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A basic point of many studies in sociology is that groups of people go to great lengths to define themselves. Often this means making up or exaggerating differences with another group. So Group A goes to great lengths to define itself as being different from Group B. This is true even when the group speaks the same language, practices (by and large) the same religion, and so forth.

We see this phenomenon played out in the long-running theme of “skiers versus snowboarders.”

Some snowboarding folks have invested a great deal of energy in defining themselves in opposition to skiers. “We’re NOT skiers,” they insist. They chafe under the fact that in the Winter Olympics, snowboarding is a discipline within the umbrella of skiing. The International Olympic Committee decided to let the FIS (the international ski federation) decide who enters the games as a snowboarder.

I imagine that there is also a dispute within the U.S. Olympic bureaucracy over the distribution of training funds between the snowboarders and the skiers.

So what is the response of an ordinary guy who simply likes to ride, and talk about it?

When I take my gear out to the mountain, what am I’m doing? Am I “going snowboarding” or “going skiing?” Or should I comply with the snowboarding language police, and say that I will be “riding?”

What about my destination, that place with chair lifts, groomed trails, bumps, lodges, and the like? Are they “ski areas?” Or perhaps, in the spirit of inclusion, “ski and snowboard areas?” The latter approach is as clumsy as the “he or she” formulation that sometimes appears in attempts at gender-neutral language.

Here’s another question. Since some of these places seem to have more folks on snowboards than skis, are they actually “snowboard areas?”

Face it, the term “ski and snowboard area” is ungainly. Even worse would be “ski, snowboard, and tubing areas.” Some “ski” areas also offer rides on inner tubes, you know.

I’d say that most of the time, “ski” and its variants is good enough. If someone says “are you going skiing this weekend,” I don’t get indignant. Sometimes the person knows that I’m on a snowboard these days, but they resort to “ski” out of convenience. If they don’t know that, I may something like “yes, but I’ll be taking my snowboard.” I do that to introduce the idea that yes, grown-ups can ride.

I first was a skier for several years before I took up the snowboard, so that’s one reason why the “ski versus snowboard” controversy has all the reality of “professional wrestling” to me. But the reasons to be say “ski” or “ski area” have more to do with ease of communication than anything else.

Ski is one syllable. Snowboard is two syllables. Skiing is two syllables; snowboarding is three.

The term that some folks prefer to describe what happens on a snowboard–riding–is as long as the word skiing, and thus has no advantage in the ease-of-use category. Again, it comes back to that need to be different. Eh, if you wish.

Now there’s one time where the distinction makes a difference, when precision is important, and that’s when you are talking about techniques. In skiing, you make parallel turns. In telemark skiing, you have a free heel. In snowboarding, you alternate between heel and toe edge. And so forth.

Whatever you call it, go out and do it while winter is on.

GraysOnTrays.com is all about spreading the joy of snowboarding to adults. And now we’ve got t-shirts to prove it! The shirts come in gray (naturally!) and feature a colorful emblem.

These shirts are long-sleeve cotton tees. You can get further information (including a close-up of the stylized graphic) and order shirts at the Grays on Trays t-shirt page.

The other day I took a family friend out for a private lesson. It worked out fine, with numerous top-to-bottom runs. But the session was another example of the changing market in bindings.

Read this blog (or its associated web site) for long, and you’ll know that I’m a vocal fan of the kinds of bindings produced by Flow: one large cap over the foot, secured by four ratchets adjusted in the shop (or at home), and one lever in the highback.

Snap the highback into place, and bam!, you’re sliding. No need for threading ratchets after every run, stopping over for two minutes at a time, or getting wet butt syndrome by threading the ratchets while sitting down.

So today I go to one of the local ski hills. It’s not one that I have been to yet this season, though I always enjoy going there.

I guided my student through the rental shop. First we got the board, and set the bindings (“goofy with a slight duck,” I said.) The bindings were the standard-issue straps.

It made me long for the days of step-in bindings. Not that I prefer those to Flow bindings, but I do prefer them to straps, especially for beginners. I always say that learning to ride is hard enough without having to deal with ornery bindings.

Sure enough, I was right. My student today did very well in sliding and making turns, but had a lot of difficulty with the straps. Since the runs in the Midwest are at the most 2 minutes long, that is a significant sinkhole for time.

