Where Are the Kids?
For the lead editorial in our 40th Anniversary issue, we come up with a radical new idea—radical and powerful enough to move mountains and change the face of our sport. Gather round and listen carefully: the future of our sport is with the kids.
Oh, c’mon, you say, not that again! Yeah, again and again and again. That is, if we want a future.
It was five years ago that our industry conducted an Industry Summit at Charleston, S.C. It was all incredibly positive and everyone felt we were embarked on a wonderful, sustained course that would relaunch our industry and sport. As we reported exactly five years ago, “Right now, we have a total market that depends considerably on…what is inevitably a diminishing asset, the glorious baby boom generation. We are cosseting and pampering them…And this is smart. But at the same time we are setting about effectively targeting their kids as our future, and by inference, their kids’ kids…The NSAA board…deliberately focused on the 10- to 20-year-old age bracket as the most vital for the long-term future.”
For heaven’s sake, whatever happened? Five years later and we are still clinging to that gold-plated pacifier, the baby boom generation, patting ourselves on the back that reality will be cushioned by eight or so more years of boomer bounty.
Instead of investing for the long-term future, our industry has concentrated on short-term tactics such as discount wars. It has invested in expansion, not to increase the participant base, but as a hook to gain market share and sell real estate. It has invested in clever and successful ways to extract ever more cash from our existing customers. It’s a nasty, scratchy arena we operate in and we are so fixated on the competitive mechanisms of immediate winning that we seem unaware of the hideous prospects ahead if we fail to provide for a longer-term future. (The unpublicized flip side to NSAA’s Growth Model is the ugly picture it shows if we fail to rouse ourselves.)
The assumptions we made about the so-called Echo Boom generation may have been on-target numerically, but we forgot that they might be very different from their parents. Though many individual areas are doing a great job of enticing these kids, there just isn’t the industry-wide commitment needed.
What we’d love to see is for our major resorts to rise above their “Gotcha” marketing tactics and at least partially turn themselves into learn-to-ski mills. Forget the model that says new skiers and boarders are created at small breeder and feeder areas and adopt the European model that says the place to learn to ski is Davos or St. Moritz or St. Anton or Cortina. On the cusp of our period of most explosive growth, Stowe, Sun Valley and Mont Tremblant were hustling for beginners, promoting their learn-to-ski weeks.
In today’s status-obsessed society, the ski world has morphed into true trophy status—rich and self-indulgent. And it’s not helping at all in attracting the young enthusiasts we so desperately need. Nor is it helping the rest of the ski world as it struggles both with government regulators and mainstream environmentalists. Sympathy towards our sport is increasingly hard to find and politicians are wary of us as elitists.
It’s time to refocus—to commit to an industry culture that believes that kids are our future. It’s later than you think!
Forest Service Needs to Step Up Capacity Review Process
Beat von Allmen, Alpentech
In the 1980s it was acceptable for skiers to stand in line in lift corrals for a third of their day at a resort in order to get on lifts that would eat up another third of the day carrying them up the hill. Consequently, it was typical to find the slopes and trails occupied by a third of all skiers at one time (SAOT). Today, ski areas cannot get away with long lines and slow lifts and the high-speed, high-capacity lifts now being used have had a significant impact on trail densities. It is now more common to spend a sixth of the total time at a ski area on line and perhaps an additional sixth on lifts, making it possible to satisfy our new-age habit of spending two-thirds of the day skiing and riding (or spending more time in slopeside restaurants). As a result, despite the relatively static skier-visit numbers over the last two decades, the population on the trails and at slopeside stops at a fully upgraded ski area has doubled since the 1980s.
When the faster lifts were being introduced, marketing departments saw how important such improvements would be for keeping or improving market share and exerted their influence in deciding lift specifications. Lift manufacturers had a heyday selling quads and are now promoting six-packs and eight-passenger chairs. Much less attention has been paid to the capacity of trails. And now skier and snowboarder visits have set new records in many regions this past season, according to the National Ski Areas Association’s Kottke report. As it turns out, many of those visitors are wearing helmets to protect themselves on overcrowded runs.
As the U.S. Forest Service goes about updating its regional forest plans, winter sports must be a central theme. Since environmentally sustainable mountain use during the summer is a fraction of winter capacity, site capacity really should be determined by winter use numbers. That brings the focus to our trails. Besides the new lifts, shifts in use patterns are also a result of new gliding tools, faster learning curves, intermediates enjoying expert terrain, carving fast without being able to see around bends, wearing helmets and separate learning areas. It all contributes to new carrying capacity measurements, which should never lose sight of a resort’s quality of service. The awesome task ahead will be to satisfy the hunger for more space.
Unfortunately, fears over liability have prevented resort operators from discussing trail capacity limits. As a result, the 1985 Wasatch National Forest Plan, for example, had to base SAOT on lift capacities. A more precise projection of trail capacity would better reflect the quality of the experience on the slopes. And in order to properly serve the increased numbers actually on the slopes, as well as release management from some of the fear of lawsuits and give skiers and riders the room they expect, the updated forest plans (which will be in use for at least the next 10 years) should aim at doubling trail capacity, even for a flat market. In some instances that should be accompanied by expanded ski permit boundaries.
