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Show Wasatch EDITORIAL: Canyon Reporter hae An interesting thing happened at the recent SIA ski show in Las Vegas. The snowboard side screamed like a twisted combination of the mosh pit at a House of - Pain show, and the trading floor on the Chicago _ Mercantile Exchange. On the ski side you could hear crickets chirping. Being a skier I was a little disturbed to see this. After looking a little deeper, however, it was _ possible to see the troubles weren’t overwhelming. and stand out. Skiing has an image problem. Extreme skiers refuse to be called “extreme skiers” out of some misplaced attempt to be cool. “Naw man, driftwood core. We use driftwood, because we are earth friendly...and stuff.” Many of the professional buyers were blowing right by the small startups. As one buyer © told me: “T buy this stuff for a living, and I don’t care if you have the I am a casual extremist”, or professional skier, ski model, alpinist, ski mountaineer. Whatever. When the best riders, the coolest booth, and some hottie wearing a g-string. If you don’t look like you can_ deliver product on time, and back it up with guarantees, then I am not buying. This is my job!” market names you, accept it and use the name to build the sport. You don’t see Nordic ski jumpers saying, “TI - am not a ski jumper, I am a gravity fighter!” Suck it up, ‘On the snowboard side rubberized skirts won the on a tray was able to get some kind of pass into the show. If you weren’t CEO of your own snowboard Dominator 2000? It has a genuine Baobob driftwood core!” ) company than you couldn’t get the time of day. Daddy’s VISA is sponsoring a lot of small snowboard enterprises. I can picture the marketing meeting that led to some of these Bill Gatesian startup companies. _ The snowboard side was fascinating, and it is where the money is moving, but I would hate to be a big gun betting my future on the direction of the snowboard industry. It is young and insolent, and has a vicious financial spanking coming. On the ski side the troubles were fairly obvious; I “Dad, dude, I have a wicked business idea. You _. know how you are always telling me to get a job? Well how about I start a snowboard company. I’m gonna make the boards all black, and we’Il call em ~ 666PUNISHERS. There’s a girl know who draws a lot of skull pictures on her notebooks, y’know dripping blood and stuff, she says she will draw the image for the bottom....and maybe we’ll have some p-tex or something on the bases.” 7 have seen World War | reunions that were busier and Francisco, than death defying aerial stunts. Here’s my had more energy. Skiing has lost sight of it’s inherent ~ coolness. One large company was reintroducing the circa 1984 suit that Scott Schmidt wore in Blizzard of Aaahhhhh’s. I could smell the stagnation from my _ advice: I love that you are in touch with your feminine side, but a little grunge wouldn’t kill you. You are not....hip. So here we are; Snowboarding is mien the industry with youth, cash, and excitement; Skiers are | getting edgy because of some misplaced fear that their industry will disappear. Relax, it’s all good. Snowboarding has limitations, as does skiing, and there ~ hotel room. You could see the “extreme skier’s” (they It was hard to walk by some of these booths. Six kids sitting around a pile of shiny boards, smoking grits, with a token pierced, tattooed, and rubberized young woman hanging on. You had to look straight ahead to avoid the spiel that would invariably follow. “Sir, have you seen our dominator 2000, it has a genuine Baobob WHERE i hate to be called that, but P'll get to that in a moment) sneaking over to the snowboard side for clothing sponsors. SO many companies are offering the same strong purples and yellows, in essentially the same styles, that it is hard for the leading edge skiers to wear something | ARE YOU? 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Freestyle skiers on the other hand have an image problem that is brutal. They are wearing bright colors with George Jetson-style epaulets. Big flashy knee patches, goggles turned backwards, and highlighted hair with more mousse than a runway model. When they jump they do things named “Screamin’ Semen”, and “Purple Nurple.”’ These names are more reminis- — cent of drinks you can get in the Castro section of San “Sir, have you seen our day. It appeared as if every dink who has ever stepped _ be paid $60 to $100 per hour GANS _ At WCR Seminars we will teach you everything you need to know to program a web page. At the end of the day you will leave with_a fully functioning page on disk, or published to the internet if you choose. // Call 801 486.1388— for more information. Winter adventures at its PEAK! 1140 E. 3200 S. / Brickyard | 484.5044 Petey |