As long as there have been winter sports, there has been a rivalry between skiers and snowboarders. Whether you’re casually skiing with friends, watching the Olympics, these two warring factions of the wintertime never seem to find peace. So the question is, which is better?
To answer this question, I have conducted a series of interviews and gathered information from various sources. Being a skier myself, I intend to have no bias in this article and base it purely on facts (lie).
Students’ Favorite
The first thing to consider is what is the most popular sport overall. I asked 28 random students here at ERHS which sport they preferred, and this is what they said:
We can see from this image that a whopping 64.3% of students prefer skiing, while only 28.6% prefer snowboarding, and the other 7.1% take an interest in other mountain sports. This came out to be 18 skiers, 8 snowboarders, and only 2 people who like neither, proving that skiing is the dominant favorite among several ERHS athletes.
Still, some students prefer snowboarding, like seventh grader Ever Van Wagner, who says “I prefer snowboarding because I like board sports more and it just seemed more fit and easy! I like having my feet close and not worrying if I am going to end up in the splits. It honestly just depends if you are more comfortable with board sports or not!” Surfing is also one of Ever’s current hobbies, another sport similar to snowboarding.
Injury Risk
So far, skiing holds the crown, but just because it’s more popular doesn't mean it’s safer. Injury risk is a very important topic to consider as well.
According to the article Snowboarding Injuries, from the American Journal of Sports Medicine, “Injury rates in snowboarders have fluctuated over time but currently remain higher than in skiers.” From the research conducted in the survey this article describes, snowboarders were prone to more types of injuries, including damage in the shoulder, ankle, and wrist.
However, our students here at ERHS had different stories. 10 students surveyed had experienced skiing or snowboarding injuries or known someone who had, and 70% ended up being skiers.
“I know someone who broke their collarbone from skiing,” said junior Andrew Karnsomprot. “It took a while to heal and they said it hurt a lot.” Several other students had reported collarbone and ACL issues while skiing.
Another junior, Flora Jac Saldaña, was injured skiing and still hasn’t made a full recovery. “While downhill skiing on cross country skis, I fell and fractured my tailbone, but didn't know (I thought it just hurt), so I didn't do anything about it and now I have chronic tailbone pain,” she said.
For the snowboarders, the three students who had dealt with snowboarding injuries experienced concussions, wrist injuries, and collarbone injuries, matching up with the data from the article. This proves it’s easy to conclude that both skiing and snowboarding are dangerous, and while snowboarding injuries statistically occur more often, it seems that most people at ERHS found skiing the more commonly dangerous sport.
National Favorite
The favorite winter sport in America currently remains as skiing. According to multiple sources, there are around 15 million skiers and 8 million snowboarders in the US, almost double the number of skiers.
Don’t get me wrong, snowboarding is still an awesome hobby, but skiing just comes out to be the better sport in general. So, if you’re new to both of these, give skiing a try, and you’ll end up having a whole lot of fun! Of course, whether you’re a skier or a snowboarder will always depend on what’s best for you, but in a debate on which sport is better overall, I’d say that majority rules.
Σχόλια