By Nic LaPonte
With the cusp of spring just around the corner, the weather is just right for some wonderful outdoor, alpine recreation. You can choose the conventional path - skiing or snowboarding with reckless abandon down a crowded hill. Or you can take the path least traveled by and take up snowshoeing, snowmobiling, inner tubing or shovel riding. You can Ski Bike or Ice Kart, or ride your ski board or monoski around the hill. If you wait a few more months, you can summer ski down your favorite hill on a pair of roller skis.
I'm of a more traditional school. With the exception of one ill-advised trip down the driveway on a sled, I've stuck to my guns, and my skis.
For those that wish to try a little more adventure, however, there seems to be as many alpine alternatives as there are objects that you can sit on and conceivably ride down a hill.
Look at snow-kayaking. The heart of the sport is just some guy, in a kayak, at the top of a hill. His buddies watch him go down and try not to kill himself, and whether he is successful or not they crack open another libation and recount the memory later.
A big problem with alternative snow sports, and alternative sports in general, is typically the establishment is loath to include them into the lexicon of acceptable activities.
Your average ski hill owner is not going to let some yahoo in a canoe endanger himself and others on a booze-fueled run toward the bottom.
Looking back, however, one can see the same dilemma with the now commonplace act of snowboarding. Even skiing was alternative once.
It's not to say that all practitioners of these not-quite-accepted sports are driven solely by adrenaline and alcohol. But a fair percentage of the people who would be willing to try something cutting edge are also not those who are determined to start a new league or cultural movement. They just want a new rush.
For those who are truly passionate about beginning a new sensation however, the fight is a long and difficult slog against the establishment. Perhaps because it is so easy to ride anything at all down a slope, new snow sports have a devil of a time finding any respect.
Thirty years ago, the prospect of going down the hill on a board was considered just as misguided as trying to ride a shovel down a hill is today. So what changed? Did it lose some of its essence when it was picked up by the acceptable masses?
Those are questions that athletes must answer for themselves.
For those that do choose to pioneer a new adventure sport, take some caution to heart. Do you research, talk to those who have similar experience and above all, stay safe out there. In order to take what you as an individual are passionate about and make it something that people don't shake their heads at when you describe, you need to be prepared to fight a long fight. Remember, every great movement needs leaders more than it needs martyrs.
