Snowboarding part 2. Snowboarding styles

Alpine Style (alpin)

It is downhill along carefully prepared routes with the use of "hard" equipment. Alpine snowboarding in the beginning was the major trend however, it has been relegated to the margins.

Competitions held under the alpin are giant slalom and parallel giant slalom, whereas slalom and downhill run are no longer in the FIS’s official classification.

Snowboarding entered for the first time the Olympic Games in 1998 in Nagano. This perfectly illustrates the very rapid and expansive growth of snowboarding in the world. How many other disciplines entered the Olympic program after only 30 years of existence? The presence of giant slalom (and parallel giant slalom since The Olimpic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002) and halfpipe among the Olympic disciplines can be regarded as an expression of compromise on the choice made from the numerous snowboarding events. The lobbying of alpine events by the FIS has likewise played an important role here. The introduction of another snowboarding discipline, snowboard cross, to the Olimpic Games in Turin 2006 proves that snowboarding is still giving new opportunities and developing gaining crowds of new enthusiasts.

Boardercross (BX)

According to the FIS, snowboard cross (boardercross - ISF) is considered a downhill discipline (alpin). However, there are reasonable grounds to consider it as a mixed discipline. Firstly, it allows competitors on both, soft and hard sets. Secondly, the BX course, is composed of different landforms and is dotted with numerous obstacles, such as moguls, curves, ridges, single, double and triple jumps, rails, spiral ramps (curves of 540 °), or even swimming pools with water. This requires of the player the skills learned from freestyle (the ability to control a jump and to land properly).

What counts in this competition is, effectiveness and speed; the style is not evaluated.

The format of the competition makes it more spectacular and exciting. Four competitors go down shoulder to shoulder along the same track, the one that reaches the finishing line first wins. It is the most contact discipline within snowboarding. Competitors often collide with each other and are frequently injured. Boardercross is a bit like motocross games. Apart from the official competitions held according to the FIS’s principles, there are a number of extreme types of BX held during the year, such as the one in Bansko in Bulgaria. It is the competition in wild ride, where the route is the whole slope and the, skiers and telemark skiers take part as well.

winner is the person who gets to the bottom of the hill first, irrespective of the rout he or she has chosen. The formula is simple: competitors set off from the hilltop with a joint start and through the natural elimination the one that gets to the finishing line at the bottom of the hill is the winner. natural method, which is the first rolling off the bottom is the winner. In this competition, apart from snowboarders

Freeride (FR)

It is sometimes presented as a discipline in between alpin and freestyle, which is not true. Freeride, from a philosophical point of view, was the discipline, which set the direction for snowboarding. The notion of "Back To The Roots" - back to the roots of snowboarding, has recently become fashionable. It is the philosophy for which snowboarding was born - a sense of liberty and freedom, the direct contact with nature, the search for the "flow".

In the mountains there is no policy, no rules except those that serve our safety. Freeride is connected with high risk. This is the discipline of snowboarding with most fatal cases. The most extreme type of FR is going down with avalanches. For this purpose, an avalanche is purposely released and a snowboarder tries to swim with it on its surface. It frequently happens that inexperienced snowboarders, trying to slide beyond mark routs, accidentally trigger avalanches. Such cases often end tragically. Communing with the mountains requires experience, the ability to recognize weather and snow conditions and an adequate assessment of the situation and its possibilities. In Poland, because of lack of suitable terrain conditions (lack of steep mountains above 1500 meters), it is difficult to go in for FR. The conditions proper for freeride are virtually narrowed to the Tatra Mountains, and even there the practice of FR is strictly prohibited.

Freestyle (FS)

Freestyle is what it literally means. It was spread by Americans on skateboarding, BMX (bicycle motocross), and snowboarding. It is also present in music, rhyming, breakdance and fashion. FS’s ideology boils down to the rejection of restrictions, and its main elements are spontaneity and naturalness, and being in agreement with one’s inner beliefs. Snowboarding subculture has developed its own unique vocabulary - the type of slang which emphasizes the snowboarder’s identity and facilitates communication in the international sports arena.

In snowboarding freestyle riders run on everything, because as they claim, what counts is the idea itself. However, the most popular, and the ones which offer the greatest opportunities, are snowparks. At the fenced off part of the slope there are numerous obstacles of different sizes and shapes: jumps and rails (S - Rail, C - Rail, rainbows, broken and sloping rails, and others), pipes, quarterpips, boxes, benches, etc.

Related links:

http://narty.onet.pl/ - info about polish spots

http://narty.onet.pl/kamery.html - here you can check life the whether in polish spots..

http://snowboard.colonies.com/pages/main/home.aspx - global snowboard community

http://www.boardz.com/snowboard/snowboardwebcams.html - global spots webcams

Tell me about your style..:)

Maybe there are some other disciplines you like? Please tell me about them..:)