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Olympic Snowboard
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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
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