Don’t say Alterra Mountain Company doesn’t listen to their customers. After sending out a completely tone-deaf email announcing the extension of their 20/21 season pass sale (and failing to mention that the IKON passes were non-refundable if the resorts didn’t open next year) they have come correct (on April 17, 2020) with an option they are calling the Adventure Assurance.
Adventure Assurance was designed to alleviate uncertainty and provide flexibility to 20/21 Ikon Pass holders by offering the choice to defer adventure to the following season for any reason with no fee. Regardless of 20/21 Ikon Pass purchase date, between September 10 and December 10, 2020, Ikon Pass holders can choose to defer the value of their 20/21 Ikon Pass toward any single Ikon Pass product available for the 21/22 winter season. For more details, please visit the Adventure Assurance page.
Which is good, because their deal as announced three days ago bordered on criminal. Nice PR pivot, Alterra. Give whoever came up with this idea a raise! We’re still not fans of giving resorts money now for services we may or may not use for two years but if you are, click the link for all the details (and there are loads of them).
Last spring when we warned snowboarders that by purchasing a super-mega pass they were assuming all risk for the coming season (The Sinister Plot Behind The Super-Mega Pass) we never could have imagined that all the resorts would close in March and that pass holders would be left holding the empty bag. What was even funnier is how quickly the super-mega pass sellers were to point out to their customers that they had no obligations related to refunds because the passes were “non-refundable and not transferable to another season.”
Now, Alterra (the uber resort conglomerate that owns Mammoth Mountain et. al.) is pressing snowboarders to buy IKON passes for the 20-21 season even though most of North America is in COVID-19 lockdown and no one knows when or if ski resorts will be able to open next year. In fact, they want your “non-refundable” money so badly that they are extending their early purchase discounts. Isn’t that kind of them?
As we look ahead, we invite you to join the Ikon Pass community for next season. For winter 20/21, we are giving you more time to take advantage of spring discounts and consider your purchase until May 27, 2020.
But what happens if you buy a 20/21 Ikon pass and the resorts don’t open for the 20/21 season? Here’s their answer:
At this time, all Ikon Pass destinations plan to be open for the 20/21 winter season. All Ikon Pass, Ikon Base Pass, and Ikon Base Plus Pass purchases paid-in-full are non-refundable.
Ha, that’s right. They keep your money and you get nothing. How you feeling about that deal now? For answers to all your IKON pass questions and to see just how tightly Alterra holds on to your money click the link.
It’s one of those partnerships that should have happened long ago. Why wouldn’t the world’s most recognizable skateboarder wear the world’s most authentic skateboarding shoe? Duh! So today, it’s official. Tony Hawk is a global brand ambassador for Vans.
“Vans has supported skateboarding since the very beginning, and never wavered in its commitment, even with massive mainstream success,” said Tony Hawk. “I have always respected their integrity, so it is an honor to officially join forces and help continue to grow skateboarding culture in the most authentic way possible.”
It’s weird, but we’re oddly stoked that Tony is back in the Vans family. Aren’t you? For the official word from Vans, please follow the jump.
We’ve collected a monster page full of all the news that is news. We’d like to apologize in advance for all the COVID-19 stories. Personally, we been skipping the news lately as an act of self preservation, but please feel free to dive in. Hope you’re all safe and well. Really.
Vans is doing their part to help small businesses around the world with their new Foot The Bill custom shoe designs initiative.
To support our extended Vans Family, Vans has committed to helping 80 small, independent businesses including skate and specialty shops, restaurants, music venues and community- driven spaces by offering their custom-made designs available for purchase on Vans Customs with net proceeds going directly to these vital partners. . . “My father Paul Van Doren always said that we were a people company that made shoes. Now, more than ever, it’s important to support the people that provide spaces for communities around the world to be creative and come together,” said Steve Van Doren, son of Vans’ founder and Vans’ Vice President of Events and Promotions. “We were once a small business and wouldn’t be where we are today without the support of these partners. We hope to rally together with our consumers to lend a helping hand to those that are in need.”
The program will expand to include additional independent skate shops, surf shops, restaurants, music venues and community driven spaces over the next month and will be available on Vans.com in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, the Netherlands, United States and United Kingdom. For all the details, including a list of retailers please follow the jump.
While we’re blown away (with the rest of you) by how fast our world can change, and have little wisdom and no panacea for the current time, here is a short collection of news stories that have caught our attention over the past month or so. Follow the jump for the full list.
Ryan Adams and Matt Eversole, the guys behind SellerDoor.com have decided to open their online skateboarding marketplace to skateboard shops free of charge during these rough times of forced closure. That’s means, shops can put their merchandise online, quickly without having to set much up. Here’s the deal:
We are putting it on the table here. We want to help skateboard shops during these insane times of the Coronavirus. We provide skateboarders an online marketplace to sell to other skateboarders. We have talked to some of our friends that own shops and asked if they could benefit from selling things on our platform. Indeed they could use our help. That being said, we have decided to give brick and mortar skate shops the opportunity to utilize our platform with no fees until their doors are back open and the dust has settled.
For more info and to check out the SellerDoor.com marketplace, please click the link.
Dave McCoy the eternally stoked, kind-hearted, ski coach, mountain biker, motocrosser, photographer, ski industry titan, and founder of Mammoth Mountain has died, according to a post on the Mammoth Mountain website and a story in the LA Times. He was 104.
The mountain is saying “Thank You, Dave McCoy. 1915 to 2020.” Sometime we’ll list all the ways Dave directly helped shape our lives, but for right now, in sadness, we’ll just say thanks, Dave. Rest in Peace. Our thoughts are with the entire family. For the complete McCoy Mammoth Mountain story click the link.
Shop Eat Surf founder Tiffany Montgomery announced today (December 9, 2019) that she has sold her industry focused website to trade show and events company Emerald X for what is likely, not a whole lot, because, hey, she’d probably like a more consistent paycheck and better health insurance (wouldn’t we all).
“We are proud of what we have accomplished as a stand-alone, bootstrapped start-up in a rapidly evolving media environment,” Montgomery said in a post announcing the sale. “What started as an experiment 12 years ago has turned into a news service that is read by industry leaders around the world.”
We always hated the site’s name. We also felt that Montgomery was an opportunistic, interloping, outsider looking to feast on what was left of the rotting corpse of the action sports industry, but turns out she is a talented, likable, honest journalist who took seriously what we often write jokes about. So, nice work Tiffany. Sad to see you go.
[Editors’ Note: We’re posting this news a long time after the actual sale and in light of current events it seems like Montgomery had perfect timing.]
Call it a beacon of laziness, or a blinding neon sign of boredom, but we’re still at it. Putting up a list of headlines for stories we might have read over the past who knows how many days.
It takes us back to when we were just starting out. Each week we built an HTML page of links with a bit of commentary. Then the commentary took over, and now, it looks like we’re back to just blasting out an occasional list of links for you to chew through all by your lonesome. Just the ebbs and flows of action sporting news dissemination. Enjoy.
Don’t say Alterra Mountain Company doesn’t listen to their customers. After sending out a completely tone-deaf email announcing the extension of their 20/21 season pass sale (and failing to mention that the IKON passes were non-refundable if the resorts didn’t open next year) they have come correct (on April 17, 2020) with an option they are calling the Adventure Assurance.
Vans is doing their part to help small businesses around the world with their new Foot The Bill custom shoe designs initiative.
Shop Eat Surf founder Tiffany Montgomery announced today (December 9, 2019) that she has sold her industry focused website to trade show and events company 
