Colorado ski areas are finding themselves playing an unexpected role: peace negotiators between snowboarders and skiers.
The new school vs. the old.
The young rebels against the establishment.
If skiers are ballroom dancers, snowboarders are grunge rockers.
``Snowboarding is high energy, fresh and fun. Skiing is a bunch of stiff one-piece suits,'' said Stephanie Prater, a snowboarder at Crested Butte, Colo.
Ever since Jake Burton set his snowboard down on Stratton Mountain, Vt., more than 15 years ago, skiers and snowboarders have seldom seen eye to eye.
In skiers' eyes, snowboarders use bad language, dress like crotchless hitmen and have manners like Beavis and Butthead. They ride their boards like the getaway car in a B movie. Out of control. Totally.
They collide with skiers and sit down on the busiest routes, forcing skiers to maneuver around them.
To skiers, snowboarders are bad dudes with bad attitudes. Occasionally the differences result in slope-side fistfights.
Yet ski areas are courting snowboarders the way Romeo pursued Juliet. Snowboarding is the only bright spot in a stagnant ski industry, with an annual growth rate of 17 percent. Today it represents 11 percent of lift tickets sold, according to The National Ski Areas Association.
And snowboarding is the fastest growing sport in the United States _ from 1.2 million boarders in 1993 to 1.8 million in 1994, an increase of 50 percent that outpaces in-line skating, according to a survey by the National Sporting Goods Association.
Ski areas can't live without snowboarders. Not only are they blowing them a kiss, they're planning the wedding.
``Snowboarding is part of the future of the sport,'' said Monarch ski area general manager Rich Moorehead. ``It's a business decision to pursue them.''
Keystone and Aspen are the only two Colorado ski resorts that don't allow snowboarding. But managers in every other Colorado ski area are turning mediation into an art form, intent on smoothing things over between skiers and boarders.
``It's more of an age difference than anything. The young kid against the old guy. That kind of conflict is everywhere, not just on the ski slopes,'' said Pete Bernard, a 25-year-old snowboarder hired by Monarch to act as an on-slope ambassador. ``Some skiers seem to be looking for snowboarders to do something wrong. A lot of the problems came about because it was a new sport and people just don't like change.''
Bernard is in charge of four ``Courtesy Riders'' making their debut at Monarch this season. They are the Miss Manners of snowboarding, setting a good example and striving to clean up their sport's bad-boy image.
``We try to discourage adverse behavior,'' said Bernard. ``We'll say, `Hey man, that's not cool, we'll lose our privileges.' We're trying to encourage boarders to police themselves.''
They also act as a liaison between skiers and boarders, trained to intervene in on-slope conflicts.
``A lot of times, snowboarders will listen better to someone who's their own kind, rather than a ski patrolman giving them a lecture,'' Moorehead said.
Rowdy snowboarders have recently taken delight in bouncing off emergency telephones and jumping over trash cans and logs they pull onto the slopes, often to the chagrin of skiers content to schuss down an obstacle-free course.
Monarch responded by opening a park this season devoted to and built by snowboarders, where shredders can jump, twist and spin in their own hazard-filled world. They fly over everything from skinned logs to an old car top, all safely away from skiers. Most Colorado ski areas have installed half-pipes _ open tubes of builtup snow that resemble skateboard ramps that shoot boarders into the air.
The Breckenridge ski area changes the obstacles weekly in its shredders garden and consequently is rated tops in the country by one snowboarding magazine.
The snowboard parks have effectively funneled daredevil shredders from the slopes where families frolic.
To take it a step further, Monarch is polling its boarders to see what kind of music they like with the idea of providing amplified tunes in the snowboard park.
Snowboard lessons at Monarch include skier etiquette and safety. ``One of the points of the lessons is what's proper and what's not as far as interacting with others on the mountain,'' Moorehead said. ``Snowboarders often come from surfing and skateboarding backgrounds and are not as likely to know ski etiquette.''
Snowboard shops in Crested Butte, which is hosting the first U.S. Extreme Snowboarding Championships this month, have gotten in on that act. They distribute cards with courtesy tips such as be aware of others on the slope and watch your language. Written in shredder language, they've been well-received by snowboarders, Prater said.
Ultimately, as more older skiers and families take up snowboarding, the cultural chasm is narrowing, industry analysts say.
While most snowboarders are between the ages of 16 and 24, nearly 15 percent are between the ages of 25 and 44, said the National Ski Areas Association.
``It's no longer a teen-age sport,'' said association spokeswoman Stacy Gardner. ``It's a maturing sport and families are starting to get into it.''
``The over-30 snowboarding set is clearly gaining speed,'' said Craig Altschul, publisher of The Insider's Ski Letter, a trade publication. ``The 40-year-old dad who's been taking the family skiing all these years decides to get into it when the kids do.''
``The other day I noticed a family of four on the slopes. Mom and daughter were on skis and dad and son were on snowboards and Dad was about 40 years old,'' said Ken Payne, a 35-year-old Breckenridge spokesman who recently took his first snowboard lesson.
``As a more diverse group enters the sport, snowboarding's reputation will change,'' Moorehead said.
``It was perceived for a long time that snowboarders were out of control and would run over you,'' Payne said. ``But snowboarders have gotten very good at what they do and the tension has decreased. I think skiers and snowboarders cohabit very nicely now.''
Shredders and skiers are not only living with each other, they're traveling together, said the National Ski Areas Association. More than half of the snowboarders surveyed during the 1993-94 season came to a ski area with an Alpine skier.