Someone in the rental shop told me that they replaced all the step-ins last season. They couldn’t get enough of them, or something.

So that makes two ski hills that I know of that have dropped step-ins in the last two years.

I’ve got a word for the shops: go with the Flow(s).

Yesterday I also gave a lesson, to a 13-year old girl I’ll call Ambre. Ambre had trouble with heel side turns, as do many novices. But on toe side turns, she did pretty well, especially for a never-ever.

She did even better once she starting standing up straight from the waist up. Though there are times when you want to be close to the ground, casual snowboarding isn’t one of them. Make your turns by applying pressure to the appropriate side of the board, but don’t try to help things by leaning your torso over the board. That only makes you into a Tower of Pisa–though in this case, a tower that will fall soon, not centuries from now.

In creating the edge pressure required to turn, use your legs and especially toes, and heels.

Though I’ve never been much of a gearhead, yesterday I tried out two new pieces of snowboarding gear.

The first was a new set of gloves. They’ve got some built-in wrist guards, designed to disperse the forces of a sudden impact so that you don’t suffer a fractured wrist. Did you know that wrist injuries are the most common injuries in snowboarding? I’ve suffered two mild sprains in my time, the first coming on my second day out.

I’ll have more to say about these gloves later, but I was pleased with their performance as gloves. I didn’t get to sample their effectiveness in avoiding injury, thankfully.

The second piece of snowboarding gear I sampled was an all-mountain snowboard. Thanks to being an instructor, I came across a guy who is a sales rep. He hooked me up with a new board for a few hours. When I held it in my hand and compared it with my current board, it didn’t feel any lighter. But it felt lighter when it was attached to my feet. Perhaps that’s because it seemed to have a quicker edge-to-edge response.

It didn’t ride too well for me, though; I wiped out on heelside turns several times. Though I rarely fall these days, it could have been operator error–an unfamiliarity with the board. Perhaps I’ll try it again next week.

Can you learn to ride from playing a game of cards? Not likely, but you might benefit from some Snowboard Training Cards.

Produced by Sport Moves, the pack contains 60 cards. The cards are coated, just like the standard set that you would use for poker.

Each card has information on both front and back side, with both text and graphics. The graphics of snowboarders engaged in various movements are keyed to numbered paragraphs.

Here’s the table of contents:

Before the lift covers stance, edges, board flex, the fall line, the responsibility code and trail markers, and a variety of basic movements.

Getting moving tells you about surface and chair lifts, slide slips, traverses, garlands, the falling leaf, and connecting turns.

Riding conditions take you through how changes in the snow and terrain can affect what you do while snowboarding.

freestyle and park cards address safety concerns and a variety of trick maneuvers, including grabs, rails, and the halfpipe.

Competition is a short topic, with one card each discussing the basics of alpine racing, boardercross, halfpipe competitions, and slopestyle.

The home practice routine gives a workout routine.

Bonus drills continue the theme, but require equipment such as a balance board or a trampoline, or getting on the mountain.

Finally equipment cards describe the “3 b’s” of boots, boards, and bindings, helping you figure out what to buy.

The cards won’t substitute for lessons or time on the snow, but they can be a helpful introduction or refresher. At under $10–about the cost of an over-priced, greasy lunch slopeside–it could be money well spent.

You can buy a pack through the Grays on Trays store.

ESPN.com reminds us that the late Gerald Ford was not only a president of the United States, but an outstanding athlete unafraid to try new sports as an adult:

Though Ford first began skiing in 1939 in New England [26 years old is a fairly late age for a never-ever], his first taste of the slopes of the Rockies came in a 1968 vacation. Among his contributions to Colorado skiing was his role in bringing two World Alpine Ski Championships to the state, providing a unique opportunity for Colorado to showcase its world-class venue.

In 1982, Ford established the Ford Cup in Vail, which is now called the American Ski Classic.

Whether Ford ever thought of trying snowboarding, I don’t know. He was 70 years old in 1983, after all, around the time that riding was still in its infancy. But if snowboarding had developed sooner than it did, we just might have had a snowboarding president, and perhaps an end to the tired “shredder dude” image.

(Bindings: One of those perpetual debating points among riders. Here’s my view.)

