Perhaps you’ve heard the old one about how, more than 60 years ago, skier statistics got started down the slippery slope they have been slithering down ever since. Two old New England farmers went down to the depot one Saturday in late January when a ski train came in and started disgorging the mobs of excited, giggling, weirdly dressed young people, all clutching their strange ski gear.
“Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” said one to the other, (actually using an earthier oath).”Ever see anything like it? Jeez, there must be a million of the damn fools.” And that constituted the first official census of skiers. Ever since there has been a noxious stream of equally reliable counts.
Some 45 years ago, when American Express sensed a ski travel boom in the making I was quoted by them in their house organ as saying there might be 28 million skiers. When I protested, they said, “Oh, I guess we forgot the decimal point. It should have been 2.8 million.” Whatever. They never ran a correction. Then Merrill Lynch quoted American Express as saying there were 28 million skiers. Cool. Then, in about 1958, Time ran an item about the popularity of skiing, saying that in New England alone some 1.5 million skiers had been on the slopes over the Easter weekend. I wrote a letter to the editor (never published, of course) pointing out that if every New England ski area had operated at record capacity, the number of skiers involved would have been but a fraction of the number they gave.
Well, you get the point: it’s as hard today to get a reliable number as it ever was—perhaps harder, because there are so many more stats out there now than ever before. And they all count differently, so you can never compare them. Some count seven-year-olds and older, some start at 10-year olds, some count only 16-year-olds and up. Some count a skier as someone who has skied once or more in a season; others count only those who skied two or more times.
OK, so how many skiers are there? How many snowboarders? How many who do both? If you thought you’d get the answer here, guess again.
For its planning purposes, NSAA uses a figure of 9.5 million as the number of individuals who slide on snow down a lift-served hill during the course of a season—the folks who account for our industry’s 52 million annual skier/boarder visits. Though personally I suspect it’s a tad high, it’s eminently sensible compared to the delusional 13.8 million alpine skiers and 4.7 million boarders found by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA).
An interesting example of how statistics can cloud the big picture can be found in a mid-November issue of Jim Rennie’s highly-respected newsletter on the sports business. He reported on SGMA’s list of “The Top 10 Action Sports in the U.S.,” that ranged from inline skating with 27.8 million participants down to surfing, with 1.7 million. Snowboarding was in sixth place with 4.7 million. But where was alpine skiing? Isn’t that considered an “action sport” any more?
Well, the SGMA folks told me theirs was actually a list of “extreme sports,” and that they considered snowboarding as one, but not skiing, even if the ski publications did run covers of people hurling themselves off cliffs. So then I checked in with Jim Rennie and he told me that “for those in the ‘action sports’ business, the term ‘extreme sports’ is never used.” He explained, “That’s behind the way I described these activities.” Funny, this world of sports marketing.
In any case, of much more significance than the number of active participants, and of much more concern, are the trendlines which show that participation in all snowsports—alpine and XC skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing—is down. But, in case misery does indeed love company, know that we have lots of it. The latest National Sporting Goods Association study of sports participation shows that all sorts of individual sports (as contrasted to team ones) show reduced participation. The list includes golf, kayaking/rafting, mountain biking, in-line skating, running/jogging, snorkeling and scuba, tennis and windsurfing. Particularly hard hit seem to be sports that require the learning of a skill—certainly the case in snowsports.
What’s going on, especially in the light of our society’s high levels of prosperity and national confidence?
The answers, I am told, are to be found in tectonic shifts that are inexorably turning an active, participatory society into passive viewers, fans, couch potatoes. In turn, this is reflected in the alarming increase in clinical obesity and the accompanying surge in diabetes. All in all, a tough environment in which to rekindle the popularity of snowsports!
For the record, the declines I mentioned in snowsports participation are found in the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) report, “Sports Participation in 1999.” It showed alpine skiing down 4 percent on the year, and 35 percent on the decade. It also showed snowboarding down by 8 percent on the year—its first reported decline.
Another research organization, American Sports Data, showed alpine skiing down 6.5 percent on the year, but down only 2.5 percent for the decade. As they say, go figure.
If all this depresses you, try Ecstasy; or better yet, visit ski world statisticians, Boulder-based Jim and Joy Spring, whose Leisure Trends study, they say, “indicates that there are 33 million Americans who have tried skiing or snowboarding and plan to participate in the future.”
Let it be said, some of the most comprehensive and credible numbers on the ski world come from the Springs’ National Skier/Boarder Opinion Survey that provides a deep well of statistical details on how to count riders and skiers. In the confusing world of terminology, they refer to boarders and skiers collectively as “downhillers.” They conclude, for instance, that, “Overall, 95 percent of downhillers on the slopes are alpine skiers and 31 percent consider themselves to be snowboarders. The percentages add up to more than 100 percent because 26 percent of downhillers participate in both sports.” Though the percentages vary widely by resort, about 83 percent of people on the slopes are alpine skiing and 18 percent riding.
