Steeze Muffin

Over the last 5 years RoundtopRiders.com has gown to be a popular website for skizzers and snowboarders around the world.  The members of Newschoolers.com have especially been loyal in watching and rating up our edits.  We (the RR crew), came from all over the Pennsylvania, NJ and Maryland area.  Most of us did not grow up together, we just met through competitions, summer camps and a love for the sport.  Roundtopriders.com was the host of our content, constructed and run by the talented Jason Wagner.  Our crew would occasionally travel and film.  We based Quick! off of the support of our previous edits: fun, energy and talent.

I was pretty surprised with how far we were able to take RoundtopRiders in just a few years. When we started it was just a bunch of high school kids who were average at skiing. It seemed pretty crazy to think that we could end up with over half a million hits a month and sell nearly 200 copies of our DVD. But, in reality, as we started to gain some of the top freeskiers on the East Coast, it all started to make sense. I’m super impressed at how quickly the team progressed and how far they were able to take RR.

- Jason Wagner

Three years ago we released our first real ski movie named QUICK!.  The movie featured over 10 popular PA freeskiers and snowboarders including Tom Wallisch, Steve Stepp, Kyle Barnoff, Tom Warnick, Evan Resetar, Kyle Wagner, Mike Gallaher, Alex Curry and others.  The movie was filmed at Ski Roundtop (PA), Ski Libery (PA), Bear Creek (PA), Mountain Creek (NJ), Wisp (MD), Stratton, Killington, Mount Snow, Breckenridge, Keystone, Vail, Park City, Mammoth Mountain and Lake Tahoe.

Since Quick was released some of the crew has went on to bigger movie parts, while others have only entered high school.  NS latched onto the talent of PA skiers Tom Wallisch and Steve Stepp and helped launch them to new levels in their careers.  A lot of people helped RR become the crew and the website it is (or once was), and we want to thank all of them for their help!

QUICK! by RoundtopRiders from Jason Wagner on Vimeo.

At this point, it is no more than a rumor on Newschoolers.com.  Keep in mind that a rumor on Newschoolers (NS), is usually about as accurate as the 7 day forecast.  Lets look at this logically though… as the S.M. often does.

Why would Jake Burton Carpenter want to make a ski?  Maybe he would like a piece of the market.  It seems as if Mr. Burton has done a good job making Burton a prominent company in snowboarding.  Burton owns 10 brands and may have a monopoly on the market.  These brands include: Analog, Anon, Channel Islands, Forum, Foursquare, Gravis, Jeenyus, Special Blend and R.E.D.  These brands encompass every market in snowboarding, outerwear, snowboards, helmets, goggles and even shoes.  How much more could Burton expand in snowboarding?

Not much.  Burton has hard goods covered, so are they looking toward freeskiing as their next market?  Skiers buy Burton’s outerwear, they buy their goggles and their helmets.  Burton even sponsors some skiers through Anon goggles and R.E.D helmets. In many competitions freeskiers and snowboarders compete side by side.  Many ‘crews’ (groups of skiers or snowboarders) have one or more members from the other sport.  It is just a matter of time before somebody attempts to bridge the gap.

The biggest question is whether Jake Burton and the rest of the snowboard core has overcome their resentment towards skiers.  Mr. Burton was not only part of a new sport, he was part of a new movement.  Much like the civil rights movement, snowboarders faced resistance and a lack of acceptance for years.  With the exception of Alta, the snow sports community has come a long way and in many ways accepts snowboards.  Skiing and snowboarding still have drastically different demographics, but core snowboarders and freeskiers have more in common now then ever.  Is this enough to bridge the gap though?

One company who already made an attempt to bridge the gap was the snowboard company Prior Snowboards.  They sell skis that are designed more for powder then park and they’re known for their alpine and race boards, not their freeride boards.  Another is Palmer Snowboards.  They are known for freeride boards, but are rarely ridden by skiers in the core. Neither of these companies are very successful in bridging of the gap.

