SNOWY SLOPES CLIFFS AND THE SKY ABOVE ome risk takers love the challenge of clawing upward at a snail's pace Others find their thrills plunging downward at incredible speeds Hugging a rock face skiing or snow boarding down a mountain slope and hurtling from heights are all means of exhilaration Many of these sports can be enjoyed by beginners They also can be taken to extremes SnowBOARDING CON EF SPAHEHER Snowboarders Sometimes call it riding the mountains Snowboarding combines techniques of skiing skate boarding and surfing Chinese snowboarder Shuang Li started snowboarding competitively in 2008 at age 16 Here she is in the Women's Half Pipe Qualification at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia lurii Osadchi Shutterstock com IO
Snowy SLOPEs CLIFFS AND THE SKY ABOVE Experimenters during the 1960s came up with the idea of surfing on snow The crude boards they originally used have been perfected Basically a snowboard is like an extra large skateboard without wheels Bindings secure the rider's boots to the board and an ankle leash keeps the board attached when the rider falls On average a snowboard is about 5 feet 150 centimeters long and 10 inches 25 cm wide Some boards are narrower in the middle which makes them easier to turn Unlike snow skiers Snowboarders use no poles Dedicated snowboarders train for differ ent styles of competition including Alpine freestyle and boardercross also called snowboard cross Each style requires dif ferent skills and calls for specialized boards and boots Alpine snowboarding involves little jump ing Rather athletes maneuver around gates in a succession of turns competing against the clock Slalom and giant slalom events have tight turns and require exceptional technical expertise The supergiant slalom is on a longer course with looser turns Taking the turns as fast as possible with their bodies leaning close to the snow is second nature to Alpine snowboarders II
ExTREME SPORTS AND THEIR GREATEST COMPETITORS Freestyle snowboarding involves jumps and tricks Freestyle often takes place on a half pipe a semicircular ramp built from snow that resembles the bottom portion of a tube Snowboarders ride back and forth half on the pipe performing tricks as they go airborne at each end They are judged on their spins som ersaults and other aerial maneuvers Freestyle snowboarders also ride in parks urban set tings and other locations They use natural and manmade features that include ramps rails concrete fixtures rocks boxes rooftops and logs Slopestyle is a form of freestyle in which competitors perform jumps and tricks while also racing down a course In boardercross contests four to six rid ers at a time negotiate a downhill course that presents them berms jumps with bumps and other obstructions Accidental colli sions among boardercross riders are not uncommon The Fédération Internationale de Ski International Ski Federation governs snow boarding competition Giant slalom and half pipe competitions were introduced as Winter Olympic sports in 1998 Snowboard cross events became an Olympic event in 2006 and both parallel slalom and slopestyle were added in 2014 12
Snowy SLOPEs CLIFFS AND THE SKY ABOVE FREESTYLE SKIING Snow skiing can be particularly dangerous in certain circumstances Adding acrobatics on a downhill run freestyle skiing takes it to an extreme As with other extreme sports freestyle skiing is growing in popularity On site spectators and television viewers are riveted by each performance They marvel at the daring and graceful seemingly impossible acrobatics and landings They also anticipate the inevitable crashes The origins of freestyle date back to the early 1900s Skiers experimented with somersaults and other tricks before 1914 and popularized them in competitions in the early 1920s One of the first freestyle events was acro also known as ballet which was invented in the 1930s in Europe Using acrobatic moves borrowed from figure skat ing and gymnastics acro skiers performed jumps spins and flips set to music while skiing on a gently sloping hill In the 1950s and 60s hot dog skiers in the United States began practicing more daring stunts In 1980 81 the Fédération Internationale de Ski designated freestyle skiing an offi cial sport It was introduced at the Winter Olympics in 1992 13
