NEVER BORED; WITH ELABORATE TERRAIN PARKS AND EXTENSIVE INSTRUCTION, BIG BEAR RESORTS DIRECTLY TARGET A BOOMING SNOWBOARDER MARKET READY FOR AN OLLIE? IF YOU BUILD IT, SNOWBOARDERS WILL COME.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

BIG BEAR LAKE - This is the winter playground of the young and the reckless: ramps, jumps, boxes in the snow, steel rails that resemble stairway banisters, steep banks, half-pipes that look like giant, open-faced tunnels.

At the major ski areas in the San Bernardino Mountains, the snowboarding terrain park is being expanded, modified, sculpted into a veritable hill of horrors in order to meet the demands of an explosive winter-sports segment: youthful adrenaline junkies. (Is that redundant?)

Boarders compose about two-thirds of the business at Big Bear's two biggest resorts, Snow Summit and Big Bear Mountain, and both tailor their operations accordingly.

Instruction from beginner to expert is offered - accommodating a growing number of older skiers who are dabbling in snowboarding so as not to be left behind in the flurry of ice crystals kicked up by their teen-age children.

Snowboarding combines elements of skateboarding and surfing, and it proves popular even when the current freakish weather patterns force local resorts to subsist entirely on man-made snow. Let the skiers head to the Pacific Northwest for a powder fix. The boarders are quite content with this hard-pack; it's still softer than the sidewalk at the base of the public library stairs.

Snowboard instructor Shanon Klaers, 20, of Big Bear Mountain, conducted a tour recently of the Quiksilver Terrain Park, which this season has added a second deep half-pipe alongside the existing one, creating a kind of double-barreled effect.

Only a few minutes of observation revealed the challenge the resort faces in trying to maintain some semblance of etiquette and control among the daredevils up there.

``You watch everybody hurt themselves,'' Klaers said. ``You see a lot of people who have no idea what they're doing. They see someone else do something, and they've just got to try it. They end up eating it really hard. ... They play the snowboarding video games. They see the professionals. It looks so easy. They come up here, and instead of trying to just jump over first, they try to do a 180(-degree spin), or whatever.''

And here they came on this December morning. Soaring off jumps. Skidding along rails - steel rods that parallel the hill a few inches off the snow. Plunging into the half-pipe.

Klaers, wearing a gold jacket that identified her as a resort staffer, took up a position near a rail with a reporter and a photographer. The group probably looked like some kind of safety inspection team, because from the chairlift high overhead, a young voice squeaked, ``You guys aren't taking that rail out, are you?''

The photographer's presence seemed to draw all downhill traffic like a giant kid magnet. Boarders soared up a short snow ramp, turned sideways to skid the length of the rail, then invariably tumbled awkwardly off the end, only to regain their balance with miraculous ease, if not grace.

Instructors and other mountain personnel encourage the boarders, especially those new to the terrain park, to take kind of a survey run down the mountain first, rolling over a jump (without actually jumping), checking landing areas for sheets of ice, etc. They preach mountain courtesy - you're supposed to call out, ``I'm dropping,'' when you're headed toward a jump, for example, to keep other boarders from suddenly careening into your path. They dispense common-sense tips - not lingering in a landing area after a fall, since there's a good chance someone else is going to be airborne above you (and powerless to avoid you) in a moment.

On this day, it didn't appear as if many riders had heeded any of that advice.

All the while, the Silver Connection ski run that parallels the terrain park was all but deserted, the lone skier occasionally carving back and forth across it.

Many skiers, in fact, seemed to be attracted to the bumps and jumps of the terrain park and joined the boarders in the frolic.

Pro snowboarder Neal Drake, who helped design the park's features, said this reflects a general trend in downhill sports. ``I think it's the idea of the mountain not being just flat terrain,'' he said. ``We're trying to make the mountain appealing and more fun. That's why we're expanding the terrain parks - because they're not just for snowboarders.''

During the recent visit, at least one snowboarder was disdaining the terrain park for the adjacent run. A teen-age girl, clearly a beginner, was skidding toward the bottom, mostly on her rump, her snowboard thrust out in front of her like a brake. A friend was boarding back and forth behind her, feebly calling out suggestions.

For the resorts, instruction can be a tough sell to the kids, apparently. Shawn Allsberry, 25, an advanced snowboard instructor at Big Bear Mountain, said peer pressure can be a factor. Newcomers, he said, ``come out here with their friends. They skateboard really well. The friends say, 'Come on, I'll teach you.' Then they go to the top of the hill and the friends take off.'' It becomes trial and error thereafter.

