www.snowboard-women.com

I need a late pass on this one!

TransWorld Snowboarding last week launched a special TWSnowGirls.com site for women snowboarders as a division of the popular TransWorld Snowboarding site.

TWSnowGirls includes womens’ snowboarding news, articles recapping girls’ snowboarding events, girl rider profiles/interviews, and women-specific snowboarding products and reviews.

You can visit the site through the link above, or click on the new “Girls” tab on the TransWorldSnowboarding.com web site. There is already a ton of great content to peruse… proof of the great inroads that women are making in the snowboarding industry! Bravo TransWorld for recognizing this (and smartly capitalizing on this huge potential audience for product sales & ad sponsorship dollars)

Getting ready to fly to Park City, UT for a marketing conference in a few weeks and naturally I’m bringing my gear for post-conference riding!  However, will I have a rude awakening of extra baggage fees when I go to check my bags?

The  SnowSports Industries America (SIA), a snow sports trade group & resource, has helpfully compiled a list of baggage fees from the major US airlines.

Looks like Southwest, who I usually fly, allows 2 checked bags for free.   Woo-hoo, no wonder I love SWA.  Then there’s United, who I’m flying to Jackson Hole - $15 for the first bag, $25 for the second!  CRAP!

Come on United, gas prices are at two-year lows, give passengers a break!

Orbitz recently published a top 10 list of their ski and snowboard vacation resorts for the 08-09 snowboarding season, as ranked by bookings on their site.  So there are mostly US resorts on this list.

I’m happy to say that I’ve been to 4 of them…

• Lake Tahoe  (#1) - They only have reviewed Heavenly out of all the resorts around Tahoe, but it’s a great resort.  I have personally been there and to Kirkwood.  The day I rode Heavenly, it was massively snowing and we had to stick to a small section of the mountain.  I like Tahoe as a destination because my friend Bucks has an annual rental house there in South Lake, Kirkwood and Heavenly are not a far drive.  The only thing is getting up to Tahoe from San Francisco, watch for the traffic.  Plus, we can always go out in classy Reno in the nighttime.  ;-)  And there’s so many resorts right there!  Lots of options.  I will have to hit up North Lake next time I go.
• Park City (#3)  I have only been to Park City once, but will soon be there again!  Park City is convenient to fly to (just 45 min. away from Salt Lake City) and there are 3 resorts very close to one another for easy mountain access.  One thing to note though is that the Deer Valley Resort is a ski-only one!  I rode the Canyons when I was there.  Will definitely check that out again on this year’s trip.  I’ll have more details after that trip, because I hit Park City about 5 years ago and don’t remember too much.
• Vail (#4)  Ah, Vail!  I need to book my annual trip there!  I have gone every winter for the past 3 years, most recently in Feb. 2008.  I love going to see James, he lives there and was a ski and snowboard instructor for a long time so we always had an “in” at the various bars etc. and he knows everybody on the mountain.  He also teaches me when we’re out there riding together, so I basically get a free professional lesson!  Vail is beautiful, huge, and easy to get around both on and off the mountain - they have a free town shuttle bus which runs till late at night.  All sorts of runs and terrain will keep you from being bored.
• Whistler (#9)  Whistler is another place that I made it to last season, so luckily my memory of the resort is fresh.  I loved Whistler in that the village is really big and there’s lots of shopping and restaurants to enjoy.  The mountain is big and amazing too, because really it’s two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb.  We were lucky enough to enjoy two full days of new snow.  And the people are super cool and nice!  More details are in my trip recap.   It is about 2 hours outside of Vancouver and there’s a few shuttle options for you to get to Whistler from there.

It’s not surprising that 6 of the top 10 resorts are in Colorado (lucky Shay!)  I need to get to Aspen one of these day too.  Although it’s my favorite place, Mammoth is not on this top 10, probably because it’s so hard to get to - and because you don’t really need Orbitz to book a trip there, just get in the car and drive!  That said, it’s definitely not as accessible as the other resorts on this list, and has a ways to go to get as “world class” as them, but it’s on its way up with the new Village, the Gondola, and let’s face it - it’s still my favorite.

What do you think of this list?  Has anyone been to all of the destinations listed on the Orbitz Top 10?

Now this article made me crack up!

“Although it has the image of being a young, trendy sport, an increasing number of snowboarders hitting the slopes are pushing 30 or older, according to the Canadian Ski Council…. Now 35% of Canadian snowboarders are between the ages of 24 and 64. The number of older snowboarders has steadily increased over the last few years.”

I’ve definitely noticed this on the mountains myself! Sure, there is still a great number of teenagers on the hill, but I think I’ve noticed a shift in the mountain “demographics.” I do see and talk to a fair number of both male and female snowboarders that seem to be 30+.

Well, maybe they’re just weatherbeaten and haven’t aged well. Who am I to judge

Nonetheless, I’ll be watching out for this trend further, as I go riding this season. Should be interesting!