Which 2 things are more alike: Surfing and Snowboarding or Skiing and Snowboarding?

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Rant - Which 2 things are more alike: Surfing and Snowboarding or Skiing and Snowboarding?

I know how they've been grouped from a marketing perspective, but what's your perspective?

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rant by broughten
7 comments
Sea-spout
1 year ago

@broughten...can you clarify which you think are grouped together? I think it really depends on the product marketed. For lifestyle and non-essential soft goods (beanies, hats, pants, etc), I think marketers lump snowboarders/surfers/skaters together (mind the "jibber" exception as the skier fitting this category). From an "experience our mountain" POV obviously skiers/snowboarders are together. My best guess is that lifestyle and non-essential soft goods get bigger ad rev b/t these two markets since they can be sold year round and to any poseur that wants to claim an identity.

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broughten
1 year ago

Interesting. I think you might have solved it for me. I was thinking that the reality in the practice of the sport is that there is a greater crossover between skiers and snowboarders than there is between surfers and snowboarders, yet surfers and snowboarders tend to get grouped together way more than skiers and snowboarders.

My original theory of why it would be better not to cross market to skiers and snowboarders (and theoretically achieve the benefit of the higher degree of crossover) is that there tends to be a greater animosity between the two groups. I mean you won't find that many surfers that think snowboarding is lame, but you will find plenty of skiers that do and vice-versa.

So your thought, which I'm sure is correct, that the distinction is really about serving people that likely don't participate in either sport then makes me think about how it all got started that way. I guess the answer is that skiing has always been ok with the mainstream. Surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding, on the other hand have traditionally been more counter culture. And I guess it's as simple as that.

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SF_Kneelo
1 year ago

What they share as sports are the utilization of fall lines

I relate more to two-planking... maybe, just maybe, it has to do with the body position with respect to the fall line

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Sea-spout
1 year ago

A good read on how advertising has encouraged "counterculture" consumerism since the 1960s is The Conquest of Cool, by Thomas Frank. Present day hipsters are no less representative of how advertising and marketing strategies continue to encourage people to be "unique" (why is it that hipsters all look the same from London to NYC to Mission/SF?). http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/259919.html

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broughten
1 year ago

I've heard about that book too many times not to have read it. It's goin on the list.

And SF_Kneelo, interesting thought. I'd always just assumed snowboarding held more in relation to surfing at least in terms of body mechanics, but you're right about how the forces and fall lines actually yield different results. One thing I've noticed since I've started tele-skiing is that having my feet separated front-to-back gives a very kinetically pleasing feeling and sends my mind thinking of waves more than the alpine sticks used to.

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Jesse R.
1 year ago

I definitely lump snow boarding and skiing together as snow sports, then boarding and surfing together as board sports, and don't see much of a connection between skiing and boarding. For me the, difference in the number of edges (4 vs. 2) and stance (straight ahead vs. one foot forward) give skiing a very different feel.

For me, a turn on a snow board, especially in power, can give a very similar feeling to the drop and bottom of the wave turn

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blam
1 year ago

surfing and snowboarding. can't explain it. body position, slashes, pumps on the downhill. even really good powder feels like a really slow wave on a softtop, though.

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