appaWhy don't we move the conversation away from how these stupid white boys can redeem themselves and focus on making skiing more accessible and foster a sense of belonging for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). The Fagan twins are not deserving of anyone's attention or energy.
I think burtin still runs a program doing bus trips for city kids to the mtn to snowboard and get them intonthe sport. I think it's a whole camp kinda thing with rentals lessons and stuff. I love that kind of stuff. It doesn't gey a bunch of people out but it's a damn good start.
I think geography is the biggest problem. In NY a few of my black friends were really good snowboarders. There were still way more white kids, but there were a decent amount of black kids shredding.
NY has so many mtns, there's a ski area pretty close to everyone. Even some free ski hills and little rope tows. A lot of schools offer lesson and rental programs for free to the school kids. There are also mtns right next to cities. More mtns with night skiing so kids can go agter school. Cheap season passes and day tickets.
It's way easier to casually try skiing or get into it with school there. Out west the barrier is harder. Mtns are bigger, more expensive, and farther away from people.
I really loved what some mtns did in January out here and other places. Boreal was doing $69 I think for an all day lift ticket, rentalsz and group lesson. January was learn to ski month or something like that. I think Sierra was around the same and another mtn was doing them for 50(maybe that was boreal).
Basically outrageous low prices to get people the chance to try it. Obviously if a few people get hooked, the resorts get that business, but it's still an awesome thing that they don't have to do.
Northstar sucked hard and offered a free 4th day if you booked any 3 day lessons. Sure you save money but lessons are outrageously expensive. If you're casually trying skiing by grabbing 3 full day lessons there, you're well off, insane, or both.
Skateparks can be built anywhere and are all over cities which makes that easier to get into. Also anyone can buy a skateboard for a pretty affordable price and skate anywhere there's pavement. There's way more diversity in skating.
Skiing is tough. Planet had a couple parks built near cities trying to get people into it. Idk how it worked. Denver doing the ruby hill park every year is another good one although sort season.
Most people live a long way from the snow, and the snow is seasonal. Would I like to see more small free parks pop up and programs to get kids from cities to the mtns? Fuck yeah. It's a tough one to tackle and the biggest barries is geography follow by the $$$. Also if noone in your family skis, your friends don't ski, and the nearest mtn is 3 hours+ away, it's not something that people think about or think they can get into. Even in NY, if if we didn't move up to the mtns Idk that I would have ever gotten into it.
I just think it's easier to say "let's get more diversity in skiing" than actually making that happen. That said any programs doing that are rad as hell and would love to see more pop up.