I have an 3-year old pair of Flow bindings and I love ’em. One reason is that straps are too complicated for me. I know that sounds like I am an idiot, but there you go. The fact that I was a novice rider when I tried them may have had something to do with it.

The switch to Flows came when, at the end of one run, I spent 5 minutes, without success, trying to unlatch a pair of (cheap, used) strap bindings. I then found a way to pull my feet out of my boots, with straps still buckled in. I walked, in stocking feet, to my car and then drove to my favorite ski shop, where I bought both a pair of Flow FR-11 bindings and some Ride boots.

What do I like about Flows? Obviously, no messing with the tiny notches on the strap bindings. Plus, getting into the binding is quick: slide in foot, push lever from its open position to a closed one, and go. It’s like putting on a pair of loafers compared with lacing up tennis shoes. While other riders are messing with their straps at the top of the hill, I’m already sliding away. Sometimes I even start sliding before I put the lever into place. It’s that easy.

A bonus is that you don’t have as much bending or crouching–good for the aging body.

Some people have praised Flows for eliminating pressure points that they got from straps. As I never stayed on straps long enough for this to be an issue, I can’t speak to it.

There are several raps against Flows. Some of it is style prejudice–the “you’re not a REAL snowboarder unless you do this” nonsense. I’ve read some complaints that they are somehow less secure than straps. I doubt that; the Flow professional team regularly medals at freestyle events, suggesting that the binding style is quite suitable for jumping in the air, if that’s your thing.

The most legitimate knock on Flows is that they tend to be heavier than a strap binding. This is probably true of the older versions such as the ones that I have. But I have also read that the Flow NXT (newer models) are much lighter than the old ones.

I think that Flows would be good for a beginner (and many other riders), since it simplifies time on the snow at a point when so many things are new and different, if not difficult.

During a clinic last week, we pretended to be new students. We took a tow rope (one foot out) halfway up the bunny hill and sat down for a few minutes. Then we had to get the free feet into a binding.

At that point, the lever that slips into the highback can get in the way. If for some reason I have a foot out and the ground isn’t flat, I often find it easier to do a flip (we call it a “turtle roll”) so that I am facing uphill. Then I dig my foot into the binding, slap the lever into place, and stand up toeside. (Obviously if I want to start out heelside, then I have to roll again.) Rolling may not be an easy task for a beginner.

As for the k2 cinch, I tried them one day and wasn’t impressed. It felt awkward getting in, for one thing. In my Flow bindings, my foot goes in flat. In the Cinch, the toes go in, followed by the heel, followed by the heel pushing down an elevator of some sort. That’s an extra step that I found rather weird and inexplicable.

The word I’ve read is that it’s not quite ready for prime time; Flow has their model going for a while now, but the Cinch is still new and the first year presented some problems. I think this may be the third year for the Cinch.

One guy whose judgment I normally trust on snowboarding thinks that both the Flow and the Cinch have too many moving parts, which means that they are susceptible to breaking down. He prefers straps. Obviously, I don’t share his conclusion.

You can find a lot of discussion about bindings at either http://snowboard.colonies.com/forums/forum/21/ or at http://www.graysontrays.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9

By the way, I wouldn’t recommend driving in snowboard boots, at least based on my one experience. There wasn’t enough give in my boot to make me feel comfortable controlling the pedal(s). Then again, I was using a clutch, too.

Given the season (Christmas), it’s appropriate to think about the intersection of sport and spirituality. The latest issue of SkiPress World offers a short blurb on

West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origin of Belief.

The magazine says that the book is “just your average mix of surfing, searching, science, myth,” and so forth, but says “the boy can write.”

Too many people get caught up in “snowboard culture,” being “real” instead of a “poser,” and so forth. Fortunately for us Grays on Trays, we’ve left high school a while ago.

Here’s what I recently wrote in a forum (not on graysontrays.com) in which someone (a youngster, I believed) had asked about identifying “real” snowboarders.

Snowboard culture? What’s that?

Seriously, I pay no attention to it. I just go out and ride whatever suits me at the time–gentle cruising, bombing it down the hill, experimenting with the pipe, watching some people do freestyle tricks that I will never attempt, let alone master. As long as I treat people with respect, I figure that life it too short to worry about social status, pecking orders, whether or not somebody is a “real” snowboarder, or what anyone else thinks of my riding gear, clothing, skills, etc.