Parents Ski Free?
…adult-child combo (the child pays for a regular ticket) so that the adult and child are wearing easy-to-read tickets with matching numbers.
On lifts where the Parent Ski Free program is in place, lift attendants simply check to see that the adult is accompanied by the matching kid. Again, no kid, no ride.
The upside benefits are many. The program is a relatively painless way to get more people to make that first trip to the resort, kid in tow. As children learn to ski and love it, the adults will be more likely to purchase full-priced tickets for themselves so they can enjoy the entire mountain with the kids. Kids will not let parents maroon them on the beginner slopes forever so that mom and dad can save the cost of adult tickets.
Critics will argue that kids should be taking lessons from certified ski instructors, not parents and friends. There are issues of liability, revenue and teaching skills. Nevertheless, we can address these challenges. (If we don’t get more kids and families to the slopes, the point is moot anyway).
There are lots of us in the business who were taught by our parents. And lots of us taught our own kids to ski. Can’t we promote that others have that same experience?
This idea first came to me when I was teaching my own toddlers how to ski. Nothing infuriated me more than paying for a full-priced adult lift ticket for the privilege of addicting a brand-new customer for the resort. All I did was stand around all day showing the little ones how to slide. Indeed, the resort should pay me for bringing my kids there.
I’m past the parents-ski-free stage with my kids; I just want a fair-priced family ticket. But if you want to get dust knocked off skis stuck in garage corners, try using kids as an incentive. Otherwise you might not see parents or their kids.
Jack Turner (SIRDAR, Durango, Colo.) is the creator of the Snow Monsters ski and snowboard program for kids. His father taught him how to ski (now you know why he’s such a bad skier).
Will the 1999 Outdoor Retail Summer Market Leave a Meaningful Mark?
By Roger Lohr
The never-to-be-forgotten 1999 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market was a bustle of activity. Indeed, the upbeat atmosphere was upstaged only by the Salt Lake City tornado that hit before the show could even get under way. Some 300 exhibitors were affected by the calamity at an event where many exhibitors were expecting to write up to 50 percent of their annual sales.
As hundreds of exhibitors busied themselves setting up their booths, mother nature’s fury erupted in an instant, leaving those who were lucky enough to walk away from the ravaged structures in a daze. They were thankful to be alive. One person was not so lucky and hundreds were injured.
The show’s producers and the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America (ORCA) helped most companies salvage the show. ORCA initiated an emergency relief fund and Nike ACG contributed two percent of its show sales. “The outdoor industry is made up of mature individuals,” commented Sky George of CamelBak, “and that may have been the difference in how we weathered the tornado.”
Some companies were particularly hard hit. However, many displaced exhibitors found new show locations thanks to the generosity of other show exhibitors. For example, after Jim Watson and Bill Knight of Little Bear Snowshoes were injured and taken to the hospital, a competitor offered to help set up their exhibit. A sign was posted in the unmanned booth asking retailers to leave their business cards for later contact.
On the last day of the show, I spoke with outdoor industry insiders about the lack of an industry cooperative effort to capture the latest generation’s interest. Coming from the snow sports business, I’ve become accustomed to industry programs to increase snow sports awareness and participation such as Let’s Go Skiing America, Ski It to Believe It, Donate A-Ski, SnowBlast and so on. Everyone in the snow sports world has opinions of those programs, but the point is that the industry keeps trying to reach out.
This issue is relevant to many of us because the baby boom generation comprises the vast majority of outdoor enthusiasts. Both of my kids, six and nine, are into Pokémon, video games, soccer and other activities, all of which are higher priorities than experiencing the great outdoors. Although I’ve tried to instill in them my love of the outdoors and outdoor recreation, I often wonder whether it will blossom. We need to do more as an industry!
