Decades after ‘snowsurfing’ first came onto the scene, does the infamous divide between skiers and snowboarders exist today in Verbier?
The tribal mentality between skiers and snowboarders is an age-old feud. While many things have changed in the decades since snowboarders first started hitting the slopes, there are indeed some things that have not. But does that infamous divide still persist here in Verbier?
From the outside it must seem that skiers and snowboarders have much more in common than they don’t. But the enmity on the slopes was etched into the culture of snowboarding from the very beginning.
“When they first came out, I thought it was a really cool thing,” says legendary local guide John Faulkner, who saw the emergence of the snowboard first-hand in Verbier. “A lot of people who first started snowboarding were quite good athletes, but when it came into the mass market you had a lot of people come into it who didn’t know what they were doing. They didn’t know about being careful of other people on the slopes because they’re blind on one side. There was also a certain amount of agro between snowboarders and skiers because the snowboarders would get into the powder and chew it up.”
However, Faulkner believes the hostility between the two disciplines was never as pronounced in Verbier as it was in other parts of the world because the Europeans were more open-minded.
“I went to Mount McKinley with Jerome Ruby, who at the time was one of the best snowboarders in the world, and he wasn’t allowed to snowboard in a national park.”
While the attitude around the new sport was different to that in the US, the reasons people were swapping out their skis for boards here were the same. And fuelled by resistance in the skiing community, a unique culture around snowboarding emerged.
“When I was nine years old, snowboarding was a new sport and the spirit was more rock‘n’roll,” says former Freeride World Tour champion, Emilien Badoux.
Freeride legend, Xavier de le Rue shares a similar reason for taking up the new sport.
“Skiing felt very limited to me and when I started snowboarding, I discovered that the mountains had so much to offer,” de le Rue explains. “It was not about having one or two planks, but at that time, the mentality was very different. Back in those days – you have to put it into context – ski resorts didn’t allow snowboarding. The ski industry was trying to shut it down and saw it as a threat. Skiing was very traditional. It was an old sport with an old mentality and snowboarders were not just breaking hotel rooms, they were trying to break boundaries and open minds – just maybe not always in the most constructive way.”
But since those early days, the notorious divide has dwindled significantly.
“I feel that snowboarding is more like skiing now because of the Olympic games and the level of the riders,” says Badoux. “They all have to train seriously.”
For Xavier le le Rue, snowboarding’s image has certainly changed.
“Back in the day there was a really true divide, but I think nowadays it’s more an image thing and keeping the old culture alive.”
But although snowboarding is now mainstream, the snowboarding community still feels that some of the old divisions and prejudices persist. De le Rue puts it down to Switzerland being very ski-focused and the strength of the European skiing lobby.
Looking at it from another angle, John Faulkner believes the divide has been broken down in part thanks to the positive impact snowboarding has had on skiing. “It’s part of the evolution of the sport; new things get introduced and thank goodness they do, because snowboarding made people think about wider skis. And the way snowboarders rode the mountain also helped us as skiers evolve our concept of riding the mountain.”
With freeriding taking over Verbier, the walls started to break down. Verbier’s iconic Xtreme, which started as a snowboard-only event and introduced us to local legends like Gilles Voirol and Géraldine Fasnacht, opened to skiers in 2004 and the two worlds were brought together and revered on the same stage.
Verbier may be a resort where skiing heavily outweighs snowboarding in popularity, but here, where freeride reigns, some of our biggest local names are snowboarders. And there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that not only is snowboarding making a comeback, but that new technology, like the splitboard, is helping to break down the walls that once separated the two sports.
Some of the resort’s biggest ski shops, like Mountain Air, are dedicating more floor space than ever to snowboard gear and offering specialised equipment like splitboards in their rental departments.
Director of Independent Snowboarding, Andre Sommer, who runs a club to encourage children to take up the sport and bring together the local snowboarding community with free seasonnaires sessions is optimistic.
“There is a change in the winds and I strongly believe snowboarding will find its way back to Verbier,” says Sommer. “It’s the love and how you glide and play in the mountains which makes the difference. It’s what you have in your mind, not what you have on your feet.”
Xavier de le Rue agrees and says more people are beginning to take up both sports to make the most of all the mountains have to offer.
“If people were able to better assess the conditions in which to go with a snowboard or with skis, they would definitely make better use of the mountain,” he says. “I’m really believing the new generation will go in that direction”
“But I’m really not worried about numbers for snowboarding. It’s part of history. It’s got something really special to bring and it’s got a really true culture that resonates into the hearts of so many people.”
The strong freeride community in Verbier has certainly helped overcome the divide that plagued the sport in its beginnings and as a group, the skiers and snowboarders who call Verbier home, are closer than ever before. Emilien Badoux captures this spirit perfectly.
“Honestly, it doesn’t make a difference. Snowboarders or skiers, the most important thing is finding riders who ride the same mountains fast like you. In the end we all love the same thing.”