Snowboarding The Great White
By Ashley Barnard, Thu Dec 8th

Snowboarding has great similarities to surfing and skiing: It'slike surfing in that it is a board sport, and like skiingbecause it is performed in the snow. Snowboarders - or riders,as they are called - strap boards to their feet and slide downsnow-covered slopes. It is an increasingly popular winter sportacross the world, wherever there is snow. In 1998, it became aneligible medal sport in the Winter Olympic Games. Other majorevents include the U.S. Open Championship and theWinter X-Games in Canada and the United States.

No one knows exactly when was invented, but it iswidely accepted that it was created around the 1950s by a mix ofsurfers, skateboarders, and skiers - who were able to transfertheir skills to the cold mountains. Snowboarders during thattime used hand-made boards. Because was new andcrude at that time, many skiers largely frowned upon the sport.In fact, many ski resorts would not allow snowboarding.

However, the sport began to gain more popularity in the 1970sand '80s, and equipment became more sophisticatedand advanced. By 1997, almost all of the ski resorts in theUnited States allowed snowboarding. Today, the sport isattracting an ever-growing fan base (more than 3.4 millionpeople), so much so that the number of skiers has actuallydeclined. Some people attribute this to the comparative ease ofsnowboarding.

Today, standard equipment includes snowboards,boots, bindings, and warm clothing. The sport has three

mainsub-styles: freestyle, freeride, and freecarve, with each styledistinguishable by the equipment used and the desired terrain.

Freestyle riding is currently the most popular style amongsnowboarders. It is characterized by a lot of jumps, tricks,rail slides, and switch riding. Freestyle equipment includessoft boots and relatively short mobile boards, which are idealfor the frequent jumps in this style of riding.

Freeride, the most general style of snowboarding, is performedon most mountain terrains including open terrain and backcountrychutes. As with freestyle snowboarding, freeriders wear softboots; however, the actual snowboard is a little longer anddirectional than the one used in freestyle snowboarding.

Freecarve - also known as alpine - focuses oncarving and racing. Freecarving is performed on hard-pack orgroomed runs. In this style, there is little or no jumping.Equipment includes hard boots and plate binding system; and theboards are stiff, narrow, and long.

Within each of these sub-styles are more variations, includingsandboarding, heli boarding, kite snowboarding, and mountainboarding.

for more information on and skiing you can visitthe site at http://www.winter-skiing.com

About the author:Ashley Barnard is a great outdoor explorer and apart fromclimbing mountains around the world he also enjoys snowboardingand skiing for a brief insoght into and where itcame from you can visit his site at http://www.winter-skiing.com