Snowboarding - A Brief History
August 31st, 2008 | by ady calow |Snowboarding is one of the fastest growing outdoor sports in America as the younger generation see it as the cool option to skiing.
Snowboarding was invented here in the States back in the 1960’s and although it wasn’t until later that it became popular. It was declared a sport and a gold was competed for at the 1998 winter Olympics after some hard promoting by the International Snowboard Association which was formed only 4 yeare earlier in 94.
Styles competed for are the free ride, freestyle and free carve but although there are 3 styles, they do overlap.
Unfortunately snowboarding is no less dangerous than its relation skiing so you need to price in all the safety gear when looking for your first board. By the time you have purchased padded snowboard pants, wrist bands, goggles, snowboard bindings and a decent jacket you will have easily add a few hundred bucks to the bill.
Over 20% of visitors to the slopes in America are snowboarders and there are now around 4 million people snowboarding worldwide. Since its early days in Vermont snowboarding has come a long way and you will now find snowboarding facilities in every major ski resort in both America and Europe.