Slightly out of Place

You can buy snowboards in a lot of places. There’s online, of course. But there’s a lot of variety in retail. Low-end stuff is in your generic sporting goods stores, but you can step up the quality (or at least reputation) by going to REI.

Then there’s your small shops that focus on mountain stuff, with a summer set of gear that may include mountain bikes, small sailboats, patio equipment, or whatnot. Some of then will sell only snowboards, some will sell only skis, and some will sell both.

Put me in “both.”

Once I went to a shop where I had bought some ski poles. I was looking for I-don’t-remember-what when a thought hit me: There are lots of skis here, cross-country and downhill alike, but no snowboards. When I started talking with a clerk I realized why: I mentioned something about snowboarders and got the feeling that I had mentioned the worst kind of people who abuse children, or something even worse. I don’t shop there anymore.

On the other hand, I bought my skis as well as my first set of Flow bindings and some protective gear at a ski/snowboard shop.

Last year I went to a snowboard-only shop, and bought a Salomon Special. The young staffers suggested I talk with one of the older guys, a manager of some sort, who spent quite a while talking with me about boards and my likes and type of riding.

I went back on Saturday, to meet up with a friend and to see the latest gear. It was an enjoyable experience of talking about local conditions, and my friend pointed out some garish and ghastly changes in some of the equipment and its design. He also pointed out some innovative, promising new developments in bindings, boots, and boards.

But from time to time I felt out of place. On one side of the wall is a screen that shows a snowboarding movie, nonstop. Now, I can fantasize about making turns in powder snow as much as the next person, but there’s one thing I don’t like about snowboarding movies: The music. It’s … well, I’m not sure what it is, but it’s not my style. And in this case, it was playing all the time.

To be the out-of-step customer. At least there are ski and snowboard shops that don’t give me a headache.