SIA Releases 2013 Participant Study – Lack of Early Season Snow Effect Participation Rates

SnowSports Industries America (SIA) released the 2013 Snow Sports Participant Study today that provides a comprehensive look into this season’s snow sports participants across all six disciplines. The report covers alpine skiers, snowboarders, cross country skiers, freeskiers, telemark skiers and snowshoers and provides a detailed account of what they did on and off the mountain during the 2012/2013 season.

The snowfall got a late start this season, really getting underway after the Christmas holiday. The lack of early season snow affected all snow sports except freeski and telemark, which both finished the season with more participants than previous years. Ultimately, overall snow sports participation was down 3% to 19.3M participants across all disciplines; alpine ski had a 19% drop in participation but still brought the most to the mountain with 8.2M, followed by snowboard with 7.4M, freeski with 5.4M, snowshoe with 4M, cross country with 3.3 million and telemark with 2.8M participants.

The 2013 Snow Sports Participant Study offers unique facts about this season’s participants:

• Out of the 19.3M participants, 62% are male and 38% are female.
• Alpine skiers and snowboarders make up 49% of all snow sports participants.
• 54% of snow sports participants make more than $75K a year.
• Telemark skiers (avg. 13 days) and snowboarders (avg. 11.3 days) participated the most this season.
• Snowshoeing is the most popular snow sport amongst women, representing 46% of snowshoers.
• Freeskiing is the most diverse snow sport, with minorities representing half of its participants.
• Walking for fitness is the most common “off the mountain” activity for snow sports participants.
• Over 39% of snowboarders are under age 24.
• 74% of snow sports participants are homeowners.
• 43% of snow sports participants are very interested in the winter Olympics.
• The majority of skiers (18%) and snowboarders (27%) live in the Pacific region.

SIA works with its Physical Activity Council partners to conduct more than 42,356 surveys of American households on their sports and leisure activities and to create this study. The 2013 Snow Sports Participation Study is free to SIA Members and $899 for non-members. To get your copy of the report, or for more information about SIA Research please contact SIA’s Director of Research at 703.506.4224 or email at KDavis@snowsports.org.

– SIA –

SnowSports Industries America (SIA) is the national not-for-profit, North American member-owned, trade association representing suppliers and service providers of snow sports products with constituents in the retailer, rep and resort communities. Annually producing the SIA Snow Show, the largest snow sports industry trade show, on-snow demo and networking environment globally, SIA delivers invaluable data/research reports including the Snow Sports Market Intelligence Reports, SnowSports RetailTRAKTM and Executive Market Summary. SIA also produces the Supplier Show, Sourcing Snow, at the SIA Snow Show; learn more at siasnowshow.com/sourcing. SIA is dedicated to growing the industry through consumer initiatives and websites, snowlink.com and wintertrails.org, marketing resources, services and collaborative programs to increase participation and move product. Ford is the official partner of the 2013 SIA Snow Show. For more information, visit snowsports.org. SnowSports Industries America, 8377-B Greensboro Drive, McLean, VA 22102-3587 (Washington, DC Area). Phone: 703-556-9020, Fax: 703-821-8276, Email: SIAmail@snowsports.org.