Gingersnap
12-08-2009, 10:39 AM
Colorado ski resorts alter approach as baby boomers fade away
By Scott Willoughby
The Denver Post
Posted: 12/08/2009 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 12/08/2009 05:59:37 AM MST
Ski resorts are catering more to young skiers with ramps and jumps, not ski runs. (Nathan W. Armes, Special to The Denver Post )As the nation's skiing populace ages, a massive face-lift appears inevitable.
Baby boomers, long the driving force behind the sport of skiing, may have reached their demographic peak on the slopes. And the diminishing virility of a traditionally robust skiing market has Colorado resorts searching for their own version of the little blue pill.
"We're talking maybe 5-7 years at this point until the boomers hang up their skis," said David Belin, 40, a lifelong skier from Boulder-based RRC Associates who led the Model for Growth research project for the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). "The resorts can't wait five years and go, 'Oh, what are we going to do to replace these boomers?' "
Colorado resorts are attempting to attract a new generation of skiers and snowboarders to replace the boomers without turning their backs on a group that has been their core customers. Among the most visible attractions are sprawling terrain parks and massive halfpipes designed to appeal to Generation Y skiers and snowboarders. There are now more than 60 terrain parks in Colorado, an average of more than two per resort, and a dozen halfpipes. Indicative of their popularity is Echo Mountain, a 50-acre dedicated terrain park just 35 miles from Denver, which had 18,758 visitors during its first full year of operation in 2006-07 and 30,208 visitors last year.
The most recent statistics from NSAA serve to heighten the urgency of finding new snow-sport participants. According to NSAA, a third of all resort visitors last year were 45 or older, a continued expansion among that age group. During the past decade, the percentage of visitors — defined as one skier or snowboarder riding a chairlift per day — age 45 to 54 has increased from 14.0 percent to 19.9 percent, with age groupings above 54 also showing an increase.
Overall industry figures, though, dipped to 57.1 million skier visits last year, down from 60.5 in 2007.
(snip)
"There's no question that a 16-year-old and a 60-year-old have differences. But they aren't so severe that it's problematic," said Ford Frick, 58, whose lifelong dedication to skis led him to work with NSAA as a managing director of Denver's BBC Research & Consulting. "We learned to ski differently. The old-school method was that you learned technical prowess that mimicked the form and function of a ski racer. That's clearly not the dominant form today. Young skiers are not sitting around discussing the carving sensation."
Rather, younger skiers and riders such as Williams pride themselves on individuality through self-taught form, using friends and even video footage as style council for techniques that are as much about inventing jumps as smearing powder.
"You fall down and realize it's not what you want to do, so you figure out what you need to do to stay on your feet," said Williams, adding that he learned to skateboard much the same way.
Accent on retaining skiers
While the more established boomer market clings to more conservative techniques, the "error" portion of the trial-and-error method may help explain the limited growth of skiing and snowboarding among younger generations. Belin's Model for Growth recognized retention of new participants as a significant obstacle in replacing the boomers.
"One key element we learned is that we estimated that only about 15 percent of those who try skiing and snowboarding continue with the sports," Belin said. "That number served as a real wake-up call that we are not doing enough as an industry to make them into lifelong participants."
An increased willingness by resorts to break from tradition could make a difference. Places such as Copper Mountain are hopeful that offering better training will encourage younger riders to stick with the sport until they've mastered it.
"We're trying to get people away from what we call the 'huck and hope' method — where they throw themselves off a jump, start spinning and hope it works out," Woodward at Copper director Ben Brown said. "This is just the next evolution of the sport, and we want to make sure we engage the next generation for a great experience for every kid that picks up skiing and snowboarding."
This a big deal for Colorado. I learned to ski as a little kid. Every public and private school, youth church group, Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts, and 4-H club along the Rockies had frequent and cheap ski trips and lessons for kids. Poverty was not an issue for skiers under 18. People got introduced to the sport early and you just about had to learn technique since there was no escaping the lessons.
Now, fewer kids learn alpine skiing and the boarders tend to hang it up after the second time they hit the ER for some totally avoidable injury. The resorts need to teach technique to the boarders and make it cheap.
Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13947928)
By Scott Willoughby
The Denver Post
Posted: 12/08/2009 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 12/08/2009 05:59:37 AM MST
Ski resorts are catering more to young skiers with ramps and jumps, not ski runs. (Nathan W. Armes, Special to The Denver Post )As the nation's skiing populace ages, a massive face-lift appears inevitable.
Baby boomers, long the driving force behind the sport of skiing, may have reached their demographic peak on the slopes. And the diminishing virility of a traditionally robust skiing market has Colorado resorts searching for their own version of the little blue pill.
"We're talking maybe 5-7 years at this point until the boomers hang up their skis," said David Belin, 40, a lifelong skier from Boulder-based RRC Associates who led the Model for Growth research project for the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). "The resorts can't wait five years and go, 'Oh, what are we going to do to replace these boomers?' "
Colorado resorts are attempting to attract a new generation of skiers and snowboarders to replace the boomers without turning their backs on a group that has been their core customers. Among the most visible attractions are sprawling terrain parks and massive halfpipes designed to appeal to Generation Y skiers and snowboarders. There are now more than 60 terrain parks in Colorado, an average of more than two per resort, and a dozen halfpipes. Indicative of their popularity is Echo Mountain, a 50-acre dedicated terrain park just 35 miles from Denver, which had 18,758 visitors during its first full year of operation in 2006-07 and 30,208 visitors last year.
The most recent statistics from NSAA serve to heighten the urgency of finding new snow-sport participants. According to NSAA, a third of all resort visitors last year were 45 or older, a continued expansion among that age group. During the past decade, the percentage of visitors — defined as one skier or snowboarder riding a chairlift per day — age 45 to 54 has increased from 14.0 percent to 19.9 percent, with age groupings above 54 also showing an increase.
Overall industry figures, though, dipped to 57.1 million skier visits last year, down from 60.5 in 2007.
(snip)
"There's no question that a 16-year-old and a 60-year-old have differences. But they aren't so severe that it's problematic," said Ford Frick, 58, whose lifelong dedication to skis led him to work with NSAA as a managing director of Denver's BBC Research & Consulting. "We learned to ski differently. The old-school method was that you learned technical prowess that mimicked the form and function of a ski racer. That's clearly not the dominant form today. Young skiers are not sitting around discussing the carving sensation."
Rather, younger skiers and riders such as Williams pride themselves on individuality through self-taught form, using friends and even video footage as style council for techniques that are as much about inventing jumps as smearing powder.
"You fall down and realize it's not what you want to do, so you figure out what you need to do to stay on your feet," said Williams, adding that he learned to skateboard much the same way.
Accent on retaining skiers
While the more established boomer market clings to more conservative techniques, the "error" portion of the trial-and-error method may help explain the limited growth of skiing and snowboarding among younger generations. Belin's Model for Growth recognized retention of new participants as a significant obstacle in replacing the boomers.
"One key element we learned is that we estimated that only about 15 percent of those who try skiing and snowboarding continue with the sports," Belin said. "That number served as a real wake-up call that we are not doing enough as an industry to make them into lifelong participants."
An increased willingness by resorts to break from tradition could make a difference. Places such as Copper Mountain are hopeful that offering better training will encourage younger riders to stick with the sport until they've mastered it.
"We're trying to get people away from what we call the 'huck and hope' method — where they throw themselves off a jump, start spinning and hope it works out," Woodward at Copper director Ben Brown said. "This is just the next evolution of the sport, and we want to make sure we engage the next generation for a great experience for every kid that picks up skiing and snowboarding."
This a big deal for Colorado. I learned to ski as a little kid. Every public and private school, youth church group, Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts, and 4-H club along the Rockies had frequent and cheap ski trips and lessons for kids. Poverty was not an issue for skiers under 18. People got introduced to the sport early and you just about had to learn technique since there was no escaping the lessons.
Now, fewer kids learn alpine skiing and the boarders tend to hang it up after the second time they hit the ER for some totally avoidable injury. The resorts need to teach technique to the boarders and make it cheap.
Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13947928)