Snowboarding

Snowboarding info, ideas, and photos

Nice Air
Photo: Ellievanhoutte, through a Creative Commons Attribution License

Snowboarding is the sport of sliding on snow with both feet attached to a single board, called a snowboard, using special bindings that position the rider roughly perpendicular to the direction the board travels. Snowboarding is done chiefly at ski areas, but a growing number of snowboarders are snowboarding backcountry areas as well.

Snowboarding has three main advantages over skiing:

1. Snowboarding can be epic in soft snow. Because of their large surface area, snowboards have incredible float in powder snow and can negotiate deep, heavy snow, especially well.

2. Snowboarding is simple. With no poles, and your feet always in line together, you just feel free. This simplicity is one reason why snowboarding is easier for pulling tricks.

3. Snowboarding is more zen than skiing. Because snowboarders are slaves to gravity, they're forced to be one with the mountain, taking advantage of every small drop and terrain feature to eek out momentum - and this leads to a spiritual experience and feeling of oneness with the mountain.

The sport of Snowboarding has grown since it's infancy in the 1980's to become a worldwide sport. In the U.S. there are approximately 4.3 million Snowboarders in the U.S. and another 2.5 million outside the U.S. Where in the U.S. there are 7.2 million skiers, snowboarders tend to board more often than skiers, in terms of absolute snowboarder days on the snow, and so on any given day the number of snowboarders is roughly equal with the number of skiers at many resorts.

The roots of snowboarding date back to early "snowboard like" snow riding devices including M.J. "Jack" Burchett's 1929 board (which included a clothesline to secure the feet and horse reins attached to the nose for steering) and Sherm Poppen's "Snurfer" which was launched in 1965. Neither were true snowboards because both relied on a hand-held harness or tow rope for steering. The Snurfer actually gained a large following and competitions were held periodically. One of the early Snurfer competitors was a young Jake Burton.

Dimitrije Milovich began to making the first true snowboard in 1969, which he later launch commercially as the Winterstick in 1972. Jake Burton began modifying Snurfers for competitions in the mid-1970's and began winning Snurfer competitions by adding simple bindings to a modified Snurfer in 1977. Also in 1977, Tom Sims, a notable pro skateboarder, teamed up with Chuck Barfoot and began making snowboards. Within 2 years, Snurfer was out of business and the snowboard revolution was under way.

In 1979, Mark Anolik discovered a natural halfpipe behind the Tahoe City Tahoe City dump and started boarding it. In 1981, the first snowboard competition was held at Ski Cooper in Colorado.

Snowboarding Competition takes place in the following events, some at the Olympics and some at the X-Games:

Superpipe or Halfpipe: Snowboarders are judged on the difficulty and skill of tricks performed on a steep half-cylinder-shaped course dug deep into the hill (X-Games and Olympic Events).

Boarder X or Snowboard Cross: Four or Six snowboarders compete head to head down a course with jumps, banked turns, and rolls (X-Games and Olympic Events).

Slopestyle: Snowboarders are free to choose their own route through a course that consists of multiple terrain features including table tops, rails, and boxes (X Games).

Big Air: Snowboarders compete to pull the sickest tricks and the biggest air off a really big jump (X Games).

Alpine Parallel Giant Slalom: Snowboarder compete head to head on a giant slalom course similar to Giant Slalom Skiing Olympic events (Olympic Event).

For great in-bounds hike to shots and easy access to backcountry gates, you should definitely check out Whistler/Blackcomb, BC, Snowbird, UT, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. You also won't want to miss Silverton Mountain, CO with its hiking in all directions for epic deep powder and sick steeps.

For steeps, you should definitely ride Kirkwood and Mammoth Mountain in California. Also consider Crested Butte's North Face area, but only if you're wired the art of riding surface lifts on your board.

For Pipes and Parks Buttermilk in Colorado, the home of the X-Games and Breckenridge, CO are at the top of the list.

