Snowboarding May Have Reached Its Peak

Snowboarding is no longer new, no longer extreme, and—now that your mom knows how to ride—no longer quite as cool. No wonder snowboard sales and snowboarder visits at mountain resorts are on the decline. Once all the rage among the young and active, as well as pretty much everybody else who was a newcomer to winter mountain sports, snowboarding appears to be past its heyday. Using data from SnowSports Industries America, the Los Angeles Times noted that sales of snowboards and snowboard gear have slumped 21% over the last four years. Meanwhile, skiing, the sport that snowboarding was supposed to be surpassing—the MySpace to snowboarding’s Facebook—has been on the upswing, with sales rising 3% over that same time span. As the Denver Post reported last spring, snowboarders represented roughly one-third of all U.S. ski resort visits in the 2009-2010 season, up from just 7.7% o...