NYTimes Pumps Skiing

The New York Times has an article (no promises the link will work) titled " Out of Deep Freeze: Freeskiers Make Sport Cool Again" written by Matt Higgins. Not a terribly well written piece, it seems most of the opinions come from a discussion with Tanner Hall and Peter Olenick. An interesting data point though, one which I've talked about here as the swinging of skier vs snowboarder classes heading out (and if today is any indicator it's not changed this year either).

In 2004, there were 6.5 million snowboarders and 5.9 million skiers. But the next year, the trend reversed course. And in 2006 — the most recent year for which figures are available — there were nearly 6.4 million skiers and 5.2 million snowboarders.

He's actually found data to substantiate the trends we've seen on the mountain. Awesome! Although I never thought it surpassed snowboarding... wow.

Although overall sales for Alpine skis have been down in recent years, sales of twin-tip skis are soaring. From August to November 2007, twin-tip ski sales were up 50 percent over the same period last year, said Alicia Allen, a spokeswoman for the trade group SnowSports Industries America.

Now this is the one that surprises me a little. Yeah most of the folks I meet these days are riding twin tips, but these are the same people I never see riding the park or doing tricks. I'd argue that twin tips are really what the industry is pushing for equipment design. Most fat skis these days have twin tips. As much as I hate to admit it as a factor for a decision on a ski, a lot of the more edgy/progressive ski top/bottom-designs are on twin tips, and style sells (face it Völkl Tigersharks look just blech but they're a ripping ski). Both are issues outside the realm of articles topic of discussion, but Matt if you're reading they're a good follow up.