Australian skiers and snowboarders - local or overseas?

Australian skiers and snowboarders split on hitting local vs overseas slopes

• May 02 2013
• Finding No. 2074
• Topic: Press Release

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source January 2001 — March 2013

A decade ago, around 4 out of 5 Aussies wanting a snow-capped holiday chose a domestic destination for their skiing and snowboarding fix. Today, almost half head overseas.

After boom in 2011 in the proportion of Australians taking their skis and boards overseas, domestic and international destinations hit parity and stabilised in 2012.

The latest data from Roy Morgan Research shows as of March 2013, 51% of Australians who went snow skiing or snowboarding on their last holiday chose a domestic destination, with a bare minority travelling internationally.

Overall, only 1.5% of Australians went snow skiing or snowboarding on their last holiday. For those who went overseas, popular destinations included New Zealand, North America, Europe, and Japan.

Where Australians go for snow

read more

Working in the Snow Industry.

Lifty Media set out to get some advice for young people interested in a career in the snow sports industry from professionals in the Industry. The video is a look into the industry from the perspective of several people who have worked hard to get where they are and continue to have a strong passion for what they do.

www.LiftyMedia.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNI3iJeUqs

Spring Skiing in Australia

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to visit Mount Buller for a day trip - the first time for 2012.

What did I notice? Plenty of snow and not many people. I am told that some lodges a planning to close soon even though the season looks like extenting through to the first weekend in October.

Since my visit it has snowed another 30cm and more is predicted this week (weatherzone forecast up to 24cm)

Why aren't people skiing and riding in September?

1. "I have had enough, the season is too long!" - I don't think so.
2. "There is no snow." There is PLENTY of snow this September. At Hotham for example 206cm verses 46 cm last year.
3. "Its too expensive." There are many incentives being offered at all the resorts eg. Kids Ski Free at Mount Buller.
4. "Its Football Finals Time." Not everyone has a ticket.

I can think of some good reasons to hit the slopes this Spring

1. There is plenty of snow
2. Its cheaper
3. The days are longer
4. Its warmer
5. There is more sunshine and
6. You can watch the football on TV.

At Rider+ we are now ON SALE. We will be closing the physical store at the end of the season and next year we will be operating form our new Showroom/warehouse.

Our FINAL SALE IS NOW ON.

Now you can purchase your gear at great prices AND get to use it in Spring!

Customer Review - Thankyou Word of Mouth Online

LL1
#1 in Doncaster VIC

126 Reviews
90% Trust
18 Compliments
6,000 Points

 (4/5)   27th April 2012 9:20 pm

Looking for Ski gear for the upcoming season? Check out the website of Riderplus at http://www.riderplus.com.au/. The store operates via the internet during the summer season and they will be opening their warehouse during the Winter season to provide full service to their customers.

Last season I had a problem with another store who was supposed to be an expert at bootfitting (which is in another review I have made). However because of the other store's incompetence I ended up with severe damage to my foot as a result of the footbed not fitting properly in my ski boot. I ended up missing out part of the ski season last year as a result. Towards the end of the season I visited Rider plus and the owner David was very helpful and patient. He provided me with a range of things to try including providing other insoles to test in an attempt to fit the footbed made by the other store to my ski boot. After several tries there was a much better fit than before which made my skiing a lot less painful and no further damage to my foot. Despite spending about an hour with me, there was no charge for testing and trialling parts.

I ended up purchasing a few other items from them as they were having a clearance sale, although if you check out their website they have many things on sale now at greatly reduced prices.

I recommend rider plus as they are not chasing money like the other store I visited. They showed that they care because they spent the time to make sure that my needs were taken care of first. They were more concerned about making sure that it was right for me than trying to charge me for everything that they did. It's that kind of service that will keep me coming back to buy from them and when it comes time to renew my boots or other equipment, you can be sure they will be one of the first places I check out in Australia!

Deciphering Rocker | Skiing Business

Industry leaders may not agree on how the technology should be marketed, but brands concur that rocker skis help the industry.
“In some ways it changes the way skis ski as much as shape skis did at the time,” says Geoff Curtis, Marker-Völkl USA’s marketing vice president.
But buzzwords abound: reverse camber, flat camber, mixed camber, rocker-camber-rocker, early rise, tip rocker, tip-and-tail rocker, and plain old rocker. And many companies have their own words like Baseline and CamRock, so are consumers confused?

Read More.
Deciphering Rocker Skiing Business


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Tech Talk - Rocker v Early Rise

Tech Talk - Episode 23 - Rocker vs. Early Rise from 4FRNT Skis on Vimeo.

http://www.riderplus.com.au/news.html

Snowboard Camber Theories Explained

From The Angry Snowboarder
Camber used to be one of the easiest things to explain about a snowboard. Now everyone’s tossing around buzz words because of the anti-camber technology that’s floating around. It’s something that I’m noticing people don’t fully comprehend with the various differences and are in turn butchering it when trying to reference it or write a review of a board with it.

To understand reverse camber you have to look at what traditional camber is. If you lay your board flat on the ground there will be a space between it and the mid section of the board, that’s the camber. This is what you end up loading and unloading to drive through turns and initiate pop. This has been the standard for what boards have been pressed with for 20 something years. Hopefully everyone grasps this concept because it’s simple enough.

True reverse camber is just the opposite of camber. Lay the board flat and from the dead center the board will bend upwards in a mellow U shape. Mervins Banana Technology is the prime example of this. That mellow U shape keeps the contact points raised off the snow and there is essentially no flat spot between the bindings.
The next variation of reverse camber are the ones that offer a mix of both reverse and positive camber. Most common is the Never Summer R.C. Technology. How this works is that it’s a reversed camber between the feet then a micro camber just after the inserts. The reversed part lifts the contact points off the snow just enough to let them be catch free, while the cambered section still allows you to have solid pop. Mervin will be offering this up in their Banana C2 for next season and Nitro did it this year in the Sub Pop this year and will have it in the Sub Zero and a version based off their Team model. It’s really in a realm of it’s own.

You can even tell by this diagram that the buzz words get tossed around a lot.


Rocker is a little different as some people claim that they’re reversing the camber between the feet. Basic concept of Rocker is just like that of a rocking chair, back and forth, back and forth, get the idea? The common one is the 3-stage rocker which K2 utilized a lot that’s where it’s flat between the feet then a gradual rise depending on it’s purpose towards the contact points. Burton does their V rocker which is like it sounds a V shaped rocker between the inserts into another stage of rocker a little further out. It can be argued that this is also Reverse Camber, it’s all in how you interpret this. Salomon is doing a bigger V shaped rocker in the Grip for next season as well and that could arguably be Reverse Camber.