Live from the Boston Ski Show

Having spent the day at the Boston Ski & Snowboard Expo, it's safe to say that this granddaddy of an exposition is a high water mark for the pre- and early ski season.

The Boston Ski Show—actually known these days as the Boston Ski & Snowboard Expo—has long been the Big Kahuna of ski and snowsports exhibitions.

Yesterday, afer years of "threatening" to attend, I finally got there.

And, you know what? It really is the Big One.

Staged in the Bayside Expo Center, the event encompasses just about anything that can happen on skis (of any kind) or snowboards, and then some.

After watching cameo appearances by SpongeBob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer, who will be heading up special Nickelodeon Family Ski Weeks at American Skiing Company resorts like Mount Snow, Killington, Attitash, Sunday River Sugarloaf and Steamboat, I took in a trampoline show by The SkyRiders Aerial Spectacular. I swear those guys were nearly hitting the ceiling as they went airborne.

Elsewhere I talked to the folks at Burton Chill, a program that introduces inner city youth to snowboarding, and then ran into my pal Dave Leonardi who was handing out his publication Skier News.

Stop in and you can get a chance to discover just exactly what an airboard is, or what's new in programs from Youth Enrichment Services.

Or check out the latest Hondas and Toyotas.

Or you can skateboard in a small skate park and ice skate on an artificial rink.

Or . . . well you get the idea.

Resorts from Maine to British Columbia are represented, as are ski tour companies and regional tourist organizations. And Ski Marketwww.skimarket.com has a huge sale going on.

Not to date myself, but I can remember the long-ago defunct NY Ski Show at the New York Coliseum, which was pretty cool in its day. This event in Boston is on a whole 'nother level.

The Boston Ski & Snowboard Expo runs through this Sunday, Nov. 19.

Related Article: Ski-Snowboard Show Schedule 2006