RULE-ABIDING SNOWBOARDERS ARE WELCOME AT MAMMOTH.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Travel Editor

As the overseer of safety issues on Mammoth Mountain, Bill Anderson stays on the alert for this sight: A snowboarder sitting smack in the middle of a downhill run, just taking a break, adjusting a boot or contemplating the next mayhem-defying feat.

A common occurrence?

``I'll stop 15 times on one run down the mountain,'' Anderson said. `` `You've got to get off to the side,''' he'll say to each one.

With the explosion in popularity of snowboarding, a delicate balance is being maintained. Tradition-steeped skiers share the mountain with this new wave of downhill enthusiasts, many of whom are young, straight out of the skateboard parks and, well, exuberant in the extreme.

Mammoth, unlike some upscale resorts in the West, hasn't regarded snowboarding as a necessary evil but instead has openly embraced it. The result is about a 70-30 ratio of skiers to snowboarders, according to a resort spokeswoman. And not a single run on the mountain is designated for exclusive use by one or the other.

By all accounts, a respectful cohabitation is being maintained, however grudgingly.

``The snowboarders are considered to be a little more reckless on the slopes,'' Noah Huffman, 22, of Agoura Hills said recently as he lugged his snowboard toward a lift line. ``Each accuses the other of getting in their way. But I haven't seen too much conflict. You just try not to cut anybody off.''

Perhaps the most critical issue in the interaction of the two groups is a simple learning curve, according to Pam Rake, who works with Anderson on health and safety matters. ``It's just the age group,'' she said of the snowboarders. ``These kids are 16-17 (years old). They haven't learned the etiquette of the mountain.''

Which causes some traditionalists to grumble. ``A lot of people I know just don't like snowboarders,'' said Robbie Price, a downhill skier from northern Ontario, Canada, who now lives in Claremont. ``But it's not the snowboarding, it's the kids. You feel the friction sometimes.

``But kids are kids. Sometimes you get somebody smoking a cigarette, and they just toss it out on the snow. Or they like to be wild, a little more adventurous.''

When snowboarding first came into vogue some 10 years ago, it was segregated from the Mammoth ski crowd, limited to some runs on June Mountain. Mammoth opened its lifts to the snowboarders in 1989-90 and has increasingly accommodated the daredevils ever since.

Joani Saari of the resort's marketing department accompanied a visitor on a gondola ride up the mountain recently and indicated an area below. It is a terrain park, with bumps and jumps and takeoff ramps. The place was crawling with snowboarders, even at 8 a.m. - an absurdly early hour for most teen-agers.

``The kids will get in there and stay all day,'' Saari said. ``When I was growing up (in Mammoth), they used to have signs with big X's wherever there was a jump (warning skiers to stay away). Now we build them, trying to create places where they can get air.''

She added: ``For families, most of the kids are into snowboarding. Snowboarding is the cool thing, and skiing is kind of passe. We'd be cutting our own throats if we discouraged it.''

Snowboarding is fairly beginner-friendly. One day of instruction and you're likely to be ready for intermediate runs, whereas skiing, like golf, can take a bit longer to master.

Perhaps as a result, snowboarding is also piquing the interest of some traditionalists who are dabbling in the sport as a complement to their downhill skiing.

They discover immediately an explanation for the harrowing near-misses that can occur when snowboarders are in the area: blind spots. Because of the skateboard stance that snowboarding requires, anyone flying down the mountain can't always see what is approaching from behind, especially when a sharp backside turn is being made. (Are side-view mirrors the answer?)

``Seeing around you, the vision is limited,'' said Huffman, who abandoned skiing for snowboarding about a year ago. ``You've got to keep your eyes open more and look around you.''

Mammoth officials are looking closely, too - at statistics. ``Because of the perception that we're having more collisions and snowboarders are causing problems, we've kept figures on collisions,'' said Rake. ``They haven't changed (since snowboarders were permitted on the mountain). Actually, they've gone down 1 percent.

``I think a lot of it is just the perception, the image. The snowboard makes noise; you can hear it coming. The kids have baggy pants and that rebel image. But we tell the kids that this is a family area and that we expect them to conform when they're on the hill.''

No matter how many tellings it requires.

On a recent morning at the base of the Goldrush Express lift, a snowboarder was about 100 feet past a giant orange sign that said, ``Slow,'' but he shot over to a small promontory next to the just-opened Mill Cafe. Up the back slope he roared and off the 6-foot drop, landing just a few feet from the edge of the dining patio.

The snowboarder glanced around anxiously.

He was fortunate that Bill Anderson wasn't patrolling that part of the mountain at the moment.

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Photo: (Color) no caption (Skier, snowboarder)