SEVEN DEVILS -- Nine-year-old Josh Ponton spun round and round in his snow tube yesterday as he flew down the slopes at Hawksnest, the former ski resort that this year switched to tubing only.
"It was awesome," Josh said. He is visiting from the island of Barbados and was tubing with his parents, Monte and Sharon Ponton; his sister, Sarah, 10; and his aunt, Christie Sherman of Atlanta.
They don't get snow in Barbados so he doesn't get much practice, but he had tried skiing the previous day, Josh said. Tubing is more fun, he said.
"You go faster," he said. "This is easier, going down the hills and spinning around, and the faster the better."
Hawksnest more than tripled its tubing runs this year to offer more than 20 lanes, making it, it says, the largest tubing operation in the eastern United States.
The move came after a long-running dispute with the town over whether the resort would be allowed to expand its skiing area. The area of the resort that used to be busy with skiers sat unused yesterday, with grass instead of snow on the steep slopes below the stilled chairlifts.
It's too early in the season to say how the move will affect the resort's income, but a co-owner of Hawksnest, Lenny Cottom, said that the switch to tubing allows him to run the business more economically.
Instead of covering 30 acres with snow for skiing, he covers 5 acres for the tubing. It takes less staff and less equipment to run a tubing operation than a ski resort.
"We're happy to be in a price range that's a little more affordable than a skiing price range," he said. A ticket for tubing on a weekend or holiday is $30 for a one hour and 45 minute session. A lift ticket for a day of skiing on a holiday or weekend costs about twice that, not including equipment rental.
Tubers yesterday had a choice of going down a single 1,000-foot run or going down a course that led them down a 400-foot run, then a short walk to a 500-foot run and then to a 600-foot run.
Two "magic carpets" -- a type of conveyor system for people -- took them back to the top.
Other area resorts offer tubing. Ski Beech put in a new tubing run this year. Sugar Mountain Resort has a 700-foot tubing run, with its own lift.
Cottom said that going to tubing-only has brought in more families with younger children. A typical good Saturday or holiday might see 2,000 to 3,000 visitors. The sessions are broken up into two-hour blocks.
"Tubing we felt was the growing business for us," Cottom said. "Everybody has their niche. We were selling out a lot of sessions."
■ Hawksnest plans to be open for tubing every day that weather permits, possibly through the end of March. For more information about area tubing, visit www.hawksnest-resort.com, www.skibeech.com or www.skisugar.com.
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