I was kicked off countless ski areas back in the 1960s, '70s and even in the '80s," Sims says of the difficulties he once encountered from the established Alpine ski community. (Atkin)In the early 1980's snowboarding began to be accepted by a few resorts. The first snowboarder hit the slopes of Whistler, British Columbia, around 1981. The call came up to ski patrol director Ken Newington. The call was from a lift operator who said there was a guy with a board that wanted to go up the mountain. Ken told the operator to send him up and he asked Hugh O'Reilly, who is now Whistler's Mayor, to take him out on the slopes and check him out. O'Reilly took him to the top of one of the slopes and after 300 or 400 yards decided he looked fine. Ken then issued him a sticker for the guy's board with Ken's signature on it so he could ride the lifts without any problems. (Andrew, pg. 12)Seventeen years later it is expected that 4.5 million snowboarders will hit the slopes this season. That is three times the number in 1990. Resorts like snowboarders now; the one-time outlaws have become the resorts' salvation. Snowboarders account for seventy percent of business for the resorts in early winter. (Gordon) Resorts also realize that snowboarders love their sport and have money to spend. The average boarder is on the slopes three times as often per year as the average skier. (Wallace, pg. 8.13) With all of the attention going to snowboarding with all of its high-flying aerial maneuvers, skiing had to turn to its bad boys as the future of the sport to get young people interested in the sport. Ski resorts are loosening up some of the restrictions on the mountain giving skiers a chance to go for the big air, much like snowboarders have been doing, against regulations, for years. Major ski resorts are opening up their snowboard parks to skiers so they can push the extreme image in their marketing campaigns. (Hood) Snowboarding has opened a whole ...
