Public Perception

While preparing for my certification exams this season, I'd often spend a lot of my free time reading and studying the printed material, commentary from other instructors, and even watch some videos to practice motion analysis. I often found the free time needed on the regional rail train while traveling back into town for my other job.

I'd occasionally get questions on the material, from other passengers who'd ask what medical exam/field I was studying for. It took me awhile to realize they'd only catch glimpses of the muscle or skeletal diagrams and assume only a medical professional would study such material. On one particular ride a young lady sitting across from me asked what I was studying.

After telling her, she made a joke about needing to actually be on the snow to learn skiing, not reading from a book. I corrected her on what I was learning and she went back to whatever it was she was doing. A few minutes later she piped up again with a statement like "Isn't skiing just for rich white kids?" This statement caught me off-guard. Looking at the young lady key features included that she was white, long dyed black hair, young (possibly early 20's but doubtful), overweight, and dressed as what could be described as a mix of skater punk and just punk.

I asked why she thought that and had no answer. I asked her if she watched a lot of TV (yes), if she's ever been to the mountains to ski or snowboard (no), and did she watch a lot of 80's movies (yes).

The last one is of particular relevance to her mental image. During the 1980's Hollywood produced a series of movies that poked a little fun at ski culture, and I'm sure somewhat helped to define it a bit too. South Park took the theme to a new high in one of their episodes. Very good stuff.

Through the 90's skiing basically disappeared as skateboarding and snowboarding surged in popularity, and the image of mountain culture changed once again. Since then skiing has come back to the forefront some, but more in the image of snowboarding only on two boards instead of one.

I pointed out to the young lady how Hollywood tends to poorly represent any concept it tries to show, using a couple of movies that covered the punk and skateboard scene as inspiration that she knew. She became a more animated when describing how these movies were so thoroughly wrong and no one acted like that in the scenes. At which point I asked if she thought the same might be true for skiing as well. Her instant response of "No" was followed by silence and me listing off some of the great 80's films that included ski scenes (Hot Dog, Better Off Dead, Aspen Extreme, etc).

She was shocked to realize her opinion on skiing had been so influenced by Hollywood films. I told her a bit about the mountain lifestyle, how many of the employees are from South America, how modern snowboarding and skiing has altered the landscape from Hollywood's perception, and how most of the classes I teach are for adults and kids of Indian, Middle Eastern, or Mexican descent. The rest of the ride she was silent. When I got up to leave she thanked me and said she'll be up on the mountain soon.