A popular recreation and sport that developed in the 1970s, using a single board (a relative of the skateboard) on snow. Snowboarders claim it offers more flexibility than skiing for off-piste snowboarding as well as the opportunity for acrobatic tricks. Snowboarding is an official sport of the Winter Olympics for both men and women, with slalom racing and acrobatic displays in a specially built half-pipe.
Snowboarding is a boardsport that involves descending a snow-covered slope while attached to a board.
History
The 1st ever snowboard was made in 1929 by M.J. The snowboard evolved from early pioneering work by people such as Sherman Poppen (who, in 1965, invented the "Snurfer" in his North Muskegon, Michigan home), Chuck Barfoot, Dimitri Mitrovitch, Tom Sims, and Jake Burton Carpenter. Jake is the founder of Burton Snowboards, one of the largest, and most well-established snowboard companies in the world. It is thought that Snowboarding (or Snurfing as they called it) was first practised in Europe in December 1970 on the island of Jersey, when Andrew Stewart and Anthony Hurst hit on the idea of using belly boards, at first kneeling on them, then making rudimentary bindings to enable them to stand up. In the early 1980s, snowboard companies such as Sims, Winterstick, and Avalanche began emerging across the country. Also in the early 1980s, films by Warren Miller and Greg Stump began to feature clips of snowboarders, boosting the popularity of the sport among the skiing community. It was not until the mid-1980s that snowboarding exploded into the mainstream, when the first snowboard magazine, Absolutely Radical, hit the racks; it was soon renamed International Snowboard Magazine.
Board Construction
The various components of a snowboard are:
Core: The bulk of a snowboard, the core is the interior of the snowboard. Because the base of the board comprises the bulk of the board's interaction with the snow, it is important that it be as slippery with respect to the snow as possible. If the board is damaged, a new base pattern can be stone-ground into the board. If the base becomes significantly damaged, the board may become sluggish, or if the damage is deep enough, it may even weaken the core. This sharp edge is necessary to be able to produce enough friction to ride on ice, and the radius of the edge directly affects the radius of carving turns, and in turn the responsiveness of the board. However, many riders who spend a fair amount of their time grinding park rails, and especially handrails, will actually use a detuning stone or another method to intentionally dull their edges, either entirely or only in certain areas. In addition, it's relatively common for freestyle riders to "detune" the edges around the board's contact points. It is important to keep in mind that drastic edge detuning can be near-impossible to fully reverse and will significantly impede board control &For a more detailed description, see Board construction.
Bindings
The bindings that attach the snowboard to the rider's feet are securely fastened to the board with bolts that screw into its threaded metal inserts. Most snowboard manufacturers use a mounting system consisting of four bolts arranged in a square or rectangular pattern. The most notable example is Burton, which has long employed its signature three-bolt system and, more recently, has introduced a two-bolt system on its Un-Inc series of snowboards.
There are two main types of snowboard bindings: conventional & Step-in binding systems are generally more convenient, quickly locking to a mechanism on the boot when the boot is stepped onto the binding, and releasing the boot if a lever is pulled with the fingers, and are thus quite popular for beginner snowboarders and rental shops. Because the boot-binding interface with step-in bindings is on the sole of the boot, the boots must be very will fitted and very stiff to allow the rider to control the board effectively.
Instruction
Snowboard instruction is available at most ski resorts taught by certified snowboard instructors. Beginning snowboarders, whether young or old, should consider taking a series of lessons.
Snowboard lessons, as with ski lessons, can either be group or private lessons. Private lessons are often far more expensive than group, as it is the snowboarding analogue of being privately tutored.
Typically, beginner snowboard lessons focus on very basic, common snowboarding skills. The first lesson often begins with basic safety policies, stretching, and learning to fall, then progresses to snowboarding with one foot on the board (particularly skating and J-turns). Learning to snowboard with one foot strapped into the board is a particularly useful skill because it is necessary to disembark from the lift successfully. More advanced techniques that are taught in later lessons are linking turns, edge control, weight distribution, edge pressure, and eventually carving. As students progress in ability they can seek out specialized instruction in areas such as riding steeper slopes and through a wider variety of snow conditions, terrain park skills (jumps, rails, and pipes), mogul technique, off-piste riding, powder riding, and racing.
