.
Deer Valley and Alta are the only Utah resorts that do not allow snowboarders.
Deer Valley's no-snowboarder policy is based on customer surveys, said Coleen Reardon, director of marketing at Deer Valley.
Reardon said a small percentage of Deer Valley customers would like the resort to consider allowing snowboarders. The majority of customers, however, do not care or are against allowing them, she said.
Connie Marshall, director of public relations at Alta, said their decision not to allow snowboarders is an economic rather than an emotional decision.
Because Alta has had a successful return rate with its skiing guests, Marshall said, the resort does not anticipate restructuring its policies.
Marshall said the ratio of those who support Alta's policy to those who would like it changed are 10 to one.
Some customers have said they enjoy the variety of being able to choose whether they go to a resort that allows snowboarders or not, Marshall said.
Skiers and snowboarders sometimes conflict on the slopes, but some local snowboarders and Warren are optimistic that opinions are changing.
Rick Evans, a sophomore economics major from Salt Lake City, has been snowboarding for eight years. Evans said skiers sometimes complain that snowboarders cut up moguls, cut people off and are out of control.
Warren said, however, that snowboarders 'are learning the rules of the road, so to speak.' He said snowboarders are becoming more respectful of traffic and environmental patterns.
Warren said that one day he observed a skier getting after some snowboarders. The skier, he said, was belligerent, but the snowboarders were apologetic and moved out of the way.
Putting ski teachers, ski patrolmen and other professionals on snowboards has helped as well, Warren said. Problems arise, Warren said, when a resort opens to snowboarders and doesn't join them.
'Skiers are being forced to accept snowboarders more because it's becoming such a widespread sport,' Evans said.
Janet Sumner, a senior English major from Ogden, has been skiing for thirteen years. She said she doesn't mind snowboarders.
'They don't bother me unless they're taking up the whole slope,' Sumner said. 'Most of the time they're okay.'
'There are some rude snowboarders, but there are rude skiers, too, so it kind of works out in the end,' Sumner said.