By: Robbie Preece
I?m a skier.
Always have been.
Always will be.
I?ve been a skier since I was eight. The moment my family first arrived in the parking lot of Hawk?s Nest, N.C., I was hooked. We lived in Georgia at the time and North Carolina was the closest cache of snow/hardpack granular/frozen granite. The next year we could afford to go to Utah in the spring, and it was there I graduated to the slopes of Brighton and Alta. Sundance is now my home base, and there I have the pleasure of teaching the sport I love to those who want to learn it. I even get paid to do it!
To me, skiing is the highest form of paradox ? only by precise adherence to specific movements, edging, balance, rotary and pressure techniques can you be free to ski any terrain you wish. There?s something liberating about being able to look at a trail map and be excited by double blacks rather than intimidated by them. But you have to have proper technique. There?s a saying in ski schools: A bowling ball can go down a hill straight.
Then, there are snowboarders.
Let me be honest for a moment: snowboarders and snowboarding don?t really bother me. At all. I?ve got nothing but love for my riding friends. Some of my best slope buddies are boarders.
No, boarders don?t bother me. It?s the stupid things they do and the attitude they sometimes project that irritates me to no end. On the flip side of this statement, however, is the fact that many skiers do the same bone-headed things that snowboarders do.
The only annoying thing that is exclusively snowboarder is this all too common situation: I?m cruising down an easy blue/intermediate run on my way back to the base, getting some nice turns in, feeling the wind in my face and generally enjoying life. Suddenly the trails merge and what sight is 10 yards ahead of me? A dozen snowboarders, in the middle of the trail, knees on the snow, facing uphill like meerkats (or lesser forms of life), waiting for their homie to pull some ?sick air!? off a piddley six-inch kicker. Do these people check their brains with the lifties? By the same token, skiers stand in the middle of the trail and this annoys me as well, but a kneeling snowboarder is harder to see.
Here are some gems that both skiers and snowboarders are guilty of. These situations inflame my wrath like almost nothing else. These champions should have their passes pulled and backsides smacked.
? Skiers and boarders who venture into terrain steeper than they should be trying. I understand you have to challenge yourself to progress, but we?ve all seen someone side-slip down a steep run and scrape away a 160-centimeter swath of the greatest snow on earth because they?re too scared to turn. Go progress somewhere else.
? Skiers and boarders who neglect to look before they leap. If the idea of your knees making forcible contact with your chin appeals to you, please, be my guest. The weak will weed themselves out.
? Lift-riders who scream obscenities and junk to their friends they see on the trail. These are generally high-school kids, but that doesn?t exempt them from my evil eye.
? And most of all, people who laugh at and diss on people who are learning on the easy slopes. As an instructor up at Sundance, this angers me more than anything. It?s one thing if it?s your buddy and you give him/her some good-natured razzing. But if it?s not, keep it to yourself. Who likes to be ridiculed? They?re already embarrassed to be falling every five yards. Give them a break.
So that?s my list. Unfortunately, morons will always roam the earth. If you are guilty of any of the above, don?t worry, you can still change. I still prefer skiing to snowboarding. In my observations, the notion of skier-snowboarder animosity is largely antiquated. But skiers and boarders alike have a duty to rid our mountains of morons. Rise up!