He learned some basic techniques at the Riverside golf course in Portland, where he lived as a child, and graduated to Shawnee Peak before he was 10. Still, after 30 years of skiing, McCarthy was looking for something new. It was kind of boring. I was losing the passion for skiing. A year ago, he decided that snowboarding offered him a new way to experience the mountain, he said.
Jumps are different on a snowboard.
They're more fun. McCarthy sees a lot of adults in his snowboard classes now, a sign that their perception of the sport has changed, he said. It was a way to rebel. Now, older people feel as though they can join younger people in slicing their way down a mountain with long tails of snow flying in their wake, or even taking jumps that land with a thwack. And that change in the sport may be worrying some younger people who see snowboarding as the James Dean of winter activities.