BURTON POACHERS PROTEST RESORT BANS
If you thought the feud between skiers and snowboarders was over, well, forget it. Burton’s "Poacher Freedom" campaign, offering $5,000 to the person or crew to submit the best video documentation of their poaching experience at each of the four resorts in North America that don't allow snowboarding, is sure to provoke confrontations this winter. After all, it’s designed to provoke confrontation—and change. Speaking of which: is it just coincidence that Taos Ski Valley dropped a bombshell in mid December, announcing that it will allow snowboarding starting Mar. 19, 2008? The three remaining holdouts are Mad River Glen, Vt., plus Deer Valley and Alta, Utah.

Not surprisingly, Burton has received both support and criticism for its plan. But CEO Jake Burton is unapologetic, saying that the company has a right to voice its opinion and pointing out that, after more than 20 years of existence, snowboarding has proved itself to be more than a fad and no threat to society. Burton notes that if resorts banned skiing on these sometimes public lands, skiers would have protested long ago. Snowboarders, he suggests, have been more than patient.

Taos, in announcing its decision to lift its ban on snowboarding, stated simply that the time has come to do so, and that the decision was made after careful consideration. Within a few hours of making the decision public, there were 2,600 hits on the ridetaos.org website, and they were about 75 percent positive.


RCR Cancels Its Biggest Hits
Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR) stunned the freeride (and resort) community last fall when it banned jumps from terrain parks at all of its resorts--Alberta’s Lake Louise, Fernie, and Kimberley; and Quebec’s Stoneham and Mont Sainte Anne. The resorts said their goal was to maximize the safety of guests. Among the freestyle community, the words most often used to describe the policy were “stunningly misguided,” “laughingstock,” and “bunch of old skiers” (this last was not meant in a nice way). Riders accused RCR of simply not wanting to spend the money on snow-heavy features, which RCR denies. By bolstering its rail gardens, though, RCR cemented suspicions that the motivation was financial (rails are cheap, jumps and pipes are not) and raised questions about how much safer rails are than properly built jumps. (Statistics suggest fewer serious injuries occur on rails compared to jumps.) In any case, many freestylers have sworn to avoid RCR resorts.

Will the policy spread? No other resorts have yet copied the move, and resorts such as Whistler have reinforced their commitment to keep their jumps and build them as safely as possible. And they note that people are going to get air, regardless of whether an area sanctions it or not.


Safety Advice for Terrain Parks
For those areas that continue to promote parks, both NSAA and the American Snowsports Education Association (ASEA) are developing new safety messages to supplement the SmartStyle program. NSAA’s Get Smart program combines SmartStyle and the “approach, takeoff, maneuver, landing” (ATML) guidelines along with 10 basic ideas riders should know. ASEA has been working on its own small pamphlet, “Get a Clue,” a friendly bundle of advice aimed at terrain park newbies. Get Smart should be available by National Safety Awareness Week, Jan. 19-25. At press time, Get a Clue was also nearly ready to go to print.

All that follows news that NSAA postponed publication of its new terrain park manual, the Freestyle Terrain Resource Guide, to the 2008-09 season. Once publication became delayed past the start of the season, it became impractical to recommend new procedures and guidelines for the current season. Instead, NSAA will present the proposed manual and gather more input from areas during the winter trade fairs at Snowbird Jan. 22-24 and Mount Snow Feb. 5-6.


What Happens In Aspen, Stays in Aspen
To celebrate their recently consummated uniform deal covering all Aspen employees, Helly Hansen and Aspen will marry one lucky couple at the SIA trade show in Las Vegas, Jan. 29-Feb.1. An Elvis impersonator will perform the ceremony at the Helly Hansen booth with the entire snow sports industry serving as witnesses. After the show, the couple will honeymoon in Aspen at the five star Little Nell hotel and otherwise receive tender loving care compliments of Aspen and Helly Hansen.

