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Informative Articles

A Brief History of the Baseball Glove
Baseball has long been praised as America's favorite pastime. Baseball gloves have been used for nearly as long as the baseball game has existed are a very integral part of the sport. The first baseball gloves were used in the 1870s and are very...

Amazing 1892 Golf Book Predicted Bullet Trains, TV, More
Did you hear about the strange little book, written in 1892, that predicted such wonders as bullet trains, digital watches, television and women's liberation decades before those things came to pass? The book leapt into the news in early 2005...

Outdoor Batting Cages
Batting cages are a crucial ingredient in any baseball or softball training regimen. They are used both by batting coaches and by recreational athletes to help improve a batter's speed and accuracy in hitting a ball. Outdoor batting cages are a...

Save The Body Sway For The Dance Floor, Not In Your Golf Swing
Body motion in the swing is necessary, but too much of a good thing can wreak all kinds of havoc with your golf swing. I received a question over the weekend from a BioForce Golf subscriber about "body motion" in the swing. The question from our...

Top Football Stadiums In College
Sports are a big part of college life. From the drunkards that attend to the students there to show support for their team and school, football can bring out the best or worst in people. For those who love to watch more than just the NFL, here are a...

 
Snowboarding The Great White

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

No one knows exactly when snowboarding was invented, but it is widely accepted that it was created around the 1950s by a mix of surfers, skateboarders, and skiers - who were able to transfer their skills to the cold mountains. Snowboarders during that time used hand-made boards. Because snowboarding was new and crude 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 1970s and '80s, and snowboarding equipment became more sophisticated and advanced. By 1997, almost all of the ski resorts in the United States allowed snowboarding. Today, the sport is attracting an ever-growing fan base (more than 3.4 million people), so much so that the number of skiers has actually declined. Some people attribute this to the comparative ease of snowboarding.

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


main sub-styles: freestyle, freeride, and freecarve, with each style distinguishable by the equipment used and the desired terrain.

Freestyle riding is currently the most popular style among snowboarders. It is characterized by a lot of jumps, tricks, rail slides, and switch riding. Freestyle equipment includes soft boots and relatively short mobile boards, which are ideal for the frequent jumps in this style of riding.

Freeride, the most general style of snowboarding, is performed on most mountain terrains including open terrain and backcountry chutes. As with freestyle snowboarding, freeriders wear soft boots; however, the actual snowboard is a little longer and directional than the one used in freestyle snowboarding.

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

Within each of these sub-styles are more variations, including sandboarding, heli boarding, kite snowboarding, and mountain boarding.

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

About the author:

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