The Effects of Snowboarding on the Skiing Industry :: essays papers

The Effects of Snowboarding on the Skiing IndustryThe ski industry has been around since the beginning of the century. Since thattime the retail industry of the ski world has been on a steady increase. At the beginning of this decade the increase began to skyrocket. However, skiing was not thereason for the growth. The reason for the spectacular increase in industry sales in the retail world of skiing was due to snowboarding. By now almost eachone in the country has either seen a snowboard, ridden one, or knows someone who has. The purpose of thispaper is to discuss what snowboarding is, and to shed some light on the financial aspectsof this new sport.Snowboarding hit the scene in 1972. Jake Burton, at the age of 15, decided thathe had enough of skiing and wanted to do something a little unalike. With a littleingenuity and some of his dads tools he began working on the first snowboard. Hisproject lasted about three weeks and when he was done he decided to take his inventionto the s lopes and she how it worked. This was almost the end of snowboarding. everyslope Jake went to denied him access, saying that they only allowed skis on the hills. Jake was a very determined nestling and this did not stop him. He began hiking everyback-country trail he could scrape and he became quite efficient at snowboarding. At thesame time he continued to knock on all the ticket windows at every resort but still had no success. He decided that the only way he could prove his invention was nothing morethan a different version of a ski would be to make a video of himself locomote down theback country hills. This was no easy task, keep in mind the year is 1972. Jake was determined and he met up with a guy named Craig Kelly who at the time was into videoproduction of skateboarding and skiing. Jake gave the sales pitch and Craig post hook,line, and sinker. The next week the video was complete and Jake took it to all the resorts with Craig and they pled their case. By this time Jak e had made about a dozen more prototypes of his snowboard and all his best friends were riding them. Finally a small mountain, Okemo, said O.K. Jake you can ride, but only during the week This was all it took and from then on almost anyone that saw this crazy kid zipping down the hill on a wooden board with both feet strapped to it began to ask questions.