ESPN Snowboarding

Come April 4th, 2009, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame will be inducting new members, including Olympic medalists Nelson Carmichael and Liz McIntyre, big mountain legend Bill Briggs, and former U.S. ski team athlete Cary Adgate. Despite the inclusion of the word "snowboard" in their name since 2007, the Hall of Fame will not be inducting any more snowboarders for '09.

The fact that the big '09 induction banquet will take place at Deer Valley, Utah—one of only three resorts in the U.S that still outlaws snowboarding—might raise eyebrows on those in the know, but more on that later. In 2007, Jake and Donna Burton-Carpenter became the first snowboarders given a pass to these hallowed halls and their induction suggested "a trickle of shred" into the floodgates of ski. Not so, as it turns out. Jake and Donna still make up but a tiny fraction of the 349 member totality and remain the only shredders on the list. 'Sup, dawg?

"The doors are open for the recognition of snowboarders," said Hall of Fame CEO and President, Tom West, 62. "They must be retired from FIS and Olympic level competition and they must have achieved success or contributed at a national level at least."

The Hall of Fame was opened in Ishpeming, Michigan, "the birthplace of organized skiing," in 1954 and is America's only such institution devoted entirely to honoring skiers and, supposedly, snowboarders who have contributed to the culture in profound ways. Why then is the roster still so ski-specific? Why hasn't the Hall continued on their path to include snowboarders? Are Jake and Donna the only snowboarders worthy of inclusion?

We think not.

How about Terry Kidwell or Chuck Barfoot or Tom Sims or Jamie Lynn or Peter Line or Jeremy Jones (take your pick)? Going by the number of asterisks next to the names of past and current inductees, we might have to wait for our sport's true greats to die before seeing their names alongside Nancy Greene-Raine or the Mahre brothers. Or maybe it's just a case of snowboarders being slow to recognize the institution and failing to nominate our brethren. "Encourage the US Snowboard Team to start submitting nominations to the Hall of Fame. The nomination form is on the web site," said West.

Consider yourself encouraged, US Snowboard Team.

The Hall of Fame website, claims: "By the time of [Jake and Donna's] induction, half of the people riding the slopes were on snowboards and Burton Snowboards supplied half of that market with boards, clothing and accessories." This is 100-percent true but what about Terje? He's certainly as important in the grand scheme of snow as skiers like Picabo Street or Thor B. Groswald, whoever he might be. To their credit, West told ESPN that Craig Kelly's name has come up as a possible Hall inductee from snowboarding. Until Craig gets posthumously voted in, the list will lack street cred, clearly, and it's up to voters like us to get him his due.

If you want to pony up $125 a plate to actually attend the banquet, why not stick around and ski with the Olympians? To wit: "A few select patrons will have an opportunity to ski with the new inductees on Saturday morning at Deer Valley. World Champion and Hall of Famer Trace Worthington, and Deer Valley's skiing ambassador Heidi Voelker, will be leading a very special Ski With the Olympians program." [source: www.skihall.com]

Oh. You're a snowboarder? Guess you'll have to head over to Park City where they actually allow snowboarding...

We asked West whether a (theoretical) snowboard inductee would have been allowed on-slope. "That would be up to Deer Valley Resort," he said. "If there had been a snowboarder in the group and Deer Valley had decided to enforce their policy then we would have looked to another resort for that program. This is all hypothetical—we can do this because this year's class is made up only of skiers."

Holding the event at Deer Valley (or Alta or Mad River Glen) is akin to saying, "We were only kidding about the snowboard thing,"—at least in our opinion. The list backs up this fact: the Hall of Fame site is still so ski-specific in its language and list as to be humorous. Beyond including Jake you'd be hard-pressed to find any evidence that snowboarding is part of the program. Or even exists, really. And it's funny that Burton's First Couple remain the only snowboarders on the list when Burton's "Poach" program in 2007 did more than anything in recent memory to highlight the ski-only apartheid policies of the last three holdouts, including Deer Valley. (Taos, New Mexico capitulated last spring.)

And what about Snurfer inventor Sherman Poppen? Dude's even from Michigan!Snowboarders and industry players with influence need to get voting or the list will continue to get more and more lopsided. We're guessing that waiting for the ski establishment to vote for snowboarding's finest is kind of a lost cause...

—Colin Whyte

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