After reading the article called War and Piste - the battle between skiers and boarders at, http://blogs.smh.com.au/travel/archives/2007/06/war_and_piste_-_the_battle_between_skiers_and_boarders_bitch_fest_or_love_in.html
This question arose,
“Which team do you bat for - Knuckle dragger or double planker? Ever been cut off by a boarder, abused by a skier? Is it a modern day love in with past ills forgotten or does the war still exist?”
This question has so many different answers depending on who you are and who your friends are. Although for someone to say that the war does not exist, they are mistaken. Skiers and snowboarders will always have a bit of a disagreement about the two sports. It could be about the difficulty, the fan basis, or even how cool they each are. Sure, snowboarders have the much more hip look, but you can’t knock the skiers completely. There is that select few of free ride skiers who rock the same outfits as the boarders. At my school the boarders and the free ride skiers would train together and go to events together. They never treated each other different based on what equipment they went down the hill on. Now for racers, that was a different story. The snowboarders always gave the ski racers a hard time for their outfits. They were always black and actually fit around their wastes. But, if a ski racer were to wear a coat or snow pants of a snowboard company they would be ridiculed even more. So in the sense of clothing a ski racer couldn’t win with a boarder.
The argument of what sport is more difficult often comes up. The snowboarders would argue that going twenty feet in the air upside down is much harder that just going down the hill. Then the skiers would argue that going around 70 mph down a mountain on a certain course is much more difficult.
These debates are always happening on the mountain. Friends or not so good of friends will argue about this issue. This argument can be seen as a war because it is one side against the other, trying to be the victorious one, with the idea of victory knowing that they are the better sport. This victory will never be able to be accomplished. The idea of one being better of the other is only an idea, an opinion. There is no facts that will ever be able to prove. Although the sports are similar in the fact that they consist of some sort of long board on your feet while you go down a mountain, which is the only similarity. The technique between the two is completely different. What I am trying to say is that this war should no longer exist. People need to take each sport for what they are individually.
This is a tough thing to do for anyone who skis or snowboards. Skiers will always fight for skiing and boarders for snowboarding. This war is a never-ending war. No persuasion will ever be able to stop this. There simply is no correct side of the argument.