To enter, couples had to submit photos and a 300-word essay by Jan. 4 explaining why in the world they wanted to do this to themselves. In the best Las Vegas tradition, the three finalist couples must pay their own way to Vegas, where visitors to the Helly Hansen booth will choose the winners. The wedding will take place at 5 p.m. on Jan. 30. No word about timing of the eventual annulment.


Would Utah Want an Aspen, Anyway?
A group of Utah landowners were rejected in their effort to establish a new ski resort town named Aspen this fall. The plan to create a high-end resort, with skiing said to be comparable to Deer Valley, would encompass 8,600 acres about 45 minutes from the SLC airport. The town and resort may still come to be, but why would anyone in Utah want to invoke the symbol of Hollywood glam and liberalism in the first place?


Michigan Areas Dodge Tax Bullet
Michigan resorts were faced with the prospect of a six percent tax on lift ticket sales and other services last fall. The state legislature hastily crafted a tax hike to cover a $1.5 billion deficit stemming largely from the state’s unemployment woes. For many areas, the tax would have made a tough economy even tougher. Fortunately, the capricious tax--as written, the bill taxed ski area receipts but not golf; and thanks to a misworded clause, only day ski areas, not those with overnight accommodations--offended so many businesses that it morphed into a more broad-based business tax based on profitability. And that, compared to the service tax, is a big improvement.


H2B Solution Is Not to Be
The anticipated resolution of the H2B numbers freeze failed to materialize last fall, and the outlook for anything happening to return the number of visas granted to their former levels is dim. The issue has become embroiled in the larger immigration issue, where the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) holds the trump card on H2B legislation. And the CHC wants Congress to address full amnesty for illegal aliens before it will take up the H2B visa issue. Anyone care to guess when the question of amnesty will be resolved?

The CHC is firm in its position, too. To those industries that rely on H2B visas, the CHC says, “we want you to feel our pain.” At best, it’s possible that Congress will pass a one-year extension of the old rule, which allowed 33,000 returning H2B workers in addition to 33,000 new visas. But this would mostly benefit summer employers and put winter numbers back at 33,000, according to director of public policy Geraldine Link of NSAA.


Wachusett Sued for being considerate
When Wachusett put a young skier into a separate ski school class to accommodate his behavior issues, it may have violated state laws against discrimination. The special treatment was fine with the young skier and his mom, but dad wanted him mainstreamed, and sued. The Mass. Commission Against Discrimination saw probable cause; the parties are meeting later this month in hopes of reaching a voluntary resolution.


New Products at SIA
Product introductions are the raison d’etre for the SIA Trade Show, of course, and we have heard of two that are worth reporting here. First is Kneebinding, an innovative ski binding design that could raise the bar for knee protection. In effect, the binding heel piece incorporates lateral release, much like a toe piece, and is designed to recognize the types of forces (technically, loads) that act on and sometimes rip and tear apart knees. It’s the brainchild of Rick Howell, former engineer of Geze bindings and inventor of the Cyclebinding, one of the very first clipless bike pedals. Price? Somewhere north of $400 a pair. The second product is a new high-end boot that could be the first soft boot that works. It mates a stiff carbon fiber shell and a soft, comfy leather boot. The designer? Denny Hanson. Yes, Hanson. Price: about $1,200.


Shortswings
Austrian Oliver Kern skied 52 different lifts in Austria’s giant Skiwelt area on Dec. 8, believed to be a one-day different-lifts-in-a-day record. He covered more than 110 miles and 56,000 vertical feet. . . . Celeb Lindsay Lohan and her snowboarder boyfriend, Riley Giles, split a few months after the two met in a Utah rehab center. . . .A man at Arapahoe Basin, Colo., who hit a teenager after the young rider collided with a woman, faces charges of second-degree assault and felony menacing. The man allegedly knocked the teen to the ground and flailed him with his ski poles. The attacker believed the teen had ridden away too quickly after the collision, but, according to police, the young man had acted appropriately.