The glasses, suit, boots, posture, helmet all say no – image © ineedsnow.com

Having a child skier has really focused my mind over the last 27 days. I think it was the first Josh post that drew a bit of reaction from some snowboarders when I referred to my aspirations for my new hero. Whilst there is a healthy rivalry between skiers and snowboarders I had to throw in some broad aspirational objectives for the life ahead for this immaculate young person. I will go on record as saying that snowboarding has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to skiing in my opinion: it has challenged and revolutionised skiing, brought in huge numbers of new mountain users and is always something to bring a smile to your face when you see them unclipping at the start of a 100m level traverse into powder heaven

That said there is an off-shoot of snowboarding, a discipline so odd in appearance and flawed in both equipment and execution (on piste only!), that whilst I would not go as far as advocating an outright ban, although maybe lift passes should possibly be restricted ( ), the sport certainly represents a line in the sand. As Walter Sobchak elaborated to the Dude “I’m talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT…”, Josh these words are for your ears son.