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In Northern California the winter can be, like - boring for surfers, dude!

So in the 1960's, with nowhere else to go, a group of surf and sun enthusiastics headed for the snow-covered California slopes. In no time at all, it seemed, snowboarding became the hip winter scene in California.

Media attention soon followed as millions around the world witnessed surfboarders riding the frozen "surf" in spectacular moves executed by a few of the world's first snowboarding pioneers.

The sport's popularity skyrocketed, (as did skateboarding) while snowboarder demand resulted in a shorter, stronger redesign of the traditional surfboard to fit the harsher conditions of mountain snow.

Throughout the early 80's, local amateur contests led to a national US competition in 1983, followed by the first World International Snowboard Federation Championship in Ischgl, Austria in 1993. A year later, the FIS hosted its first World Cup, and at FIS urging, snowboarding was finally introduced to the Winter Games at Nagano in 1998.

In addition to the Half Pipe and Giant Slalom competitions, the Parallel Giant Slalom was introduced at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. The Turino Games in 2006 saw the debut of Snowboard Cross, consisting of four riders executing moves such as whoops, waves, banks, spines and kickers in a NASCAR-like race to the finish.

More about Olympic snowboarding around the Web:

Snowboard - Vancouver 2010 - Complete venue guide and official schedule, ticket info, photo gallery, related training tips & glossary of sports terms.

International Olympic Committee - Snowboard - Overview of the snowboard competitions, list of events, Olympic records, athlete profiles, picture gallery, related links.

FIS Ski - Snowboard - The International Federation offering snowboard news, rules and regulations, results and standings, athlete biographies, pictures, Olympic medal winners.

United States Olympic Committee - Snowboarding - Keep up to date with hotdogging headlines, feature stories and news releases.

United States of America Snowboard Association - News and information, results and standings, links to host resorts, photo gallery,

U.S. Snowboard Team - Latest news, feature stories, photo gallery, athlete profiles, downloadable wallpaper.

also see -> Lindsey Jacobellis | Seth Wescott | Winter X Games

also in Winter Olympics -> Alpine Skiing | Biathlon | Bobsled

Cross-country Skiing | Curling | Figure Skating | Freestyle Skiing

Ice Hockey | Luge | Nordic Combined | Short-Track Skating

Skeleton | Ski Jumping | Olympic Speed Skating