Making Snowboarding Safe for Boring Adults

If grandpa wants a new snowboard for Christmas, will the young-uns still want to ride?

People used to take up snowboarding because it is cool. Perhaps some people still do. If you read snowboarding magazines and web sites, you will find that “steeze” (style) is important. So is image and presentation: witness the emphasis in boards on creating the right graphic art. (Graphic art … I mean that in both senses of the word.)

Teenagers and young adults are still the largest single segment of snowboarding, and there is nothing that some of them fear more than their ideas, likes, habits, and so forth, being picked up by the older generations–going mainstream, selling out, what have you.

The web site Digital Media Wire says that apple’s iPod faces a new challenge in the marketplace: so many adults are buying the MP3 players that the product is losing its cachet among the young. (I admit to finding an iPod useful to dealing with the monotony of work outs at the gym.)

“The biggest year over year increase in iPod ownership: People between 30-49, who comprised 12% of iPod owners in 2005, and 33% in 2006.”

Is that a good thing for Apple? Not entirely, says the site. The rise of the older market may mean a decline in the younger one. “Teenage perception that [the iPod is] Yesterday’s News because of Grandpa’s fancy new Nano could mark the beginning of a product shift.”

The article then mentions GraysOnTrays.com, and the phenomenon of adult ridership. It notes that the old folks haven’t driven the younger crowd away:

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There are certainly products that go beyond trendsetting rules. Snowboarding, for example, continues to be one of the largest growth sports in the U.S. Between 2000-2005, the number of snowboarders increased 50%, and between 1997-2002 the number of snowboarders aged 35 and up rose 400%, according to graysontrays.com. In fact, during the largest period of growth, 1996-2004, the median age of snowboarders remained about the same at 21, which means the increase in old folks on snowboards has not affected the teenage perception that it’s a cool sport.
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See? We can all play together, tweens, teens, twentysomethings, and grays on trays. Whatever your initial motivation for getting on the slopes, you’ll find that snowboarding is a great activity. Hip kids? Sure. Boring adults? Come join the party!