I'm obliged to ask about the derivations of 'chook' and 'hoon'!

Fishman,
As Rhu has explained chooks are chickens. In casual conversation in Australia, the word 'chooks' is a very common substitute for the 'proper' word. We have six chooks in our backyard and within our family we never refer to them as chickens. Some people apparently see similarities between the XC skier's stride and the gait of a chicken, hence the term "chook-walker".

Now for hoon. I wondered about the word as I typed it, and now find to my surprise that it only registers one hit in One-Look Dictionary search (actually two, but I wasn't referring to gold Pagoda coins). It's apparently Aussie slang. The meaning for it in the link from One-Look was "Loudmouth, to drive recklessly". Now that I think about it, it's used as a noun and as a verb. The usage I was first aware of is in referring to young men in "hot" cars with not much to do on a Friday/Saturday night, burning rubber and abusing passersby. They are hoons, and they're "hooning around". I obviously made the mental leap from their behaviour on the roads to that of snowboarders on the slopes. I have no idea about the etymology of the word - can anyone help?

Now please let me qualify - if not retract - my tongue-in-cheek remarks about other alpine recreationalists. I haven't really got it in for 'boarders. I have had several fun days snowboarding, and hope to have more. I think it's great that snowboarding has opened up the slopes to the younger generation who have grown up on skateboards. I have also been guilty of yo-yo skiing, and my daughters love it. But when I go to the mountains I'd still rather "get away from it all" than find I'm still surrounded by it all.

Cheers,
Chookman.