Taking A Stand Essay, Research Paper
Where is the Sportsmanship?
If you are a real fan of the San Francisco 49ers, then most likely, you hate the Dallas Cowboys. It is obvious that those teams dislike each other and so do their fans. I remember Deon Sanders being San Francisco’s big hero but as soon as Deon went to Dallas, I started seeing San Franciso fans holding up card board signs that said: “DEON WHO?” And of course, before Deon played for Dallas. None of the Cowboys’ fans liked him. The difference between when Deon played for the 49ers. and when he played for the Cowboys. This reminded me about skiers and snowboarders that they never really got along too well. Are there are there any differences between skiers and snowboarders? Can they all get along?
Living in Utah and not skiing or snowboarding is like living in California and not going to the Ocean. You would be missing out on a lot of fun. Skiing or snowboarding is kind of a tradition in the family. If the parents are skiers, then their kids most likely will be skiers. and if the parents are snowboarders then their kids will be snowboarders. The reason that I said this is because when you first start to ski or snowboard for the first time, if you think this sport is fun, you will stick with it.
I always remember my first time when I went snowboarding. About two years ago, a few friends of mine asked me to go snowboarding on that weekend. Well, there was not anything
better to do so I said I will go. That was the very first time I was at the ski slope. I could fell the excitement by listening to all my friends talk about it. We did not go to sleep until 3:00 A.M. I had a great day snowboarding even though my whole body was so sore the next few days. I totally fell in love with snowboarding after a few times I went snowboarding. As Jason Marker said from Boarder Magazine
“The time when sbowboarders were smiled at are definitely over. From a sport which was once enjoyed by only a very small group of people, snowboarding has grown and developed into a serious sport with international professional. ”
You might understand that snowboarding is a beautiful winter sport. But snowboarding also has a bad name. Along with all snowboarders.
As I mentioned skiers and even people who have never been skiing before, they do not like snowboarders. I did some interviews with some people and aasked them their opinion on this subject. I got allot of different answers with different attitudes. Some people offended me but some people did not.
Trent Schmid is one of my friends at Weber State University. He is a junior and studing health and lifestyle. He always dresses well, takes good care of himself and knows what he wants in his life. Trent said: “You just can tell easily if a person is a snowboarder or skier. They always wear baggy clothes. There hair styles are basically the same. They have long hair, short bleached
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hair, green hair, red hair, purple hair…. It seems like they don’t want to go to school, education is unnecessary to them. When I see girsl who wear baggy clothes, they try to be guys, sloppy unfeminine, it offends me. I don’t like their attitudes at all. They don’t care about anything. They don’t care about their parents, where they live…..” Maybe the clothes that they wer ar a little bit different compared to certain people but to some people, those clothes are fashion. Isn’t it true that we are not supposed to judge people for what they look like from the outside? Inside is what counts.
I have a friend who has a different hair color every month, who wears baggy colthes that looks like they havent been washed for months. Pieced their tongues, eye, lip…. I would have to say that is a little bit to much. But we rarely see any one like that in college. Most of them are in high school.
Ryan Chacon is one of my friends who I have known from high school. He wears baggy clothes, dyes his hair once in a while. He is the type of gut who Trent was talking about. “I don’t like rich people. there stuck up. Preppies think they are all that but there really not. I hate it when I snowboard downhill, and some skiers just cut me off. I just want to kick their butts. I don’t care what people think about me, they don’t know me.” A lot of people complain about snowboarders attitudes, but do they ever wonder why snowboarders have that kind of attitude? Snowboarders are not the only ones who have an ” I don’t care” attitude. Then why do snowboarders have a bad name for it?
There are some extreme skiers who don’t like snowboarding, and they would never try, even just one time. But besides those people, I know a lot of people who are sk
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don’t care about what other skiers will say to them. One of my friends, Mitch Painter, has been sking since he was a little kid, right now he wants to try snowboarding. “I don’t have any problems with snowboarders at all. I want to try snowboarding sometime soon. It looks like so much fun.”
I am not completely sure but these are some of my feelings. Extreme skiers or some certain people are afraid of new things. I have a friend who experienced that when he was in high school, a group of people requested their high school to have a snowboarding club besides ski club. The request was denied. And for what I know, snowboarding began in the 1960s. In the middle 1970s, snowboarding was well on its way to becoming a popular sport. By the late 80s, rapid growth in the sport had been tipped into motion by a number of impotrant catalysts. Effective technical innovations and the formation of a world professional tour (backed by an enthusiastic media) were the main factors in widening the sport’s commercial market and creating what is now an established and vibrant industry. According to tob Reichenfeld and Anna Bruechert, Snowboarding Outdoor persuite series. (page 4):
Today more that two million people snowboard worldwide, and growth patterns show no signs of changing. We can show all enjoy the benefits of participating in a sport that is welcomed in resorts throughout the world. In fact, it is hard ot find a winter resort where the infectious enthusiasm for snowboarding does not yet permeate the atmosphere.
Right now, snowboarding is one of the most popular winter sports (right next to skiing) in the world. Snowboarding has been around not that long compared to skiing but it is getting bigger and bigger all the time. I wonder if skiers don’t want the rappid expansion that seems to be takeing place.
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Snowboarders have a bad name so I would not be suprised if someone asked me “Is that true that snowboarders are dangerous?” I would say most snowboarders look dangerous. But there are some extreme snowboarders that can be picked out from a group of snowboarders and one can tell that this person has a bit of an attitude….
Besides that I have seen skiers who swear and drink at the resorts. So there are some bad snowboarders out there along with some bad skiers.
When I started to snowboarding, my cousin, Curt, was against it. He is a skier and a student of Weber State. He said “You might like snowboarding right now but think about it. When you get older you won’t be able to snowboard. Snowboarding is not for old people.”
He was so wrong. I rember there was one time I talked to an older man on a ski lift at Powder Moutain resort last season. He was about forty five years old. He and his wife just barely started ot snowboarding last season. His wife was not there because she pulled her neck muscle when she was snowboarding. He told me their dream before they die was to take a helicopter to the top of a mountain and snowboard down. It is so hard for old people at that age to start snowboarding but obviously they are real athletic so nothing stopped them.
After I heard so many complaints from skiers I was totally bummed out. Clint Moser, a skier; who attendes WSU. Said: “I do not have any problems with snowboarders but a lot of people told me that they ruin the powder.” I thought that this was a funny excuse. The person tryed to blame snowboarders for ruining the snow, if he or she is a good skier that would not make a big difference, but if he or she is not then he or she sould practice more and stop making excuses.
There are so many bad things that skiers said about snowboarding. I think snowboarding
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is a great winter sport and so is skiing. Before I did this report I knew that skiers hated snowboarders but I did not know skiers hated snowboarders this bad. As a snowboarder, I could understand that sometimes we do over react toward skiers.
Maybe right now is the time that skiers and snowboarders should get along. We should stop and looking at each others bad side and pointing them out to everyone. Let’s look at skiing and snowboarding as two great winter sports. There are difference between those two sports. Of course, the better way is to find out the difference by yourself instead of judging the other sport without any knowledge about it. Skiers should give snowboarders a chance, and so should snowboarders. Maybe skiers and snowboarders do not have a lot in common but one thing I know for sure we are all athletics so let’s base it on that, and start fresh.