Snowboarding is a sports event that was developed in the United States and is practiced during the winter seasons. It involves sliding from a slope usually snow by a rider whose feet have been fastened on a snowboard. This game originated from surfing, skateboarding, and skiing. Snowboarding has undergone gradual transformations since its inception in the1960’s to incorporate varieties of styles. Over the years, Snowboarding has gained popularity, and is estimated that by the year 2004, participants were approximately 7 million. However, the contestants reduced to an estimated 5 million in 2008 a fact attributed to unfavorable weather. Snowboarding began as a simple sport in the early 1960s but has grown over time to incorporate varieties of styles which has made it very popular in recent times. The introduction of different styles increased the number of participants thus making the game more and more interesting. The styles introduced made it easier for different categories of people to participate in the sport. For example, it provided opportunities to amateurs, professionals, and other groups of people to participate in the game. The styles introduced such as freestyle and freeride will be discussed at length in the following paragraph (Reichenfeld, 1995).
Snowboarding is practiced during the winter seasons on sloppy snows. Basically, snowboarding cannot take place in flat areas therefore cross country competition is impossible. Unlike skiing which incorporates the use of a pole, snowboarding sports occur without the use of a supporting pole because riders have to balance their body while snowboarding. Snowboarding has five basic fundamentals; the first one is stance and balance which essentially requires an individual to have stability in various situations while sliding and at the same time applying different techniques; secondly is pivoting, this requires an individual to be able to develop a turning technique that would include rotation and counter-rotation; thirdly is edging, this is used while changing direction and it involves incorporating skills such as steering, inclination, and angulations; fourthly is pressure control which requires a rider to be able to ease pressure on the board at various points in time using various skills such as weighting, extension flexion and weight transfer; lastly is timing and control. Therefore, snowboarding is easy to learn and practice given the above fundamentals and that’s why it has attracted many participants over the years.
Different styles have been incorporated into snowboarding and include freestyle, dry slope, and carving. The free ride is the most commonly practiced snowboarding sport since it is the easiest style to learn. Secondly, there is freestyle whose tricks have been imitated by free riders. The board used in freestyle is normally short with broad width to provide enough balance. This has been designed to offer a great challenge to the rider because it requires various skills and tactics to participate in. The type of surface on which the freestyle is practiced is normally designed to suit a particular event; for example, it can be designed to include features such as jumps, half pipes, mailboxes, and handrails. Thirdly there is curving which involves snowboarding in one particular direction. Its board is longer, a bit stiff, and narrower in the middle to allow a nice turning curve by the rider. Carving is usually carried out on hard slopes. Lastly, there is the dry slope, which acts as an alternative to snowboarding during summer. The boards used in dry slopes are normally worn out faster and the old boards are always incorporated to avoid the loss caused by the wear and tear of the board. Looking at the styles mentioned above, participants have wide varieties to choose from thus making the sport even more popular. (encarta.msn.com)
Snowboarding competitions are managed by the International Snowboard Federation (ISF) and Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS). The competitions include racing, rail jump, slopestyle, half-pipe, border cross (border X), and Indy cross. Most competitions are done in America which includes winter Olympics that incorporate; men’s and women’s Half-Pipe, men’s and women’s Parallel Giant Slalom, and men’s and women’s Boardercross. America also hosts Winter X games which incorporates SuperPipe, SlopeStyle among others. America also hosts the Chevrolet U.S Snowboard Grand Prix competition which lasts for a longer period than any other snowboarding event; that is, two months (Talk on.it, www.talksnowboarding.co.uk)
Snowboarding is a very dangerous sport especially for learners who have various injuries while training. Therefore, it is highly advisable that whoever participates in this sport should wear protective gear such as helmets and wrist guards to protect against injuries that would occur in the head and ankle respectively. The most common injury in this sport is the ankle and wrist, which are in most cases being broken. Therefore, for a rider to be on the safe side, protective measures must be observed.
References
Reichenfeld, Rob. Snowboarding. Human Kinetics, 1995.
Snowboading. 2009. Web.
Snowboarding. 2009. Web.
Talkon.it. Snowboard Competitions. 2009. Web.