FUTURE SHRED: Burton Academy Develops Retention Focused Teaching Model

mike lewis

• March 17 2009
• 731 views
• 2 comments

While the conversation about the health of the sport has been largely hijacked by the state of the economy, the underlying trend of declining participation in snowboarding began before the bubble burst. The bigger issue, and one that will be with us after the tide turns on the economy, is the fact that we’re relying on an increasingly small pond of aging die hard shreds to keep the joy of riding alive. This series looks at what industry members are doing to attract new riders, and more importantly, get them hooked and keep them in the fold.

It happens every day. People are convinced to try snowboarding, head to the slope, beat the crap out of themselves, and then promptly return their rental boards and turn their backs on riding without ever getting to know what has us hooked. Even people that invest in lessons find themselves bruised, battered, and frustrated and become one timers, instead of, what needs to be all of our goal, life timers.

While this has been a battle since the sport began, until recently there were enough people heading out to fill in the ranks of the feint of heart, but no longer, and as numbers drop, talk of improving retention has been making the rounds more than pants-less in Vail emails.

This year Burton decided to stop talking about improvements it could make to its already substantial Learn to Ride (LTR) program, which has helped tens of thousands at over 160 resorts worldwide go from green to shred, and launch an entirely new teaching program called the Burton Academy.  Located at Northstar-at-Tahoe, the Academy is a full immersion, snowboard specific program that features private terrain designed to help riders progress rapidly, its own lodge, and has the lofty objective of 100 percent retention.

“It first came up about two years ago when Jake, myself and a few others were talking about how we can do more to help new riders get into the sport and retain more of them and help existing riders take their skills to the next level,” says Burton Global Resort Director Jeff Boliba. “Jake began talking about how important it is to make people feel comfortable and to get them linking turns without fear in the first lesson.”

On the pro side, Burton brought Jeremy Jones, Jussi Oksanen, and Heikki Sorsa to the table to help found the project, and teamed up with Northstar to develop an entirely new, “terrain-based methodology” model for instruction. The end result is an experience that lets beginners feel like part of the snowboarding club from day one, and comes with a guarantee to have them linking turns that same day.

Sessions begin when groups of no more than four per coach pick up their LTR gear mid-mountain at the Academy lounge. The private facility “allows people to bypass the rental shop and get immediately hooked up with a coach that walks them through the whole gearing up process,” according to Boliba.  “The lounge has couches, coffee, snacks, video’s playing and an outside fireplace and indoor chilling area.  This lounge creates a comfortable and laid-back environment for the coaches and riders to use in conjunction with their lesson.”

The LTR gear is designed to help beginners get comfortable with the basics quickly. More advanced riders have access to top of the line demo products as well. Once they’re ready to hit the slopes, coaches introduce them to what truly sets this program apart, the Academy’s terrain and teaching method.

Learning The Basics

“The new terrain based teaching methodology incorporates different terrain features to help people learn without fear and build confidence faster,” explains Boliba.  The features are designed to do the speed control and stopping for riders. “This allows the rider to focus on balance with both feet buckled within the first 5-10 minutes of the lesson,” says Academy Director and Head Coach Chris Hargrave.  “The rider learns to relax and move while sliding directly down the hill (in the fall line) and gains confidence in themselves, their equipment, and the snow.  Contained and controlled by moderate transition shapes, riders are exposed to the sensation of pressure build up and release, the feeling that makes snowboarding, surfing, and skating feel so awesome.”

“This helps eliminate the fear and slams and…was a blend of Jake’s key teaching techniques with this terrain- based methodology,” continues Boliba. “Jake has refined his techniques over the years and the core of that is the following- focus more time with the new rider having both feet strapped in, get the rider to put their weight on their front foot, always keep your downhill edge up, and for the coach to be off their board in the beginning to support the rider.”

