Queenstown
Queenstown
ONCE UPON A TIME there was alpine skiing, a sport reserved for the entitled who used their silver spoon to eat snow each winter. Those with private ski lodges, goggle tans and family trusts were at the front of the lift queue, those in rental gear and borrowed parkas at the back.
Then along came snowboarding in the stealth of night, entering the mountain through the back door. The battle had begun and all the elite had to protect them was that same well worn family set of silver spoons...
You gotta feel sorry for snowboarders. They've increased their numbers four hundred percent since 1990, single handedly saving a dying ski industry but they still cop abuse, even fisticuffs as this video shows (language warning), from the ungrateful with piste envy.
It was snow apartheid for boarders much of the late eighties and early nineties.First they were banned from the hill like a pedophile from a childrens party so they snuck in for their beloved turns after dark, trekking under the same chairlifts that their saggy butts were banned from.
You'd think they would have been grateful when the ski fraternity finally allowed them to share their corduroy. Instead they refused to snowboard with their legs together and came up from behind with a snow scraping sound that still incites fear in skiers before beating them down the hill. One nil to them.
Snowboarding made the Olympics in 1998 and gold medalist Ross Rebagliati lived the rider cliché by testing positive for ganja while old school skiers tutted into their twelfth brandy over a late night game of poker. One all.
Ten years on we mix in the same circles, as men in mid life crisis trade in their retro matchstick skis for a snowboard with hot-as-hell-sexy-mamma graphics more suited to a riding teenage hormone than an ageing executive with knee pads. It's hard to grow up.
Truth is I envy snowboarders. Sure, I've been cut off by them. While heli skiing on a mountain with a boarder and two skiers the boarder still managed to steal my line despite having an entire untracked mountain in which to play. She just didn't get it but after a strategically placed pole plant on my behalf she didn't do it, or walk, again. Two one to the skiers.
I understand a boarder's pain when the mountain goes flat and they have to hop along like a mutant with a board for a foot before I offer them a tow. I envy their ability to take on powder and make it look so easy, simply because for them it is. The old joke goes "what's the difference between a snow boarder and a snow board instructor?" The answer? "Five days."
I truly envy their urban cool fashion brands (though I'm quite happy to keep my arse in my pants). Brands that have thankfully influenced ski fashion and allow me to carv it up in gangster bling shouting 'sup! to my posse as I ski by on my Miss Demeanour terrain park twin tips. Trouble is I "cheat from the feet up", dressing the part in my Burton, Sessions and DC but the most I can shred is a carrot in my kitchen.
I bow down before snowboarders and say thank you for making skiing hot again, for letting us onto the rails, not complaining when we steal the indy grab from your style which you stole from skateboarders who stole it from the surfers in the first place. Two all.
Either way, we're even now, right? After all some of my best mates are snowboarders, just not Catholic.
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?
WINNER OF THE NZ SKI TRIPSheep jokes aside, there were some belly laughs to be had from the entries for the Lindauer Queenstown Winterfestival giveaway.
I was especially taken by Tom's description in SMH of his father dressed in snow gear and strapped to his board in the living room. But the winning entry goes to Skye who said in The Age "You know it's winter in New Zealand when when you can only type ^^^^^^^^^^^ cos they look like snowy peaks!!!! Witty and visual. Check your email Skye, you're off to ski in Queenstown!
Watch this space for the next seriously hot competition giveaway from Little Miss Snow It All and check out what's going down this season at The Sydney Morning Herald ski page.
Photography credit: Mt Buller
Posted by Rachael Oakes-Ash June 18, 2007 9:25 AM
ONCE UPON A TIME there was alpine skiing, a sport reserved for the entitled who used their silver spoon to eat snow each winter. Those with private ski lodges, goggle tans and family trusts were at the front of the lift queue, those in rental gear and borrowed parkas at the back.
Then along came snowboarding in the stealth of night, entering the mountain through the back door. The battle had begun and all the elite had to protect them was that same well worn family set of silver spoons...
You gotta feel sorry for snowboarders. They've increased their numbers four hundred percent since 1990, single handedly saving a dying ski industry but they still cop abuse, even fisticuffs as this video shows (language warning), from the ungrateful with piste envy.
It was snow apartheid for boarders much of the late eighties and early nineties.First they were banned from the hill like a pedophile from a childrens party so they snuck in for their beloved turns after dark, trekking under the same chairlifts that their saggy butts were banned from.
You'd think they would have been grateful when the ski fraternity finally allowed them to share their corduroy. Instead they refused to snowboard with their legs together and came up from behind with a snow scraping sound that still incites fear in skiers before beating them down the hill. One nil to them.
Snowboarding made the Olympics in 1998 and gold medalist Ross Rebagliati lived the rider cliché by testing positive for ganja while old school skiers tutted into their twelfth brandy over a late night game of poker. One all.
Ten years on we mix in the same circles, as men in mid life crisis trade in their retro matchstick skis for a snowboard with hot-as-hell-sexy-mamma graphics more suited to a riding teenage hormone than an ageing executive with knee pads. It's hard to grow up.
Truth is I envy snowboarders. Sure, I've been cut off by them. While heli skiing on a mountain with a boarder and two skiers the boarder still managed to steal my line despite having an entire untracked mountain in which to play. She just didn't get it but after a strategically placed pole plant on my behalf she didn't do it, or walk, again. Two one to the skiers.
I understand a boarder's pain when the mountain goes flat and they have to hop along like a mutant with a board for a foot before I offer them a tow. I envy their ability to take on powder and make it look so easy, simply because for them it is. The old joke goes "what's the difference between a snow boarder and a snow board instructor?" The answer? "Five days."
I truly envy their urban cool fashion brands (though I'm quite happy to keep my arse in my pants). Brands that have thankfully influenced ski fashion and allow me to carv it up in gangster bling shouting 'sup! to my posse as I ski by on my Miss Demeanour terrain park twin tips. Trouble is I "cheat from the feet up", dressing the part in my Burton, Sessions and DC but the most I can shred is a carrot in my kitchen.
I bow down before snowboarders and say thank you for making skiing hot again, for letting us onto the rails, not complaining when we steal the indy grab from your style which you stole from skateboarders who stole it from the surfers in the first place. Two all.
Either way, we're even now, right? After all some of my best mates are snowboarders, just not Catholic.
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?
WINNER OF THE NZ SKI TRIPSheep jokes aside, there were some belly laughs to be had from the entries for the Lindauer Queenstown Winterfestival giveaway.
I was especially taken by Tom's description in SMH of his father dressed in snow gear and strapped to his board in the living room. But the winning entry goes to Skye who said in The Age "You know it's winter in New Zealand when when you can only type ^^^^^^^^^^^ cos they look like snowy peaks!!!! Witty and visual. Check your email Skye, you're off to ski in Queenstown!
Watch this space for the next seriously hot competition giveaway from Little Miss Snow It All and check out what's going down this season at The Sydney Morning Herald ski page.
Photography credit: Mt Buller
Posted by Rachael Oakes-Ash June 18, 2007 9:25 AM
posted by Robee Dobee at
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