| Are you interesting in taking up snowboarding? | | | | snowboards tended to be surfers and skateboarders, |
| Maybe you've got a pre-teen or teenager who was | | | | and the early models reflect these influences. Riders |
| really fired up by watching snowboarding on television | | | | stand sideways on the board, unlike a forward |
| and it's the next big thing for them. Well, if you or | | | | position when skiing or water skiing. |
| your child join the ranks of snowboarding enthusiasts | | | | In the late 1970's and early 80's snowboarding |
| you will be part of a growing trend. The sale of | | | | competitions began to crop up around the country in |
| snowboards has gone through the roof in the last | | | | places like Michigan and Utah, then spreading to all the |
| decade, and especially the last few years. Perhaps | | | | top winter sports areas. With time, rules became |
| the most evident symbol of the sport's success is | | | | codified and the snowboards used had to meet |
| that it has been an Olympic sport in the last four | | | | certain design criteria for competition, since there |
| games, and viewership for snowboarding is generally | | | | were still a wide variety of types being experimented |
| extremely high. Before you get online and pick up a | | | | with. Initially, traditional skiers did not like the |
| couple of snowboards, here's a brief primer about | | | | presence of snowboards on the slopes. Riders were |
| the sport. | | | | often ill-versed in the etiquette of skiing, and |
| You might be surprised to know it began as long ago | | | | accidents were not uncommon. Eventually, to solve |
| as the late 1960's. Its inspirations are not hard to find | | | | the problem, innovative ski facilities began designating |
| - surfing, skateboarding and skiing. Early snowboards | | | | hills especially for snowboards. These hills contain |
| were pretty basic by today's standards, though the | | | | moguls and rails that snowboards are designed to |
| basic shape is still very similar. These early models | | | | handle, and today more than half the ski facilities in |
| had no boot or binding, just a small slot or groove to | | | | the U.S. have half-pipes, a figure slightly ahead of |
| place your feet for stability. When snowboarding | | | | Europe and Canada. |
| began to take off, the earliest and best snowboards | | | | Modern snowboards are advanced pieces of |
| were made by companies that are still making the | | | | equipment featuring specialized boots and bindings |
| best snowboards on the market - companies like | | | | designed for the utmost control, stability and safety. |
| Burton, Barefoot, Sims, and Gnu. Early on, many | | | | Order a demonstration video along with your |
| called the budding sport "snurfing," as you can guess, | | | | snowboards so you can get a jump on the basic |
| a combination of snow and surfing. Early designers of | | | | techniques before you hit the half-pipe. |