Hurling yourself down a mountain on a snowboard is more than exciting When you can snowboard without falling over you will definitely look really cool on the slopes Throw in some awe inspiring jumps and turns and you are set to impress The Joy of Snowboarding FE What is it that makes snowboarding so popular This snow sport is super fun from the moment you first strap a board to your feet A learning at first you will spend most of your time falling over But if you find some soft snow and do this with friends even falling over can be a good time w A gentle slope like this improving soon you will learn to turn pretty one is great for learning As the board slides in an easy zig zag across to snowboard the slopes the excitement will bring a big smile to your face showing off when you are really good you will be able to do jumps or carve through deep powder The feeling of speed makes you feel like a snow borne rocket man or woman This is one extreme sport where as many females as males take
Snowboarding World You can snowboard anywhere there is snow Some dedicated riders follow winter around the world spending December to March in Europe or North America and June to September in South America or New Zealand Others trek to icy glaciers in the middle of summer to get their boarding kicks After just a few weeks of learning you could be pulling aerial tricks like this one o Top Three Snowboarding Movies The Haakonsen Faktor made in 1999 so a little old this film features legendary Norwegian rider Terje Haakonsen Shaun White see page 13 says this is his favorite sports film ever Neverland this 2009 film has some of the best freeride sequences and riders around as well as some amazing footage of urban snowboarding Lame ignore the title this winner of the 2003 2004 Snowboarder Magazine Video of the Year award is anything but lame UN M
Snowboarding is so popular now that it is hard to imagine a time when it did not exist But the sport is just a baby compared to skiing its main rival on the slopes People have been skiing for fun for more than 150 years but snowboarding really took off only in the 1980s D From Snurfer to Snowboard Ed During the 1970s a lot of people rode O Snurfers The name is a combination of snow and surfer The boards were like mini surfboards with leashes on the nose which you could hold onto for balance and T control At the World Snurfer Championships in 1979 Jake Burton Carpenter turned up with a new kind of board He had added straps that allowed him to attach the board to his boots Today many people recognize this as the first ever snowboard Jake Burton Carpenter Sometimes called the Godfather of Snowboarding riding the powder near his home in New
Snowboard Heroes Early Manufacturers Jake Burton Carpenter the Burton snowboard company was one of the first manufacturers and today is the world's largest Tom Sims the skateboarder turned snowboarder organized the first ever half pipe world championship in 1983 and his company Sims produced many of the first boards Mike Olsen Olsen's GNU snowboard company was another of the early board manufacturers Ban this dangerous sport The first snowboards were hard to control and tended to go downhill wildly Their riders were often wild too and it was not long before snowboarding had a bad name It was thought that snowboarding was dangerous and that it damaged ski runs Many resorts banned snowboarding and in the mid 1980s it was allowed in fewer than one in ten ski areas The sport refused to die out though and by 1990 resorts began to create separate areas for snowboarding Not long ago most ski resorts tried to keep skiers and snowboarders
