As a long-time surfer, I feel that snowboarding is a natural. Young surfers and skateboarders can jump on a snowboard easily. I have not yet tried it, but I will. I see no problem starting at age 71.
But there are problems with snowboarding that have plagued the sport from the beginning. It boils down to a lack of safety education all along the line. And the reckless attitudes of the snowboarders are the result, not the cause.
Snowboarding is easier for a lot of young people than skiing. But that creates the first and basic problem because new, young snowboarders can bypass the system. Few of them take lessons, they get no safety education or warnings of danger and they do not learn control. They attempt to snowboard slopes and conditions that are over their heads. They become Kamikazes on steep slopes, hard pack and ice.
In the early days, ski shops neglected snowboarders and gave them no encouragement or advice, because they wanted to sell skis. So snowboarders were forced to set up their own shops with little or no knowledge of the hazards of the mountains.
Soon snowboard manufacturers and shops were so busy pushing snowboards that they failed to give new, young boarders warnings or cautions of the hazards of the sport. They did not know themselves. They failed to give information on safety and courtesy, and they had no safety education programs. (A release waiver on a form for mounting bindings is not a safety education program. Anyway, young snowboarders don’t pay any attention to things like that, they just think the shop is protecting its own butt. And they are right.)
Total failure, all along the line. If nobody is interested enough in safety to tell young snowboarders about the hazards, how are they supposed to know?
Then there is the TV Brainwash-Out Syndrome. Kids see those TV shots of great snowboarders jumping off 30-foot cliffs, getting air and doing somersaults and riding down near vertical slopes. It looks easy! And TV tells them just go do it.
They do not have to know anything about how to snowboard. They do not have to take lessons, to learn how to edge and how to control. They do not have to practice or master skills. It is easy, just go do it! And, get yourself killed.
In addition, Mauna Kea has made me aware of another problem that compounds the basic snowboard problems: altitude effects. Mauna Kea at 4,200 meters (13,796 feet) is about 2,000 feet higher than most resorts in the high Rockies. And that last 1,000 feet can have the kick of a full-grown mule. At that altitude, our vehicles have lost 45 percent of their power and so have skiers and snowboarders. Their thinking, judgment and response is affected and slowed. And those who are not in good physical condition or have not mastered skills, may find themselves confused and in trouble. They become clumsy, misjudge conditions and slopes and they don’t know what is happening to them.
As the Mauna Kea ski area operator, the Ski Shop Hawaii will be tripling our safety education program—especially for the snowboarders—in the ski shop, with our ski patrol, in our ski school and on Mauna Kea.
We emphasize that skiing and snowboarding are physically demanding sports and physical conditioning is an important part of safety. We also emphasize that ski or snowboard skills and techniques are an important part of safety. Lessons are highly recommended to learn how to control skis or snowboards under all conditions. We publish 10 pre-season advisories for 10 weeks before the season, for the snowplayers. These cover everything from wearing sun glasses to the effects of high altitude and very cold temperatures.
In addition, we do not take overweight and out-of-condition people up Mauna Kea. We do not take young children or teenagers under 15 years of age up Mauna Kea on all-day ski trips. We do encourage young people to come up and enjoy the wonderful snows of Mauna Kea, but only when they are with someone who can take them down to lower altitude quickly if they get sick.
We in the ski/snowboard industry know the hazards and the safety that is required. It is the responsibility of all to inform and educate new skiers and snowboarders about the hazards, the safety and the skills that are needed. It is neglect by the industry that makes the snowboarders so reckless.
Aloha from Mauna Kea.
