Snowboarding Styles

SNOWBOARDING STYLES
Snowboarding is a sport enjoyed on snow similar to skiing, but inspired by surfing and skateboarding. Snowboarding is an increasingly common winter sport throughout the world where people attach a composite board to their feet and slide down a snow covered mountain.

In 1998 snowboarding became a Winter Olympic Games sport. Other events that focus on snowboarding are the annual European and U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships and the Winter X-Games. This is where you can witness some extreme snowboarding and snowboarding tricks. These events are hosted by various winter resorts in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

There are four primary sub-disciplines or sub-styles within snowboarding each with a slightly different snowboard design.

Freeride:
Freeriding is using the natural terrain of the mountain for recreation, without focusing on technical snowboarding tricks or racing. Most snowboarders aspire to be freeriders and will explore the mountain through trees, in powder bowls or anywhere else they feel like riding. Freeriding is also known as all mountain snowboarding. A variant of freeriding focusing on extremely difficult lines is extreme snowboarding.

Freestyle:
Freestyle snowboarding is the practice of doing different kinds of snowboarding tricks on a snowboard. Snowboarding tricks can either occur on the ground (jibbing, bonking, grinding, pressing, buttering, ground spins etc.) or in the air (spins, flips, grabs). Freestyle snowboarders typically use shorter, softer boards and softer boots than other snowboarders. The shorter board length reduces the weight making it easier to spin and maneuver. The softer gear makes the board more forgiving to control for the particular demands of freestyle riding, such as slower speeds, high landing impacts, quick turns, and imperfect landings. Freestyle snowboards most likely have a true twin tip, in that both sides are the same. This is important because many freestyle snowboarders are landing backwards from their snowboarding tricks and they need to be able to ride away.

Alpine:
Alpine snowboarding is the practice of turning by carving the snowboard as opposed to skidding the snowboard (where the board is traveling in a different direction than it is pointing). Alpine riders use hard plastic snowboarding boots, which resemble ski boots except that they tend to be less stiff in the ankles and have a shortened heel, to minimize hanging over the edge of the snowboard. They tend to angle their feet much more forward than other snowboarders, and so also ride narrower boards. Alpine boards are usually, but not always, longer and much stiffer than freeride boards as the particular demands of carving usually require as much usable edge length as possible.

Powder Riding:
Powder occurs after a heavy snowstorm and is the best for riding soon after it has snowed, if powder sits for to long it settles and becomes icy and hard. Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Tahoe, Mammoth, and Whistler all have great powder from November to May. In Lake Tahoe snow falls a little heavier than anywhere else so it is called sierra cement. This snow is the best for riding the steeps because it doesn't slide. In resorts powder can be found in the tress or on runs that have not been groomed yet. All it takes is one turn and you will never want to ride hard pack again.

Snowboarding gear consists of a snowboard, snowboarding boots, bindings to attach the boots to the board, as well as snowboarding jacket and pants.