There are almost always a few good nuggets from interviews that don’t make their way into the newspaper. Such was the case with my season-finale piece on Ski Bluewood for Friday’s print edition.

And one line of questioning that didn’t really fit that story came toward the end of my interview with Travis Stephenson, who operates the Dayton ski area for his folks in Pasco. I asked him about the "skiing vs. snowboarding" debate.

Years ago when snowboarding began to take off, many skiers saw the invasion of these rogues as the end of life on slopes as they knew it.

“Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” Stephenson countered. “In terms of the ski industry, snowboarding was what the doctor ordered. Snowboarding almost saved skiing by itself, in my opinion. Snowboarding made skiing cool for the youth.”

Indeed, the commercial success of the Winter XGames, snowboarding’s adoption by the Winter Olympics and the subsequent marketing appeal transformed snowboarding into a mainstream sport.

Along the way, however, technological improvements and the importation of extreme attitudes spawned freestyle skiing, backcountry skiing and side-country skiing. Herald senior photographer Paul T. Erickson is prime example, and he shares some of his adventures on our website.

“The different ski technologies have caused a revolution and made it so much fun,” Stephenson said. “Personally, I’m a skier, and I’m seeing more youth skiing than snowboarding."

Stephenson, who graduated from Pasco High School in 2000, has a rather solid perspective after growing up on the slopes of Bluewood, graduating from Central Washington University with a business degree, serving as ski coach and having lived in the Rockies and Alaska.

“Ten years ago, when I was on the hill, there used to be only one skier in a group of 10 to 15 people. It was primarily snowboards,” he said. “Now, it’s just the opposite. A lot of my friends are switching. It’s really neat to watch. This is an exciting time for the sport.”