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GENERAL ADVICE |
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> General Advice Snowboarders seeking good spots. |
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Snowboarding ranks as thefastest growing sport in the world
It swept through the American ski resorts in a crescendo in the mid-eighties
as a symbol of freedom, strongly appealing to young people. Initially a
somewhat rebel reputation was established but today this wildly popular and
still growing winter sport is taking over the ski slopes. A quarter of the
world’s snow sports
population are snowboardersand almost a quarter of them are children under 11.
Alpine snowboarding
This is carving category, where the riders are aiming for the ultimate
carving turn, a fast clean carve while being lent over as far as possible...
rather like a sports motorbike cornering at high speed. Little or no
jumping takes place. Carvers are always searching for the freshly groomed
runs before everyone cuts up the snow.
Freestyle
The most popular snowboarding events are freestyle competitions. Many
resorts design and maintain snowboard parks for freestyle riders, aiming to
maximise the fun with the snow available. This is the category where riders
concentrate on jumps, tricks, rail slides, halfpipes and switch riding.
Freeride
Freeriding covers it all. Most people will fall into this category as they
start out. It is both the whole mountain experience, (taking on the
conditions as they come, open terrain, fresh powder, jumping and spinning
off natural obstacles) and the experience of tricks in the park. This is the
category where snowboarders can show what they are really made of.
Kite
snowboarding
As the newest of wind-sports, Kite-Snowboarding is gaining in popularity.
By holding on and steering the Kite you are able to move on your snowboard.
Like a sailboat uses it sails, Kite Snowboarders use their Kite.
Mountain boarding or All Terrain Boarding
A solution for the many Snowboarders get
really disappointed once the snow starts melting.
Sand
boarding
As soon as the
snow melts you can head off to the sand dunes. Actually, it dates back to
the Ancient Eqyptian times and there are records of the ancient Egyptians
cruising down sand dunes on wooden boards.
Heliboarding
This is the most exciting form of snowboarding: Untracked powder fields at
slopes that are unreachable by normal transportation. Once you have finished
your amazing run you are simply picked up by the helicopter and are then
brought to the beginning of another great run.
Snowboarding in the
U.K.
There is a
huge scene in England based around "dry slopes" which are basically slopes
on a hill consisting of a plastic type material varying from hard plastic
bristles to Astro-turf material. If you can snowboard here, you can
snowboard pretty much anywhere!
All this leads to a
very dedicated scene where snowboarders everywhere beg, borrow or hitch a
ride to the slopes at the first sign of snow, sure of returning home with
wonderful memories of an unforgettable experience.
Where are
the snowboarders heading for?
Norway
Snowboard wherever you find a ski slope. Here you’ll find uncrowded slopes,
lift queues virtually unheard of, great quality accommodation and superb
childcare - the ideal family destination.
Off the slopes, there's something for everyone. Dog-sledding, guided
showshoe hikes by torchlight, romantic horse-drawn sleigh rides under the
stars snuggled under a sheepskin rug with a hot toddy, or whizzing across
the frozen wilderness on a snow-mobile. Norway is the place for exhilarating
outdoor pursuits.
Switzerland
Switzerland is
‘home’ to many of Europe's best ridersIt has more in-bound
extreme terrain than anywhere else in Europe and probably the best halfpipes
and parks as well. The Swiss are dedicated
to continually upgrading their lifts and boast some of the fastest and most
efficient lifts in the world. High-speed quads tend to be the norm rather
than the exception. Resorts in Switzerland are big, for example, Verbier and
the Four Valleys is one of the largest resorts in the world and has 100
lifts in its system that connects 15 mountain villages.
Finland
Home of the champion freestyle kids.
Italy
The uncrowded slopes and cheap lift tickets makes Italy especially good for
freeriding.
France
The Alps and the Pyrenees make ideal terrain ideal for freeriding.
Austria
The Tyrol region is characterised by huge powder bowls, long groomed pistes
and steep chutes.
USA
The birthplace
of snowboarding, the sport has become so incredibly popular and mainstream
across the country that every teenager who wants to be cool, snowboards, or
claims to snowboard.
Canada
With its awesome natural terrain, regular snowfalls of light dry powder and
the very best in man-made snowboarding facilities, Canada is one of the
hottest spots for snowboarding.
New Zealand
Boasting some of the most spectacular scenery
anywhere in the world and ideal snow conditions, New Zealand offers some of
the best alpine experiences. The snowboard season lasts from early June
through to early October, - weeks of endless powder with a stress-free
environment in a beautiful mountain setting. Ideal for heliboarding.
South America
Chile and Argentina
Countries
with a lot of powder and few people. They have few facilities as yet but
are beginning to embrace the sport
.
Japan
Japan is famous for its large and consistent snowfalls. Japan's vast range
of mountains get smothered in meters of quality snow. Hosts for the 1998
winter games, when for the first time snowboarding was included,
snowboarding has taken off in a huge way in Japan.
Taking an onsen is a great way to end
a day of riding the powder or the pipe. An onsen is a large bathing pool
filled with hot natural spring water filled with minerals that have healing
properties. Tradition dictates that you bath naked. However, there are
separate men's and women's onsens. |
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