DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Snowboarding

"Snowboarding is no longer new, no longer extreme, and - now that your mom knows how to ride - no longer quite as cool"   

THE big change on the slopes of the last 30 years has been the arrival of the snowboard. But there is pretty clear evidence that it has reached its peak.  According to this article, sales of snowboard gear are down 21% in the last four years.  The number of skier days in the US is up by 16% since 2004.  Etc.

Similarly, after seeing a period of 300% growth between 1988 and 2004, "the sport is spluttering in the United States".

The two reasons for the decline seem to be:

1. Snowboarders are getting older, so can't go as often as they would like, now they have families...
2. The innovations in ski technology (twin tips, park skis, fat off-piste skis) have made a real difference, enabling skiing to regain its market share

It's also clear that snowboarding remains much more popular in the US than it is in France.  Even in this 'post-growth' environment, the reports suggest around 30% of slope users are snowboarders.  In France, it's running at around half this level - and lower in the more "traditional" resorts.

Even Les Arcs, home of les nouvelles glisses, including the "cult" 1983 film Apocalypse Snow, struggles to get much above 15%.

                                         

As snowboarding started to get going in the 1980s, even James Bond got in on the act, with a snowboarding scene in A View To A Kill...

Back to the present.  Here are the results of our 2012/13 survey:

% of slope users on snowboards:
Les Arcs (Xmas): 11%
Les Arcs (10-11/1): 15%
Les Arcs (11/3): 12%
Les Arcs (10-11/4): 17%
La Rosiere (9/1): 16%
Flaine (15/3): 13%
La Plagne (12/3): 12%
Le Grand-Bornand (8/1): 9%
Ste-Foy (13/3): 8%
Villars (14/3): 6%

Technical Note: All data is gathered via careful random sampling methods, with minimum sample sizes of at least 400 per measurement....