VAIL — As a Brooklyn transplant, Denver businessman Sid Wilson didn’t start skiing until he was 43, at the urging of a co-worker.
Now at 65, he won’t ski anymore. “The last thing you want to do when you’re in your 50s or 60s is break something,” Wilson said.
Yet the ski and snowboard industry could use more people like him: While his friends are shifting to cross-country skiing or snowshoeing as they age, Wilson still goes to ski areas regularly to foster his newer love for snowboarding.
“To be my age and be able to still participate in a new venue, there’s a great ‘cool factor.’ It’s really fun,” he said.
Resorts have planned for at least a decade for a fast and furious drop-off of visits from baby boomers who helped build the industry but who will probably cut back as aching knees, hips and backs set in.
Older baby boomers, now 55-64, started dropping out more rapidly at 54, said Nate Fristoe of the research firm RRC Associates, and now younger boomers, ages 45-54, are approaching that birthday.
“It’s pretty darn urgent. Now we’re on a roller coaster that we’re just at the crest of,” he said Wednesday at an industry conference sponsored by Resort Technology Partners.
Despite a 12-year campaign to get snow-sport newcomers to take lessons and become avid mountaingoers, the conversion rate from newbie to active participant has only risen from about 15 percent since 1999 to about 16.7 percent today.
