My post was a reaction to all the industry news about the decline of snowboarding.
Yeah, that has been interesting to read.
My takeaway is not that snowboarding sucks, but that alpine skiing has absorbed many of the biggest innovations to come from snowboarding, such as wider skis, rocker, and a loosening of constraints on how skis are designed. So the advantages that snowboards once had for riding soft snow have largely disappeared. And for this reason a lot of people are deciding, "Why use a snowboard when skis work just as well (and in some cases better)?"
Snowboarding will continue to thrive (as a matter of taste) but it seems to have peaked.
It's interesting to me that something similar happened with telemark skiing. Old-timers will recall how telemark skiing was touted as the lightweight, mobile alternative to the clunky alpine gear of the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, the vast majority of the backcountry skiers under 30 used telemark gear.
But over time, alpine touring gear designers learned from the telemark skiers and improved their gear so that now AT gear is generally lighter than telemark gear. It's a complete turnaround. And now, the vast majority of backcountry skiers under 30 are using AT gear. But telemarking continues to thrive (as a matter of taste).
Maybe the real takeaway is that alpine skiing has a remarkable ability to absorb innovations from other snowsports and remain dominant in popularity.