Freestyle snowboarding
Freestyle snowboarding owes much of its form and content to skateboarding, and many of the maneuvers common to snowboarding exist in skateboarding as well. Though the last decade has seen the trend reverse, with tricks unique to snowboarding cropping up in skating (witness the adaptation of the rodeo in skateboarding by Shaun White), the great majority of terminology is still borrowed from skateboarding. The ollie is not a hop, as is commonly thought, but a technique which amplifies the power of the legs by exploiting the natural flex of the snowboard. A snowboard is essentially a flat spring. An ollie is executed by shifting body weight to apply pressure to the tail of the snowboard while simultaneously lifting the nose upward and then releasing the tension from the tail in a jump. Frontside vs Backside: This distinction is essential to understanding freestyle snowboarding and is borrowed from surfing, which uses it to distinguish different types of waves. Because a snowboarder stands sideways on the board, turns and movements are asymmetrical; if one jumps and turns looking downhill, the spin is frontside, but jumping and turning one's back to the fall line is a backside spin. Switch: This term is adopted from skateboarding and refers to riding a snowboard with the opposite stance (i.e. Because of the twin-directional nature of most snowboards used today, riding switch is nearly the same as riding fakie. on a twin tip board a rider will appear goofy when riding one direction and regular when riding the opposite direction). However the term switch is considered a misnomer since it is used as a term for riding backwards, it does does not usually refer to an opposite-stance setup. Riding switch can be considered roughly equivalent to signing one's name with the opposite hand. Fakie: This term (also originating in skateboarding) refers to riding a snowboard in the opposite direction. The term fakie is only commonly used in half pipe maneuvers (when a rider will air out of the pipe vertically and gravity will bring the rider back into the pipe in the opposite direction i.e.
An example of the terms fakie and switch being used would be: a boardslide starting in the natural position and landing fakie is referred to 'boardslide to fakie" A boardslide starting fakie and landing fakie is referred to 'switch boardslide' This example also shows the use of the term switch in place of fakie, as it is in most maneuvers.
Grabs: Grabbing the edge of the board while in mid-air. The four basic grabs are the frontside(front hand, toe edge or back hand, toe edge), backside (back hand, heel edge or front hand, heel edge), nose and tail grab. Once you move from the basic tricks that - despite tweaking in different directions - keep the board pretty much flat and going straight ahead, you move onto tricks like the method (bend knees and rotate board from backside so that the base is facing the direction of travel and grab backside with leading hand). Some of the most stylish freestyle riders out there have their own signature way of doing this stock (basic) trick. Rotation: Rotation occurs when the board and body turn in relation to the fall line. The smallest possible rotation is a shifty, and while theoretically limitless, a 1260 (three and a half rotations) is the largest spin currently practicable at the highest level of snowboarding. while traveling parallel to the fall line of the slope the rider leans over the front "nose" or rear "tail" of the snowboard until it flexes and begins to lift the other end into the air. Which end of the board the rider's weight has been placed on will determine the name of the trick (i.e., nose in the air is a "tail press" while tail in the air is a "nose press"). Butter: Originally coined from the phrase "buttering the muffin", a maneuver performed on the surface of the snow or obstacle in which the rider slides perpendicularly to the fall line of the slope while in a nose or tail manual position.Safety and Precautions
Although many snowboarders do not wear any protective gear, helmets and some other devices are gaining in popularity. Wearing protective gear is highly recommended due to the dangerous nature of alpine sports (especially freestyle snowboarding). Useful safety gear includes wrist guards, padded or protected snowboard pants and a helmet. Goggles also protect riders from temporary vision loss due to snow getting in eyes that can result in impact into terrain or obstacles. Padding can be specialized for snowboarding, or it can cross sports. For example, knee pads used for volleyball can be useful for snowboarding.
Mountain maintenance is a very important aspect of safety. In order to keep these parts of the mountain safe, ski patrol may either close or "rope off" dangerous areas, or fire explosives at the dangerous areas to trigger avalanches before anyone is allowed to ride the mountain. Riding closed trails or "ducking ropes" is extremely dangerous due to avalanches or unseen, dangerous terrain, which includes trees and unmarked objects. When riding in areas without ski patrol an avalanche beacon, avalanche probe, snow shovel, advanced skills, experience, and a riding partner or "buddy" are required for safety.
Film
Snowboarding films have become a main part of progression in the sport. These are made by many snowboard specific video production companies as well as manufacturing companies that use these films as a form of advertisement. Snowboarding videos usually contain video footage of professional riders sponsored by companies. An example of commercial use of snowboarding films would be The White Album, a film by snowboarding legend and filmmaker Dave Seone about Shaun White, that includes cameos by Tony Hawk and was sponsored by PlayStation, Mountain Dew and Burton Snowboards. Snowboarding films are also used as documentation of snowboarding and showcasing of current trends and styles of the sport.
Snowboarding has also been the focus of numerous Hollywood feature films, quite notably the 2001 movie Out Cold, which included appearances by several renowned professional snowboarders as stunt performers, actual characters, or both. Out Cold is one of few major motion pictures to show snowboarding rather realistically and to exhibit a real understanding of the sport, as well as the culture that surrounds it.
In countries where snow is either rare or an impossibility, dry slopes and indoor snow slopes are present.
Other snowboard movies: Burton Process (1-5), Follow Me Around, People, Neoproto, Everyday Something, Some Kinda Life, Decade, Technical Difficulties, Stand and Deliver, Amp, Pulse, Shakedown, From _ with Love, The Community Project, DC Mountain Lab, Afterbang, Lame, After Lame, Attack of the Living Shred, Revenge of the Grenerds, Smell the Glove, Vivid, Pop, Futureproof, More, Wildcats, Destroyer, Happy Hour.
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