For powder, it's got to be either Brighton, UT, Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado, Grand Targhee, Wyoming, or Mount Baker, WA

Ski areas were slow to allow snowboarders to ride on their lifts, and many cited safety concerns as an excuse. Stratton mountain was the first area to allow snowboarders to use the lifts. As late as 1985, fewer than 40 ski areas allowed snowboarding. Now only 3 ski areas in the United States still don't allow snowboarding. Here's the current rundown:

Alta Ski Area: Alta is owned by a group of investors who are hard-core skiers, many of them quite old. The management group is so focused on providing an amazing uncrowded ski experience, that they are willing to sacrifice profits - as long as the lots fill up with skiers, it appears unlikely snowboarding will ever be allowed on the lifts at Alta. In any case, a lot of skiers use the argument that snowboarders would not like Alta much anyway, because of flat traverses, and, well, they've got a point-- those traverses out to Wildcat and High Rustler would be more like hikes than traverses.

Mad River Glen, VT: Is owned by a co-op and hence is technically a non-profit ski area. As a result the traditional argument that opening to snowboarders means more profit does not hold here, since profit is not the goal. Despite the fact that 30 boarders recently ripped on the mountain with an excellent vibe during a meeting of the board of directors, it doesn't appear that Mad River Glen will ever allow snowboarders.

Deer Valley, UT: Why no boarders? Snowboarders don't buy much slopeside real estate. No matter, with Stein Erikson's creepy perfect hair, a hollywood one-piece ski suit vibe, and terrain that's not particularly gnarly, few boarders are chomping at the bit to board there.

Snowboarding has a different injury profile to skiing. Doctors report far more serious wrist, rib, ankle, and head injuries with snowboarders. At the same time, knee injuries are far less common for snowboarders than for skiers. On a dark note, be aware that suffocation in tree wells causes more snowboarding deaths than any other cause. If you're boarding the trees, board with a compadre.

The most common mistake beginning snowboards make is not bending their knees enough. Bending your knees allows your ankles to flex more and helps you to remain upright. Bending your knees also keeps you from having to stick out butt to over compensate to get up on your heelside edge.

There used to be a fair amount of bad-boy snowboarder posturing going on back in the 1990's but that's totally dead, so if you throw attitude, it's going to look like you're something out of a bad snowboarder movie back in the dark ages. Be nice to skiers.

The single hardest thing to do in snowboarding is to ride a T-bar or a Poma surface lift on a snowboard with one foot out. If you don't master this, you're out of luck to ride some of the best runs at Whistler-Blackcomb, Copper, and Crested Butte which can only be accessed with surface lifts. The key is getting that bar or disc down low behind your leading foot, keeping your weight slightly back so as to not nose over, and alternating edges so as to never ever run flat and risk catching a toe side edge.

Snowboarding.com - Snowboarding Equipment Buyers Guide Reviews

Transworld Snowboarding

Snowboarder Magazine

Snowboard.com - Snowboard Community

The Illustrated Guide To Snowboarding by Kevin Ryan

The Art of Snowboarding: Kickers, Carving, Half-Pipe, and More by Jim Smith

Top 50 Ski and Snowboard Resorts in Europe 2008-2009 (Top 50 Ski & Snowboard Resorts in Europe) by Pat Sharples and Vanessa Webb

Backcountry Snowboarding by Christopher Van Tilburg

Snowboarding the World (Footprint - Activity Guides) by Matt Barr, Chris Moran, and Ewan Wallace

(Sick): A Cultural History of Snowboarding by Susanna Howe

Article on Sherm Poppen - Inventor of the Snurfer, a precursor to the snowboard which ushered in the snowboarding era.

THE XVIII WINTER GAMES: SNOWBOARDING; Snowboarding Breaks Through - New York Times

Snowboarding: is it a sport or the new rock 'n' roll? - Independent

Snowboarding icon among dead in BC avalanche CBC.ca - Article on Death of Craig Kelly

Snowboarders offered bounty for poaching ski-only resorts - USAToday