No Limits

Snowboarding is an adventure sport, much younger than surfing, skateboarding and skiing. Its history runs back to the 1960s, when this sport was developed in the United States, after conceiving inspiration from the predecessors of this sport. It is an item in the Winter Olympics too. Just like skiing, surfing and skateboarding, snowboarding also involves moving at good speed. The surface is snow and the movement is downward from a snow covered hill or mountain top. The rider can balance himself/herself on a snowboard, jumping over the hillocks and performing amazing stunts while in the air.

It requires special skills and courage to take up snowboarding. The rider has to wear protective cloth to ensure protection against the ice cold weather. If you choose the location right, snowboarding is not a risky sport. It is an adventure sport, but not riskier than similar forms of sport, which have ocean waves and solid ground as surface. The technique has to be right, so is the selection of snowboards.

Snowboarding has been served by quite a few companies that designed strong, reliable snowboards, which guarantee better stability and pace for snowboarding. The main equipment is the snowboard, which is attached to the boots. The early history of snowboarding goes back to 1965, when Sherman Poppen designed Snurfer, which was essentially a skateboard without wheels. Then in the 1970s and 80s, much innovation was brought into the designing of snowboards. Slowly, ski resorts became open to the idea of opening their space for snowboarders and there began the history of snowboarding.

Free ride, freestyle and free carve are the main styles of snowboarding. They all are adopted at varying pace by snowboarding enthusiasts. In freestyle, you can find manmade obstacles placed in the path and the snowboarders manoeuvring over the obstacles with much agility and flexibility. Seeing the action is quite an interesting thing, with the riders going past at a good speed and performing gravity defying stunts.

The Thrill of Snowboarding

Snowboarding, the art of gliding across snowy slopes on a single elongated board, has become highly popular among lovers of winter sports. Even those who don’t like the cold, but love the thrill of physical activity, have found joy in snowboarding. No matter where in the world you live, there is a dreamy snowboarding location nearby. Before you plan your next vacation, you may want to consider the condition of the slopes.

Snowboarding Resorts

The nation is peppered with resorts that offer snowboarding lessons, to suit any vacation plan. You’ll find snowboarding resorts in states across the US, if you know where to look. In Canada, Lake Louise and Whistler are two highly popular spots for snowboarding and snowboarding lessons. California’s Squaw Valley is a great, dreamy snowboarding vacation resort for those wishing to learn the craft of snowboarding. Sun Valley in Idaho, and Moonlight Basin in Montana are popular Rocky Mountain snowboarding vacation destinations.

In Nevada, Heavenly is the best resort for snowboarding, and Jackson Hole is where you want to go if Wyoming is the state of your choice. If the resort you choose features snowboarding, there will be a bevy of other winter sports to enjoy as well. Amid lush mountain scenery and crisp white snow, you may discover that snowboarding is the answer to your dream vacation.

Utah is filled with great resorts; where you can do all the snowboarding you please and even receive lessons. Deer Valley, The Canyons, Snowbird, and Park City are all well-known and beautiful resorts that you might want to check out if you’re visiting Utah. For snowboarding, you can hardly do better than the beautiful peaks of Utah.

An extreme winter sport, snowboarding can cause injuries to the rider that could be as small as innocent and minor slips or as harsh as crashes that have a high impact and the consequences could be rather dire. The newcomer to snowboarding is often the most vulnerable and gets injured even while undertaking less risky maneuvers. All this implies that the snowboarder requires protective snowboarding gear and this is more relevant to snowboarders that have not yet learned how to keep a stable stance on a snowboard and so face more threat of being injured.
In fact, it is believed that as many as 25% of injuries take place during the first experience a snowboarder has with snowboarding and nearly 50% take place during the first season.
First Time Snowboarders
First time snowboarders as well as regular snowboarders need protective gear and some of these are snowboard wrist guards, snowboard knee pads, snowboard hip pads, snowboard helmets, and a safety leash. The most common of all injuries that can be sustained by snowboarders is the wrist injury, which may be caused when one slips backwards or lands on the hands and the hard impact may cause sprains or fractures.
Protective gear such as Snowboard Specific Wrist Guards are ideal in preventing injuries as it can ease the force of the fall on the joints of the upper body. When hard collisions, such as hitting a tree or impacting from unexpected angles or turning motions occurs, the knees may get injured and so one needs protective snowboarding gear such as knee pads to help prevent contusions.
Another protective snowboarding gear that is used by snowboarders to cushion the fall as well as keep the seat warm and dry is the hip pad which is stretchable and can be pulled on like biked shorts. The extra padding in the backside of the Snowboard Hip Pads prevents tailbone bruises and the beginning snowboarder who does not wish to purchase such protective snowboarding gear may even rent out snowboard hip pads for the first few days of riding on the slopes.
It should be kept in mind that even professional riders use protective snowboarding gear such as hip pads, especially when trying out new moves in the halfpipe and terrain parks.
Sometimes the snowboarder may crash with natural objects such as hard snow or ice surface conditions or rocks and trees and this may result in serious injuries. This means that one should use protective snowboarding gear such as a helmet, even if one is very able and has high level of expertise.
Finally, one may need another protective snowboarding gear called the safety leash, which is a safety must and is essentially a non-releasing strap that can be wrapped around the leg to prevent the snowboard from getting away accidentally.

Where did snowboarding originate, and the debate goes on. Whether snowboarding descended from skiing or skateboarding, snowboarding is a legitimate exciting sport that requires a descent on a snowy slope using a snowboard. It is difficult to really point out who started this fun-filled sport, but one thing is for sure; somebody will always have the idea of sliding down a snowy slope on a board or sled.

The growing recognition of snowboarding around the world is evidenced by its establishment as a sports discipline in 1995. As such, snowboarding has been included in events in Winter Olympics and Winter X-games. It even has a US Open tournament of its own. The growth of snowboarding as a sport is undeniable as more and more people get hooked on it.

Now that you are among the countless ones who want to try out the fun and excitement that only snowboarding can give, it is high time that you learn the basics of making your very first downhill ride on a snowboard. So how do you begin?

First, you need to procure the necessary snowboarding equipment. You need to have the right snowboarding gear, clothing, boots, and of course, snowboard. Make sure that your snowboard is the right size for you; not too expansive or narrow.

If you already have the necessary equipment, you can start learning the basics of riding your snowboard. Here are a few important things to remember as you start to find your destiny in snowboarding.

Keep in mind that snowboarding is similar to snow skiing. The body movements that enable you to control and stabilize your snowboard are the same as the movements in skiing. Therefore, if you are already a skilled skier, there will be fewer problems for you ahead. A skier will have easier time than a skateboard thrasher to learn snowboarding.