This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Hey all you wordsmith powderhounds! Tomorrow is the last day to enter Ski Utah's 2008 Ski/Snowboard Lingo Contest, which seeks to replace the awkward three-word phrase, "skiing and snowboarding" with something shorter and snappier. "Skoarding," anyone?
Some 200 entries already have been posted at http://www.addictionary.org, an online dictionary of made-up words. They include the obvious mash-ups ("skiboarding," "sniing") along with such broader terms as "downhilling" and "snowcarving." I prefer the more abstract ones like "flaking," although I always thought that word meant something else, as in, "Dude, I'm sorry I forgot your wedding but I totally flaked."
The winner will receive a Utah ski vacation - excuse me, a ski-snowboard vacation (see? - it is awkward!) in April. My favorite entry so far is "powdersexual," defined as "one whose love for both snowboarding and skiing are of equal measure." The contest is co-sponsored by Winter at Westminster, the college's spring-semester program that mixes skiing/boarding with boring ol' indoor classes that everyone skips when it snows.
As someone who uses words for a living, I applaud this effort to bridge the great skier/snowboarder divide. I even offer my humble suggestions:
Hucking - as in "hucking" oneself down the mountain.
Hurling - see "hucking." Also refers to what skiers do after pounding peppermint schnapps on the lift.
Shredding - I know, I know, it's a boarder term. But skiers can shred, too, can't they? No? Oh, never mind.
Planking - because either way you're sliding downhill on a wood/fiberglass plank thingy.
Yard Sale-ing - as in, "man, you wiped out so bad that it looked like a yard sale." See "Griggs, Brandon- skiing."
Cheatin' death - OK, maybe I'm exaggerating here, but some of those triple-black diamond chutes are friggin' scary. Besides, I want to hear conversations like this: "What'd ya do this weekend?" "Oh, not much. Cheated death."
Biing - pronounced "bee-ing," like boarding/skiing. Sounds like "peeing," though.
Cops and robbers: The wallet-busting $200 tickets for the July 19 Police/Elvis Costello show at USANA are sold out, forcing late-buying fans to consider paying $90 (for the third seated section) or $40 (for the lawn). Then again, there's always the scalper route. Someone with a lot of nerve is hawking sixth-row Police seats on StubHub.com for $1,763 each. Good luck with that, buddy.