Indeed, a day earlier, when a novice class convened at nearby Snow Summit, the only students were four 40ish guys. Two claimed to be accomplished skiers whose kids had been after them to learn something new so they could enjoy the mountain together.

For all of us, the instruction was quite an adventure (cost is $55 for two hours, including equipment rental and lower-mountain lift). One of the dads slammed painfully onto his rear - while doing nothing more taxing than getting off the chair at the top of the lift. Another pulled up his parka sleeves to reveal rollerblade wrist guards. He said he was anticipating a lot of falls and was taking no chances.

A 20-year-old instructor with inexhaustible patience guided us through wobbly basics, during which there was a withering assault on tail bones, wrists, hands, knees and egos.

For anyone old enough to wear reasonably snug pants, it seems, the sport requires coordination rarely employed in other recreational endeavors. In skiing, there are four points of balance - two skis, two poles. In surfing and rudimentary windsurfing, which employ a similar parallel stance, adjustments can be made with the feet (and, in the latter case, the sail) to maintain balance.

But in snowboarding, your feet are anchored to the board in clunky boots and unforgiving bindings. Imagine jumping onto a plastic lunch tray after you've freshly swabbed a ceramic-tile floor. Now imagine your feet strapped to the tray. Now tilt the floor at a precarious angle.

In snowboarding, you rock onto your heels or toes to cut an edge and turn. Kids who were on skateboards before they could walk seem to have no difficulty with this learning curve. A dad in the class said his son had recently signed up for instruction but mastered the technique within minutes, bailed out of the class after an hour and was at the top of the mountain by afternoon.

Word has it that when basic balance on the board is mastered, progress accelerates rapidly. We didn't get there, but there's always next time.

It's when snowboarders want to start doing exotic stunts that things really get interesting.

``Here is Step 1 through 30 steps,'' said Allsberry, the Big Bear Mountain instructor. ``The more advanced the tricks become, the harder it is to find someone to take the time to teach you.''

Accordingly, the resort has been offering such instruction the past couple of seasons. The program, called the Great Turns Workshop, is a bargain - $5 for 1 3/4 hours, lift ticket and equipment not included.

Over lunch on the sun deck after delivering a stirring exhibition of flips and twists in the half-pipe, Allsberry lamented that ``only about 2 percent of (accomplished snowboarders) who want to do tricks take on formal instruction.''

Sounding for all the world like a parent, this seasoned 25-year-old said, ``It's hard to get 17-year-olds to take a deep breath and think about what they're going to do before they just go out and do it.''

Those who avail themselves of the instruction are often taken through a progression of maneuvers of graduated difficulty, Allsberry said: ollie, moving ollie, switch riding, butters, straight jumps, grabs, corking, spin tricks, flips, rodeo, cripplers. (Don't panic over that latter bit of terminology, Mom.) ``If you start getting to chimney spins,'' he added, ``it's almost too much to digest.''

Those who listen and watch can probably learn a great deal. The boarders on the hill were certainly riveted this day as Allsberry performed tricks for the benefit of a video crew and a still photographer. He was easy to spot as he pulled up short of the mouth of the half-pipe, wearing his gold staff jacket and white helmet (he's been wearing one for four years, he said, and hopes that youngsters follow his lead).

Many of the snowboarders in the immediate vicinity slid to a stop and sat down in the snow to take in the show.

On one occasion, Allsberry didn't enter the half-pipe directly, but instead glided for some distance along its rim, dropping in from a height of perhaps 10 feet. Moments later, he was soaring into a dramatic back flip.

``Kids,'' he said later, ``are really active. They try to learn how to do these things. You get bored with doing the same thing over and over.

``I think it's innate in all of us. Once you learn something, you push to learn something more.''

In the local mountains, the ever-expanding, ever-more-exotic terrain parks stand ready to accommodate the urge.

IF YOU GO

--Big Bear Mountain Resort: 43101 Goldmine Drive. [phone].

www.bearmtn.com.

Adult lift ticket $32.

--Snow Summit: 880 Summit Boulevard. [phone]

www.snowsummit.com.

Adult lift ticket $34.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- 2 -- color) Shawn Allsberry, left, an advanced snowboard instructor at Big Bear Mountain Resort, rockets off a jump in the terrain park, which was modified in the off-season to provide even more thrills. Young snowboarders, above, account for the bulk of the resort's business.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

(3) The half-pipe attracts snowboarders of varying skills at Big Bear Mountain. The area is a hit with young boarders.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

(4 -- 5) Snowboarders test their skills on several rails in the terrain park at Big Bear Mountain. Posted notices, right, are often ignored by boarders.

Box: IF YOU GO (see text)