However, before the overcrowding on trails can be properly adjusted, individual master plans will have to be approved. Such approvals would probably take between two and five years after the completion of the current regional updates to forest plans. In all likelihood, the regional Forest Service updates could take another two years to complete. Add that to the time it takes to complete master plan environmental impact statements and the subsequent lawsuits brought to refine them, and it becomes clear skiers and snowboarders will not see relief from crowded slopes in this decade! Many of them will leave the sport in frustration as the Forest Service grapples with overcrowding. Late decisions, a common occurrence in government, will only aggravate the problem. Taking too long to make the vital decisions needed by ski areas located on national forests could make it impossible to survive in a competitive market. Because of this, it might be time for forest administrators to hire additional staff so they can complete their plans in a timely manner. It would help in getting such a big job done ahead of schedule and start to give our customers the elbow room they desire.
If the Shoe Fits, Customers Are More Likely to Come Back
by Steve Cohen
Imagine you’ve heard only rave reviews about an expensive new restaurant in town. The place is definitely a budget-stretcher, but you decide to give it a go. Upon arrival, you’re shepherded to the back of a long line that snakes out of the restaurant. You wait an hour to be seated at a table adjacent to the noisy kitchen—and it’s set with chipped glassware and bent cutlery. A rookie chef and waiter are assigned to prepare and serve your meal. Which arrives cold. Regulars insist the experience gets much better the more often you dine. Would you come back again?
This story may be good for a chuckle, but that’s pretty much how our industry has been greeting new customers for the last few decades. We force them to wait on long lines to rent outdated, ill-maintained gear. Worse yet, they are usually outfitted—and later instructed—by a resort’s least experienced personnel. Before resort operators seek to pin blame on equipment suppliers or the Professional Ski Instructors of America, it might be helpful to look at their own operations.
No doubt the most neglected aspect of the rental process is the proper fitting of boots. As all experienced skiers know, if a boot fits poorly or causes pain, there is little chance of skiing well—even if the skier executes the proper maneuvers. It’s an old axiom that rental shops are to skiing as MASH units are to medicine. Of course, we entrust triage to a battalion of 16-year-olds armed with nothing more than a screwdriver and a sizing stick. Sure speed is of the essence on a blitzkrieg Saturday morning, but a little knowledge goes a long way and often saves time. Concern for fit must always be part of the equation.
It’s easy to fit boots properly and fast in a rental shop without getting into extensive custom boot fitting. Make sure all your boot techs are professionally trained in MASH-type boot fitting techniques that can quickly solve basic boot fit problems. Your rental staff should also have some basic fitting tools and add-on fitting accessories for use or sale. Here are some core values that should be integrated into every rental operation.
Prepare your customers for the most uniquely-fitting footwear they will every experience. On all your rental literature and on prominently posted signs within the rental shop, tell your customers:
- Pant cuffs go outside the boots, not inside where they cause shin discomfort and impinge circulation, making feet feel cold or numb.
- One pair of light-to medium-weight ski specific socks will keep you warmer than three pairs of hunting socks.
- Boots are supposed to fit like a firm handshake and your toes are supposed to touch the front of the boot when you stand up.
Let your rental techs experience what your customers do. Have them size each other in oversized boots and go skiing. Experience the wonder of toe bang and heel lift. Then try a pair of boots that are too small and cause pain. Have them ski with their cuffs tucked in their pants And just to make sure they haven’t missed the complete range of rental experiences, have them ski with multiple pairs of thick socks and see how long it takes for their shins to chafe and their feet to go numb.
Have all the rental techs measure each others feet and try boots on according to the Brannock device so they are familiar with the Mondopoint conversions. It’s also a good idea to use half-inch and one-inch wood dowels (available at any hardware store) as sizing rods so that techs and customers can clearly see when there is proper spacing within the boot. Cut the dowels to two-foot lengths. With the liner removed and the toes lightly touching the front of the boot, the half-inch dowel should fit between the heel and the shell. Use the one-inch dowels to illustrate an oversized fit.
Let’s face it: not everyone is a slam-dunk fit. Be prepared to invest a few minutes with difficult-to-fit customers and have basic fit aids, like tongue pads, trimmable aftermarket footbeds and heel lifts, on hand for free use or for sale.
And remember, when the rental has ended, your job hasn’t. Rental boots, given their high utilization and the propensity for their users to fall and get snow inside the liners, need to be stored on a dryer system. Drying boots will make your rental fleet last longer and provide the customers with a more comfortable experience. Liners and insoles need to be inspected after each use to ensure they are properly seated and that no toe warmers have been inadvertently left inside. They should be periodically removed for inspection to ensure seams are intact and that no wrinkles have developed.
It’s time the snowsports industry begins treating rental customers with the same dignity, respect and attention we afford our prospective resort real estate buyers. With a little knowledge and attention to detail, your rental operation can be a key strategy in an improved conversion program as well as a profit generator.
Steve Cohen is the director of sales and marketing for MasterFit University. For information on MasterFit training programs and fit aid products call 800-575-4348 or log on to www.masterfitenterprises.com.
