Letters to the Editor

Slipping through our fingers

Dear Editor,

I am saddened by the fact that we (the Town of Mammoth) have an opportunity to create a world class municipal Nordic trail system and it is slipping through our fingers. Our peer resorts such as Vail and Sun Valley have demonstrated the value of such a system, yet we continue to put it at the bottom of our list.

A story in last week’s paper [Ed. note: Fifty Center] suggested that Mammoth Nordic’s Founder Brian Knox may have intentionally waited until the middle of winter to pull the plug on the support their organization has provided to groom the trail system.

In fact, Brian sent a letter to Town staff, Recreation Commissioners and Town Council the first week of November 2010 explaining that due to the amount of funding they were awarded from Measure R and the low priority rating in the RecStrats Strategic Plan document (which would delay funding for 4-6 years) Mammoth Nordic would not be able to provide grooming services for the upcoming season and were hoping to find a way to work with the Town to maintain the trail system. Thirteen weeks later (the end of January 2011) Brian finally received an offer from the Town. Unfortunately the offer was just too little too late. Mammoth Nordic will continue to work toward its goal of having a free municipal Nordic trail system but for the time being it just isn’t financially possible to maintain the high level of grooming they were able to produce last year.

I am not questioning the allocation of Measure R funds by the Recreation Commission; it is an extremely difficult task to make the most of limited funding for all of the requests the Commission receives. But it is important that we stay focused on exploring all of our options for funding the various recreational activities that enhance our Town and keep any and all comments that question an individual’s integrity or intent out of the equation. We will only reach our goals if we work together as a community.

Mayor Skip Harvey
Mammoth Lakes

Wrong lineage

Dear Editor,

In response to Wolf’s article, “Turns of the Decade,” he said, “Snowboarding (perhaps unknowingly) “Mr. Miyagi‘d” freeskiing by creating a rubric for the labeling of tricks that skiers later adapted and made their own.” Let him be reminded that snowboarding took those terms to define their tricks from skateboarding. The first snowboarders imitated skate tricks in the snow and naturally used the same nomenclature. Few snowboarders understand this, and even fewer skiers, as evidenced by Wolf.

The term “switch,” short for “switch-stance,” originated with skateboarders and describes when someone rides a board in the opposite stance. For instance, a regular footer (left foot forward) would ride his board in the forward direction with his right foot forward, or “goofy.”

In skiing, there is no regular or goofy stance, and as such no true “switch” maneuver. What is called switch by snowboarders refers more correctly to someone riding backwards (known as a “fakie” in skateboard parlance), since their is no reorientation of stance on the snowboard itself. Additionally, all the grabs define themselves according to the placement of the hand in relation to either the toe side or heel side of the board. Front hand/toe side: mute. Back hand/heel side: stale-fish.  The heel or toe side of a ski would more normally be referred to as the tip or tail. Skateboards also have trucks (the metal things connecting the wheels to the board), and tricks such as 50/50s (both trucks on the rail) and 5-0s (back truck only) refer to which truck is grinding the rail on the skater’s decent. Of course, skis and snowboards have no trucks, but use the same terms to describe their sliding across boxes, etc.

It’s popular knowledge that modern skateboarding was borne out of surf culture and imported moves and style from the waves to the pavement. Snowboarding grew from skating much in this way. As a skateboarder, I’ve always found some of these adopted uses of skateboard terms in skiing a little awkward, but I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Eh?

So, if Wolf’s right, maybe it’d be fitting if he’d come down the the skatepark when it melts out and shake a skater’s hand for helping him suck a little less. After all, if it weren’t for us, he’d still be doing double-daffy’s in a neon one-piece!

Scott Hoffer
Mammoth Lakes