It is probably not going to happen.  Not because of current or past snowboard and ski clashes, but because of the difference between demographics.  If a company does conquer the gap, they will probably do so with separate brands.  Separate branding is a good way to hide all of your products from most of the snow sports consumers.  We once met a man sporting a Forum tattoo whom was talking trash on all of the Burton riders.  Little does he know how big of a fool he is.

Back to Burton’s current brands.  In 2008 Burton started to expand outside of the snow sports industry.  They acquired several skateboard companies through DNA distribution.  They also started a venture in surfboards in 2008.  Channel Islands is Burton’s newest market adventure.  With so much expansion outside of the snow sports industry, it appears that Burton has turned its back to expanding in the industry.  Conclusion: A Burton that produces skis is probably a pipe dream.

Superstition. For the past 5 months, I have been working around many superstitious people. I thought superstition was put in the grave along with the Salem Witch Trials. Apparently not, so lets bury it now.

In the skiing and snowboarding community, calling ‘last run’ is taboo. If even the words ‘one more’ leak out of a rider’s mouth, he/she is quickly corrected by other riders in the group. Often a few stories of last run injuries follow and everyone agrees that saying ‘last run’ must be bad luck.

While I do not believe that calling ‘last run’ is bad luck, I think a study of skiing injuries would show a slightly higher rate of injury on the last run among advanced riders. I distinguish advanced riders because many of the following factors do not apply to beginner riders. If you are really focused on making it down the hill, you cannot day dream about dinner while you are riding, for example.

1. Placebo Effect

The placebo effect can work in a negative manner as well. If you think you are more likely to be injured because you had called ‘last run’, you probably will be.

2. Physical and Mental Fatigue

This applies to advanced riders. Anyone who is riding fast or performing technical skills while on the hill. As the day progresses, an athlete’s muscles and mental status are becoming tired. As the time spent riding per day increases, so will the likeliness of a mistake and also injury. This makes the last run most dangerous.

3. Waning Focus and Rushing

Sometimes riders will rush their last run to fit one last run into the day. Others may take a last run and find themselves daydreaming about dinner or the hot tub later that night. A focus relapse and rushing can both lead to mistakes and injury. More in depth:

A reduction in focus can occur for a number of reasons on the hill and some riders are at greater risk than others. For experienced park riders, riding down the hill is performed with the objective of arriving at a park full of jumps and jibs. Some resorts have parks spread throughout the mountain making for a dangerous situation. Many park riders find this park-to-park riding less exhilarating then riding over features in the park. Therefore, I would imagine that a scan of brain activity of park riders on a normal slope would show less activity than a scan of brain activity of park riders in the park. What does that mean? When park riders are outside of the park they are not paying as much attention as they would in the park. This is probably also true for snowboarder cross, ski racing, arial skiers ect. Hence the danger of waning focus.

4. Change in Conditions

Often riders will leave the mountain due to degrading snow and/or weather conditions. Poor conditions are often dangerous for a rider. Some definitions of poor conditions are subjective but applicable to the type of rider. A heavy snow is dangerous for a beginner rider who may have trouble maneuvering in the snow while ‘bullet proof’, or a hard sun baked snow surface is ubiquitously dangerous among skill levels. If the conditions are poor, the rider does not decide to leave until he/she experiences these conditions, which usually requires riding down the hill.

The snow conditions also change at the end of the day. Snowpack becomes harder as the sun sets on sunny days. This causes a change of speed, increased impact and less forgiveness in the conditions of the snow. All of these have an easy correlation to an increase in falls and injuries.

While all of these factors may contribute to last run injuries, calling ‘last run’ should not. The placebo effect could be quoted as proof that calling ‘last run’ increases the risk of injury, but that would rely on the participant to believe it to be true. Therefore, saying ‘last run’ does not directly cause a person to be injured. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see y’all out there on your ‘last run’!

*This is not a scientific article but merely the (respectable) opinion of yours truly*