Is Snowboarding A Sport?

Snowboarding is totally a high thrills and adventure recreational activity inspired by skateboarding, surfing, and sledding. But is it a legitimate sport?

Snowboarding was started in the United States in 1965 but grew slowly and failed to attract mainstream attention for decades. Snowboarding finally became an official olympic sport for the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano and has grown even larger since then.

If you are enthusiastic about learning about this incredible sport, I will explain how snowboarding originated and where the sport is headed.

How Did Snowboarding Originate?

In 1965, Sherman Poppen, an engineer from Muskegon, Michigan, developed the first snowboard prototype. He bolted two skis together and later attached a rope to the front for steering. Really!

_{The snurfer patent; Invented by Sherman R. Poppen, assigned to Brunswick Corporation uploaded by User:Lar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons}

Sherman had built his prototype as a way for his daughters to "snurf" in their backyard (Sherman's wife described his contraption to be surfing on snow or “snurfing”). The Snurfer's popularity quickly grew and attracted the attention of Brunswick Corporation, a major sporting equipment manufacturer.

Brunswick licensed the Snurfer and started producing and distributing it across the country.

Snurfer competitions started in Michigan and spread out into national competitions in the '70s. By the end of the '70s, the Snurfers success had cumulatively sold about a million snowboards.

The popularity of Snurfing grew when Dimitrjie Milovich's new snowboard called "Winterstick" started to attract the attention of Newsweek magazine. The initial snowboards went through more iterations and refinements and spawned the first snowboard companies.

The start of competitive snowboarding

Around the mid-80s, very few US ski resorts recognized snowboarders on their slopes. The ban reflected the negative attitude that traditional skiers had towards snowboarders in general.

In the few ski resorts that did allow snowboarding, snowboarders had to take special competency tests before they were allowed out onto the slopes.

The pioneers of snowboarding organized the first National Snow Surfing Championships, at the Suicide Ski Resort in Vermont in 1982. The following year, the first world championship halfpipe event, organized by Tom Sims, was held in Soda Springs, California, in 1983.

However, despite these championships, there was no mainstream participation in the sport early. While the sport struggled, major snowboarding brands started investing in contests and rallied groups of riders to compete in the early '80s. But there wasn't much prize money, and these companies themselves had insufficient capital to reward the snowboarders. But these original snowboarding competitions served as a proving ground for developing tricks and maneuvers that further refined the sport.

As the popularity of snowboarding increased, this started to change. With the rapidly growing sport, a World Cup contest started in 1985, and the International Snowboarding Federation was born shortly after in 1990.

Eventually, the skiing community gradually began accepting snowboarding's vital contribution to the revival of the snow resort industry.

The Modern Snowboard Construction

As we know it today, the snowboard bears a resemblance to an oversized skateboard without wheels. The riders' feet are attached with bindings onto the snowboard. The snowboard's dimension varies according to the snowboarder's size and the intended use of the snowboard.

_{Modern Snowboard; Kham Tran - www.khamtran.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

The average size of a snowboard is around five-feet in length and ten-inches in width. A side cut in every board makes them resemble an hourglass, and the cuts vary from shallow to deep, allowing the boards to be turned from edge to edge.

Is Snowboarding An Olympic Sport?

Snowboarding was recognized as an Olympic Sport by the International Olympics Committee in 1994, and it made its debut appearance at the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, four years later.

But Snowboarding got off to a rough start in the Olympics. At the 1998 Winter Olympics, four snowboarding events were held in two categories: the giant slalom and the halfpipe. But the halfpipe event was broadcast in America in the middle of the night; it didn't pick up much steam. The winner of the giant slalom event, Canadian-born Ross Rebagliati, was even disqualified after testing positive for marijuana! (However, the disqualification was later reversed).

At the 2002 Winter Olympics four years later, in Salt Lake City, the halfpipe event was instead aired at prime time in the US, and American's went on to win the majority of the Snowboarding events.

Four years later, snowboarding picked up even more popularity. In Italy, at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the halfpipe event was at the center of the Games, along with another new event, "snowboard cross," in which competitors had to race each other down a course of jumps and other obstacles.

In Vancouver, at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the halfpipe event reached a mega-high when American Shaun White stunned the crowd by landing the first-ever double McTwist 1260. The McTwist is a Snowboarding term for a double flip while completing three-and-a-half-twists.

How Many Snowboarding Events Are There In The Olympics?

There are five Snowboarding events at the Winter Olympics; each of these events is split up into a Men's category and a Women's category. There is only one mixed event: the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross event.

All these events make up eleven snowboarding events in the Winter Olympics roster. Below is a list of the different Snowboarding events and a brief explanation for each event.

Giant Parallel Slalom

The individual giant slalom that was first featured at the original Winter Olympics was scraped after 1998 in favor of the parallel giant slalom. In this version, competitors were set against each other in a head-to-head battle as they raced down two parallel tracks with evenly spaced turning gates.

With only eighty-eight feet apart, between the gates, there is sufficient room for riders to gather speeds of up to forty-three miles per hour, and it’s a dizzying race to the end to take the gold medal.

Parallel Slalom

The Parallel Slalom follows the same mechanics as the Giant Parallel Slalom, but smaller.

With turning gates spaced at twenty-six to forty-nine feet apart, riders perform a rapid series of tight turns while displaying a high level of technical ability to beat their opponent.

The Parallel Slalom made its debut at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, when a Russian named Vic Wild scooped up the gold medal for this event.

Half-Pipe

In the halfpipe event, snowboarders start at the summit of one end of a circular ditch about 21.9 feet deep. They have to perform a series of tricks and jumps as they travel along the length of the ditch.

The halfpipe is not a timed event; instead, riders are scored by a panel of judges according to the complexity and variety of tricks attempted, the execution of the tricks, and how they used the halfpipe. The judges also gave the height of their jumps a scoring.

Slopestyle

The slopestyle is a freestyle event requiring that athletes navigate a downhill course littered with jumps and rails.

Riders are judged on the level of difficulty of their tricks, how well they executed the tricks, and the heights they reach on jumps.

Like the halfpipe event, slopestyle was derived from skateboarding and BMX and is a welcome addition to the Winter Olympics snowboarding register.

Snowboard Cross

Snowboard Cross also debuted at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and is possibly one of the most riveting snowboarding events.

Snowboarding Cross is a downhill race that features four to six simultaneous snowboarders. Competitors navigate a narrow course packed with various jumps, drops, cambered turns, and other obstacles designed to test the rider's ability while retaining their maximum velocity.

The name originated from motocross due to the obstacle courses being similar.

Summary

Snowboarding has undoubtedly progressed over the years into an internationally recognized sport.

It is no longer a recreational activity; instead, it has become a multi-million-dollar sports industry that continues to evolve over time.