RAY SCOTT OUTDOORS
Presents
Short Casts & Backlashes
By Bob Cobb

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY – There’s a definite change in how life styles are being viewed.   The trend: at the end of life nobody wishes they had spent more time in the office.

 If the 1980s was about “collecting toys,” the 90s – and the new millennium – are about collecting experiences.

 The “new audience” in the growing number of participants in active outdoor pursuits:

 Snowboarding was the fastest growing of 59 sports surveyed in 1998 by the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA), making a 29.1 percent leap from 1997.

 Backpacking, windsurfing, snorkeling, water skiing and scuba diving, also, made double-digit gains.

  While, according to the NSGA survey hunting participation increased, fishing dropped 2.7 percent.

 However, the marketplace is booming.  Spending on hunting and fishing-related equipment and apparel climbed to $72 billion in 1996, the most recent figures.