"Grays on Trays is one of the best introductions to snowboarding on the web--regardless of your age." -- Erika Dillman, Outdoors Online: An Internet Guide to Everything Wild & Green (Keep It Clean, Keep It Green) July 22, 2008: Get LinkedIn Interested in meeting other professionals who have an interest in snowboarding? Join LinkedIn and do a search on the "Groups" tab for "Grays on Trays." July 12, 2008: Take a Prudent and Interesting Risk Tony Snow, the late White House press secretary, told graduating college seniors to "Take a prudent and interesting risk." Sounds like snowboarding to us. See the Grays on Trays blog. June 8, 2008: Summer sliding If you'd like to do some dryland training during the summer, check out some information about skateboards on the Grays on Trays blog. Grays on Trays is an online resource for adult snowboarders and adults who are interested in riding, whether novice or advanced. Why We're Here Why a site geared to adults? We enjoy snowboarding, but find that most existing publications dealing with riding aren't written for adults; they're written for kids. Read a few of them and you'll understand. We think that learning how to ride a snowboard is enough of a challenge. You shouldn't have to put up with an environment that make you feel like you have returned to high school or entered a foreign land that is indifferent or even hostile to you. That's why Grays on Trays was created--to give the adult a chance to read about snowboarding in a grown-up fashion. Instead of mocking the achievements of grown-ups--"Grandpas don't snowboard"--we celebrate them. By the way, "Grays on trays" as a term was first used by adolescents to insult grown-up snowboarders. Today, we embrace it and relish the chance to blow away stereotypes. One 64-year old snowboarder told the Associated Press, "I love the term. I think it's the ultimate compliment. If we keep active, we can contribute to the participation. Everybody's gaining from it." What You'll Find Here at GraysOnTrays.com Our goal at GraysOnTrays is to help the grown-up rider by providing information, encouragement, and a place where a community can develop. If you're curious about snowboarding but have not tried it yet, know that you're not crazy for having an interest, and you're not going through a mid-life crisis. (If you are, well, that's between you and your deity and your family members.) We don't try to mimic some sort of snowboarding attitude or culture; we're just here to encourage the love of the sport. So let's get a quick lay of the land. Why Ride? gives you some reasons--you guessed it--why people ride. We also let some Grays Speak about what they think is so great about this sport. If you look at the profiles of some adult riders, you may find someone just like you. You're not alone! Snowboarding is unique, yet it's like some other sports, so you may already have experience using some of the required skills. Still, we highly recommend that on your first day out you take lessons. One reason to take lessons is that you're more likely to get hurt if you don't have proper instruction. Consider this and some other facts from the safety first page. If you have a lot of friends who are skiers, you might read riders v. skiers to get some ideas of how to deal with the conflict between the two groups. It's a diminishing problem, but there is an interesting history to it. One great thing about snowboarding is that there is always room for improving your skills, should you wish. One way to improve is to purchase your own equipment. Gear 101 gives a quick rundown on the types of equipment. On the slopes, you'll probably consult a trail map; our skills progression page is a map that tells you how well you are progressing. As you master the fundamentals, you may wish to experiment with the various styles of riding, which include cruising on groomed trails, riding in the back country, and freestyle tricks in the terrain park. And there's nothing to hone your skills like engaging in some friendly Icompetition. Of course, snowboarding adults are competing against each other in real life anyway, so if you want to simply enjoy the ride on the mountain, that's OK, too. Aside from its on-slope thrills and challenges, snowboarding is an interesting subject on its own. Lots of kids come to this and other sites looking for information about the history of the sport. The statistics page offers some interesting facts, including this one: there are over 1,000,000 adult snowboarders. They're found at any number of the many slopes in our resort listing. Too Fun to Leave to the Kids That's the quick review of Grays on Trays, the web site. We hope it is a tool that will help you become part of Grays on Trays, the growing number of adults who prefer getting out in the winter to sinking into the couch. Poke around the site. Go to our discussion board and meet others who have learned the appeal of snowboarding for grown-ups. Ask questions. Encourage others with you experience. Introduce yourself; you probably have something to offer someone else. And above all, don't be afraid to learn. Snowboarding is too fun to leave to the kids. Get the Feed There's a lot to this site, but the feature that is most frequently updated feature is the Grays on Trays blog. Put the Grays on Trays RSS feed into your blog reader and receive updates automatically.