Just when I thought things in Salt Lake City couldn’t get any weirder, I suffered a mild heart attack on the last day of the show, right on the show floor. As the paramedics hauled me out, I focused on the things I still want to do with my kids, things like climbing Longs Peak, Colo., and snowboarding Whistler’s glaciers. As it turns out I was lucky. The doctor says I’m well on my way to a full recovery. And I’m still hopeful about getting the kids more excited about outdoor stuff.
Leaving Salt Lake City was very emotional for many of us. It was beautiful to see how we all pulled together in the crisis, but on the same token I hope it doesn’t take another tornado to get us to work together for our mutual benefit. It would be great if we could band together to encourage the next generation to share our joy of the outdoors.
Erwin Wieland Retires
A Staff Report
Usually, when we write an appreciation of someone in these columns, it means they have died. We hasten to reassure readers that Erwin is very, very much alive and only marginally mellowed from the early 1970s when he arrived on the scene to plant the Kassbohrer/Pisten Bully flag in North America.
And what a lot he has contributed to the industry since then—and we don’t mean just in technology. He has a business style that was so warm, funny and, yes, so extraordinarily American. He absorbed the downeast culture of his Maine distributors, getting along famously with characters like Don Waterman, Hazen McMullen, Bill Jensen and Jim Gardner (Gaaahdner, that is). By not imposing the Ulm, Germany, model on the Gray, Maine, operation, he showed the sort of business acumen that brought spectacular results. Back home, he transformed the tracked vehicle division— a stepchild of what was a very big, family-owned bus construction business—into the fair-headed wunderkind of the company. When the company went into receivership, Erwin took his beloved and still profitable Pisten Bully division out of the ashes and set it up as a publicly-traded, stand-alone operation. It was one more impressive accomplishment.
Erwin, your countless North American friends wish you Alles Gut in what is implausibly labeled as your “retirement.”
Doug Waugh, Pipe Dragon Innovator, Dies
A Staff Report
Doug Waugh, the developer of the Pipe Dragon, died on September 6 at home in Berthoud, Colo., after a long battle with sarcoma. He was 55. Waugh had been diagnosed with the rare form of cancer in May, 1998.
Waugh, a longtime skier who had recently taken up snowboarding, designed and built the Pipe Dragon halfpipe groomer in 1991 to bring consistent halfpipe grooming to resorts around the world. His machine sparked a revolution among grooming machines designed to expand snowboarding. His latest design, the 17-foot Super Dragon, was introduced at the National Ski Areas Association annual convention in San Francisco last May.
“The industry has lost a great engineer,” said David Olcott of Stimilon International, the terrain park design company. “Doug changed the face of snowboarding with his ingenuity and pioneering spirit.” Olcott said Waugh, whose background was in product development for heavy equipment companies, was one of the hardest-working people he’s ever met. “When riders approached him he answered by delivering what they wanted.”
Four Pipe Dragon employees, Randy Falk, Randy Havens, Ted Hoxsie and Forest Smith, will take over company operations. Waugh hired the four to help build his second Pipe Dragon. Waugh, with his employees, went on to create standardized international halfpipe grooming.
Waugh’s wife and partner, Cathy, said it was fitting that her husband died on Labor Day because “he lived to work.”
Other than Cathy, Waugh is survived by five grown daughters. Contributions can be made to the Sarcoma Foundation of San Francisco.
Alex Lowe Dies in Avalanche
Alex Lowe, a Montana native dubbed the world’s finest climber by Outside magazine, was killed in an avalanche in Tibet as he scouted routes for an expedition. The avalanche occurred while the expedition was at 19,000 feet on the 26,291-foot Shishapangma Peak, the fourteenth highest peak in the world. Dave Bridges, a cameraman and Aspen native, was also killed in the avalanche.
Recovery of the bodies was deemed too dangerous, so Lowe and Bridges will remain buried on the peak. Lowe leaves behind a wife and three boys. A memorial has been set up for his children: Fund for the Children of Alex Lowe, Care of Norene Bancroft, U.S. Bank, 104 East Main Street, Bozeman, Mont. 59715.
