SOL | Tomorrow's Snowboarders: Future Demographics

Tomorrow's Snowboarders: Future Demographics
by Lee Crane

Ever since snowboarding swept into the ski resort scene in the mid 80s, resort managers have spent hours wondering just who these snowboard people are. Now, ten years later, just as marketing directors are getting a handle on snowboarders some experts say it's probably going to change.

The current wisdom is that snowboarders are teenage boys, with all their quirks and problems. According to American Sports Data, Inc. 2.1 million people went snowboarding in 1993. Approximately 80 percent of those were teenage males. The National Sporting Goods Association says the average age of snowboarders on the hill is 20.2 years. The Ski Industries of America says that the majority of snowboarders listen to hard rock or alternative music, own their own boards and are also into mountain biking, skateboarding, hiking, and hanging out.

But saying that teenage male snowboarders are visiting resorts isn't news. What is more interesting are the changes resorts could witness in their snowboard/skier populations as the turn of the century approaches-changes that demonstrate why snowboarding is an increasingly important segment of

Jake Burton Carpenter, owner of Burton Snowboards was quite optimistic in a recent interview on ESPN. "I never really said this until recently, but snowboarding will be bigger than skiing, I'm pretty confident of that," he said. "If you look at young people they're snowboarding or they want to be snowboarding. And a lot of skiers are coming over to the sport. I think when people get into it they tend to stick around."

While the numbers aren't reflecting Carpenter's prediction just yet, a growth trend is developing. By comparing the age group break down of skiers and snowboarders in 1990 and factoring in population trends from American Demographers, Brian Sellstrom, president of TransWorld Snowboarding Magazine, has come up with a scenario regarding what resorts can expect by the year 2000.

According to Sellstrom the age group 18-34 will have the most dramatic changes. Simply by aging the 1990 snowboarders ten years and assuming no new people begin or quit snowboarding or skiing, the percentage of snowboarders in the 18-34 group will increase by 257 percent by the year 2000. Skiers in that same age group will actually drop in number by 25.6 percent.

"Actually, by the year 2000 ski resorts will get a double whammy," Sellstrom says. "Nearly half of the total skiers are in the 18-34 age and that segment of the population will decline by close to 10 percent in the next ten years. So their ski base is declining and all the people aging into the group are snowboarders. That's something resorts need to be sensitive to."

When Sellstrom assumes that some people will cross over from skiing to snowboarding during those years, the spread becomes even greater. "I'm pretty conservative in my assumptions," he says. "By figuring that snowboarders will make up 35 percent of the total by 2000, then the number of snowboarders in the 18-34 group will grow by 484 percent and the number of skiers will drop by 39 percent."

This kind of growth isn't out of the question. Currently, the snowboard population is 80 percent male. If snowboarding's male/female ratio becomes more like skiing's, which is now approximately 60/40, then that itself could mean a 20 percent growth in the number of snowboarders across the board. And that's not counting parents who are being brought in because of their children.

Sure, snowboarding is growing, but what does it mean to resort mangers? That all depends on the person. To resort managers who are unaware of the needs of their customers, this change could have drastic effects-especially at the few resorts where snowboarding is still not allowed.

Not surprisingly, at resorts where management is attentive to the needs of their guests these changes won't mean a whole lot. "Resorts that keep giving their guests what they want, no matter who they are will be fine," says Gary McCoy, chairman of the National Ski Areas Association's board of directors. "Snowboarders and skiers basically want the same thing. They want fast lifts and well-groomed runs, and as long as we work toward those things they'll be happy."

It's like Jake Burton Carpenter and many other snowboard industry leaders have been saying for years: snowboarding is just another way to get outdoors and slide down a snow-covered mountain. And that's exactly the product ski areas have been offering their guests for years. It's just that in the future, there will be more people using the mountain who leave only one track.