“This is a totally outside of the box approach to teaching snowboarding,” says Hargrave. “Normal teaching methods are based around teaching people how to skate, then side slip to a stop, then falling leaf, then garlands and linking turns or something to that effect.  The bottom line is the student is taken to a slope and forced to learn how to defend themselves against speed and loss of control.  It can be a brutal and scary process that causes many to give up on snowboarding all together. We have enhanced the experience by giving our riders and coaches every advantage we can control.  They aren’t just learning to shred at the Academy they’re learning how to be snowboarders, and what it’s like to be a part of our world.”

Throughout the day coaches film riders and provide feedback on the video during breaks and at the end of the session.

Getting Them Hooked

Perhaps the most interesting part of the program’s set up, from a retention standpoint, is the fact that a one-day lesson package ($169-199 depending on the time of year and if riders need lift tickets) includes season-long access to Academy facilities and feedback from coaches.

“If somebody comes and they’ve been a part of it…we welcome them back,” touts Hargrave. “We’re working on a profile type Web page that will allow [riders] to stay fully connected with their coach, ask questions whenever they want, and in the interim coaches have been sending emails and following up on their own with the technology that’s available right now.”

Burton has set a lofty goal of 100% retention of Academy members, and in its first year it looks to be making solid progress. “Previously, I had not enjoyed snowboarding nearly as much as skiing and so had decided not to snowboard anymore,” says Bill Link, who was talked into visiting the Academy on a recent trip to Northstar. “I didn’t really have any expectations going in – probably because I only found out about it two minutes before, but I was extremely impressed with the first-rate quality of every aspect of the experience.  One thing that was pretty unexpected was indoor lessons before we got out in the snow.  I know I will try snowboarding again.”

Hargrave has numerous similar stories to relate. “Earlier this season I coached a lady who had tried snowboarding one time before several years ago.  She had a good start followed by a shocking and traumatic crash, breaking her wrist.  She told me she was so turned off from that experience that it would have been her last.  She heard about the Academy from a friend and was convinced that she could safely give it another try.  We took it slow and by the end of the day she was linking her first turns.  Some people learn way faster, but even this rider, who was terrified of our sport, was able to find the confidence to try.  The goal was to get her connected to snowboarding and feel like she was in the right place at the right time to become a committed snowboarder.  It worked; she is still riding and loving it.

“Last week I got to shred with some pro-bmx riders that had some experience on their boards.  They wanted to know why they weren’t able to land jumps and jibs easily.  So we spent the day working on ollies, little spins, logs in the stash, hand plants on mini transitions.  They progressed so fast and were so stoked that we ended our day with some runs in the Pin Ball Park.  They were stomping their landings off the jumps, stalling on the top of our wall ride, spinning off of hips, cleaning the Craig Kelly cabin roof.”

Northstar-at-Tahoe has made a major push over the last several seasons to market itself to snowboarders and has played a huge role in developing this new program and dedicating the terrain to it.

The Academy has started out fairly slowly, by design, to ensure it had the system finely tuned before launching a major marketing drive. To date, an estimated 500-700 people have been through the program, which employs roughly forty coaches and can handle between 60 and a 100 people per day depending on staffing. “We are averaging about 40-50 riders on busy days right now without really advertising at all,” says Hargrave. “We wanted a really organic approach so we didn’t really do much marketing at all. We have a raw version of the Website in place and Northstar added the input of their Website, but there wasn’t a major push to get the word out. We wanted that opportunity to test everything and get beta on it. This next year, the intent is to push a little harder. The worst thing we could have done was gotten it out there and gotten it wrong. We really wanted to get people in and give them a chance to see what we’re doing, the difference in our teaching system, the difference in the whole experience overall and let them tell our story for us and so far it’s working very well.”

The overall goal of the program is to create a new generation of riders that are dedicated to the sport and will help it grow into the future. “We have got to start creating pathways that show people how they can become a part of all the things we do and all the things we are,” opines Hargrave. “It’s almost as if, this sounds cheesy, but you’re giving the people the secret handshake to know what it’s like to be a snowboarder. If we’re actually committed to making people snowboarders, we’re doing the right thing. If we’re just committed to making a dollar off of giving someone an introduction, than we’re making a major mistake.”