By Moira Furr, Special to Nighthawk News

You wake up to your dad shaking you and saying, “Come on, get up! Four inches of powder fell last night! We gotta get first tracks in today! Let’s go!” As you open your groggy eyes and start to wake up, you get excited for the fun, snow-filled day of adventure ahead of you. When walking to the slopes, you hear your siblings having an enthusiastic conversation: “Skiing is faster. Snowboarding is cooler, AND more versatile. Skiing is easier. Snowboarders are slow! Skiing came first! It’s better!…”

Many students love waking up away from home on a crisp, chilly winter morning in a beautiful mountain range away from the windy and miserable lands of the Outer Banks during winter, ready to hit the slopes. But first, you must choose your weapon: skis or a snowboard? Those involved with both sports tend to have strong opinions about the other. 

It’s true that skiing did come before snowboarding, by a long shot. Cave drawings suggest people used skis during the last ice age, and the oldest pair of skis were found to be from 8000 BC. Skiing first became popular as a recreational activity in the 1800s and moved to the U.S in the 1930s. Skiing was first seen in the Olympics in 1924. 

As for snowboarding, a surfer created the first snowboard – called the “Snurfer” – in 1965. The Snurfer was a hit and it sold all over America in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. Also in the ‘70s, the first “Burton” snowboard was made, which is a popular brand of snowboard still used  today: Burtons were narrower and had straps.

When the ’80s rolled by, snowboarders were rejected among ski resorts and were seen as rambunctious and rebellious, but by the ‘90s snowboarding was the fastest-growing winter sport. With 6 million young people snowboarding, eventually, resorts opened their doors up to snowboarders.

As snowboarding grew on the slopes, skiers were displeased with the “cool new kids on the block” and thought they were more likely to cause accidents on the trails. Skiers were thought of by snowboarders as “old money” and were “preppy and posh,” but both disliked each other for “tearing up the snow” – snowboarders who scrape all the snow off and make it icy, and skiers who make moguls in the middle of a run.

Even though the rivalry has calmed down over the decades, it still exists to an extent. FFHS students have experienced their fair share of snowboarder vs. skier fighting.

Senior Tallulah Morris said she was the only skier in her family and the snowboarders in her family like to make fun of skiing.

“They say it’s an easy way out of getting down a mountain,” Morris said. “They think they’re a lot better than everyone and they’ll go by you and spray snow on you because they think they’re cool.” 

Tallulah shared that she used to snowboard like others in her family, but then switched to skiing after an accident she had snowboarding. Now her snowboarding family playfully jokes about her switch to skiing.

In this battle of skiers vs. snowboarders, is there a true victor? A common saying to people trying to decide which sport to try is this: “Skiing is easier to learn, but harder to master, and snowboarding is harder to learn, but easy to master.”

Gym and weight training teacher Billy Folkes, when asked if skiing or snowboarding is harder, said, “To me, snowboarding is so hard because it’s all heel to toe. So you’re constantly just working that heel to toe. But I think it’s much harder than skiing. I’ve been water skiing and snow skiing all my life, so maybe that’s why, but when I actually tried snowboarding, I thought it was much harder and it was much more energy draining. I felt way more tired snowboarding than I did skiing.”

Having your legs separate on skis could be seen as an advantage rather than having to get used to your feet being strapped together on one single board. Snowboarding also makes you ride sideways, which at first can definitely take some getting used to. Riding sideways can also be seen as a disadvantage in range of motion at first, as well.

Over time, skiing and snowboarding in the park has evolved greatly, from just getting down the slopes to going for style points. Some would say skiers took inspiration from snowboarding tricks. 

When asked about which sport has cooler tricks, Folkes said both offer impressive-looking feats.

“In skiing, some of the tricks look harder, because the skis get crossed sometimes and things like that. So I feel like they look harder,” he said. “But I think the cooler-looking tricks are definitely snowboarders. I surf, so it kind of reminds me of surfing when people are out there snowboarding and getting jumps, so I think that’s probably the cooler look.”

Snowboarders get a lot of the stereotype of “park rat,” which is usually a young person who spends all their time at the terrain park, wears baggy clothes and probably makes bad choices, but today, that stereotype can also be shared by skiers. Sometimes at the end of the day it’s just how we get down the mountain and have a good time on a snow day.

“As long as you’re having fun and not getting in people’s ways, it doesn’t matter how you get down the mountain, you know?” junior Julianna Forte said.

Ski trips are all about enjoying the time you have at the mountain and making memories with friends and family, especially memories like the one Folkes recalled as his favorite with his daughter, Bradley Ann, when she was learning to ski.

“If you know BA, she’s very adventurous, and so you know how when you’re learning to ski you have the snowplow. Well, she started to snowplow, and when she first started skiing, she did not turn – turn was not in her vocabulary. So she just went straight down going 100 miles an hour and (her mom) was at the top and I was at the bottom and she just creamed her skis into my shins,” Folkes recalled. “It hurt so bad. I saved her because there was one of the lift poles behind me – she would have just smoked that lift pole. My legs hurt for two weeks. So that’s probably my favorite memory, just BA crashing into me.”

The joy of skiing and snowboarding is something everyone should experience, and no matter which way people prefer to get down the mountain. The goal is to just have a good time and make memories like this one, which can always be shared and laughed about again and again.

Sophomore Moira Furr wrote this story for her Intro to Publications semester project. She can be reached at FurrMo4144@daretolearn.org.