"The Next Big Thing?"
[by: Iscult Devlin, published in Ski Area Management, August, 98]

"There's a quiet revolution on the slopes. Skiboards are the products getting most of the attention in this revolution, but if you don't know much about them yet, don't worry - you're not alone. Skiboards... are a relatively new phenomena but, according to followers of the sport, it's growing fast. "This sport and product will be the buzz of SIA (in 1998)," says Michael Hughes, president of the National Skiboard Coalition. Hughes just formed the NSC last December, but with big-name companies like Salomon and Dynastar introducing product at the '97 SIA show in Vegas, the category is hot and the NSC predicts 50,000 pairs will be sold by the end of the 1997-98 season.

Easy maneuvering is the beauty of skiboarding. "It completely eliminates the long, frustrating learning curve of skiing," says Hughes, who claims a non-skier can reach intermediate level in one day on the boards.