Two days before this past Christmas my family and I visited Gunstock Ski Area, N.H., to find barely a liftline on a cold, clear Saturday—until we went over to the tubing hill! We answered our young daughter’s pleading to go tubing after her snowboard lesson. What we found when we got to the tubing hill was loads of fun and a virtual melting pot of America, which was in stark contrast to the people skiing and riding on the mountain’s other trails.
Among the tubers were African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asians, lots of middle-class people of all descriptions and a family originally from India. About 30 percent of the tubers were also skiing (had lift tickets), but most were overweight (they go faster) and underdressed. My favorite getups were on a couple that wore black ski bibs over their leather jackets and a man in soft leather moccasins who claimed, “I’m not that cold, they’re fur-lined.”
These tubing families of different cultures were having a great time and they were a testament that laughter and joy is truly a universal language. In a nutshell, these tubers appeared, at least on the outside, to be having substantially more fun than the skiers and riders on the other part of the mountain. Why then was there more diversity and happiness on the tubing hill? Maybe two hours of tubing (and uphill lifts) for $12 is a great value, great fun and no hassle.
While most of these tubers may never become skiers, some might. And, what an opportunity to tap these new demographic segments! These are the very groups that are growing and, previously, never came to our mountains. They’re here now, lured by the price and the fact tubing doesn’t take skill to have fun. Like skiers and boarders, they’re hooked on fun in the snow and the thrills that gravity provides. Why not let them know that skiing and snowboarding are not as expensive or difficult as they might think?
