gerard
02-22-2006, 03:33 PM
Because of the Americans' success in the Olympic snowboarding competition, snowboarding just got a lot of interest from viewers around the country. But this energy-rushing, addicting winter snow sport hardly needed the Olympics to boost interest. The sport keeps getting more and more popular. It is estimated that 5.5 million people in this country snowboard.
Skiing used to be the main winter snow-sport. Many ski hills would allow only skiers on the slopes because snowboarding was frowned on by most of the skiing population.
Danny Vogel, the snowboarding director of the Sunburst Ski Area in Kewaskum, recalled that not that long ago, "Skiing was more popular; snowboarding was the new, rebellious sport."
Sunburst opened in 1975 and snowboarding did not appear there until 1990. It has come a long way since then.
When asked what sport is more popular now, Vogel said, "Now I would say snowboarding, by far. Snowboarding has taken over a large portion of the people here, including our trained staff."
In fact, participation in snowboarding has increased about 300 percent since the 1980s nationwide. Participation in downhill skiing, on the other hand, has dropped about 47 percent to just over 7 million, from a high of more than 12 million in 1988, according to Snowsports Industries America, the industry's largest trade group.
Snowboarding has particularly caught on with the younger generation, which sees the sport as more hip and is interested in the opportunity to do stunts and tricks. Snowboarders can perform jumps, board on rails and pipes, and even do 360s, 180s and 540s. These tricks are much harder to do on skiis.
This is what seemed to make Taylor Culp, a student at Kohler Middle School and a five-year snowboarder, take up snowboarding. Among some of the tricks that he has tried are 360s, rails, jumps, grabs, half-pipe and board slides. He said a board slide is where the board slides on the middle of the rail.
Lots of ski hills have terrain parks where snowboarders can go off huge jumps and rails without the worry of hitting someone who is trying to peacefully ski down the mountain. The terrain park isn't only for snowboarders, but Vogel said that at Sunburst the terrain park is mainly used by snowboarders.
While tricks and jumps are fun, they can also be very dangerous. Wrist injuries are the most common, accounting for about 23 percent of all snowboarding injuries.
Many injuries occur while boarders are going off jumps.
"I just went to Colorado, and when I went off a big jump I fell and bruised my tailbone," Culp said. Surprisingly enough, injuries are also common while boarders are just waiting in line for the ski lift or getting on and off the ski lift.
Snowboarding is most dangerous when you're first learning. Research has shown that about one quarter of all snowboarding injuries happen during a boarder's first experience.
Unfortunately, snowboarding is a little harder to learn at first than skiing.
As Vogel put it, "You can usually get the hang of skiing in one day, and snowboarding is more like three days."
Although the learning curve might be steeper, it's smooth sailing once you've got it, Vogel said.
"After you've got the hang of it, snowboarding is not only easier, but it's a lot more fun," he said.
Once people get hooked on snowboarding, they start looking for some free time to sneak off to the ski hill.
If you live in the state of Wisconsin, some convenient places to go are Sunburst, Indianhead in the Upper Peninsula and Granite Peak in Wausau. If you're lucky, you might even get to travel to different states or countries to go snowboarding.
Culp said that he's gone snowboarding in Canada and Colorado, but his all-time favorite place to board was in the French Alps.
Do many people in Sheboygan snowboard? According to Mike Miller, owner of Second Revolution in the Sheboygan Memorial Mall, a snowboard and skateboard store, people in Sheboygan are in fact catching on.
Miller said he has seen increasing sales in recent years, causing him to expand his store in the mall. He has his own opinion about the reason for the sport's surge in popularity in this area.
* First, there are actually a lot of places to snowboard which are easy to get to from Sheboygan — there are 40 ski hills in Wisconsin and upper Michigan.
* Second, he pointed out that it's easier to snowboard than to ski when there isn't much snow, which has certainly been the case in this area in recent years.
* Miller also said believes that his store has helped to create interest in snowboarding in the Sheboygan area.
"This store turned a lot of skateboarders into snowboarders," he said.
Surprising to some people is that snowboarders aren't mostly males.
Females make up a big portion of boarders, too. When snowboarding first started in the 1980s, almost everyone who participated in the sport was male. The male-to-female ratio used to be 9 to 1, but over the course of 15 years the ratio has fallen to 3 to 1.
Whether you're male or female, or whether you have enough guts to go off a jump or slide down a rail, snowboarding is an exhilarating and intriguing sport, and you should definitely give it a try.
Samantha Norman is an eighth-grader at Sheboygan Falls Middle school.
Skiing used to be the main winter snow-sport. Many ski hills would allow only skiers on the slopes because snowboarding was frowned on by most of the skiing population.
Danny Vogel, the snowboarding director of the Sunburst Ski Area in Kewaskum, recalled that not that long ago, "Skiing was more popular; snowboarding was the new, rebellious sport."
Sunburst opened in 1975 and snowboarding did not appear there until 1990. It has come a long way since then.
When asked what sport is more popular now, Vogel said, "Now I would say snowboarding, by far. Snowboarding has taken over a large portion of the people here, including our trained staff."
In fact, participation in snowboarding has increased about 300 percent since the 1980s nationwide. Participation in downhill skiing, on the other hand, has dropped about 47 percent to just over 7 million, from a high of more than 12 million in 1988, according to Snowsports Industries America, the industry's largest trade group.
Snowboarding has particularly caught on with the younger generation, which sees the sport as more hip and is interested in the opportunity to do stunts and tricks. Snowboarders can perform jumps, board on rails and pipes, and even do 360s, 180s and 540s. These tricks are much harder to do on skiis.
This is what seemed to make Taylor Culp, a student at Kohler Middle School and a five-year snowboarder, take up snowboarding. Among some of the tricks that he has tried are 360s, rails, jumps, grabs, half-pipe and board slides. He said a board slide is where the board slides on the middle of the rail.
Lots of ski hills have terrain parks where snowboarders can go off huge jumps and rails without the worry of hitting someone who is trying to peacefully ski down the mountain. The terrain park isn't only for snowboarders, but Vogel said that at Sunburst the terrain park is mainly used by snowboarders.
While tricks and jumps are fun, they can also be very dangerous. Wrist injuries are the most common, accounting for about 23 percent of all snowboarding injuries.
Many injuries occur while boarders are going off jumps.
"I just went to Colorado, and when I went off a big jump I fell and bruised my tailbone," Culp said. Surprisingly enough, injuries are also common while boarders are just waiting in line for the ski lift or getting on and off the ski lift.
Snowboarding is most dangerous when you're first learning. Research has shown that about one quarter of all snowboarding injuries happen during a boarder's first experience.
Unfortunately, snowboarding is a little harder to learn at first than skiing.
As Vogel put it, "You can usually get the hang of skiing in one day, and snowboarding is more like three days."
Although the learning curve might be steeper, it's smooth sailing once you've got it, Vogel said.
"After you've got the hang of it, snowboarding is not only easier, but it's a lot more fun," he said.
Once people get hooked on snowboarding, they start looking for some free time to sneak off to the ski hill.
If you live in the state of Wisconsin, some convenient places to go are Sunburst, Indianhead in the Upper Peninsula and Granite Peak in Wausau. If you're lucky, you might even get to travel to different states or countries to go snowboarding.
Culp said that he's gone snowboarding in Canada and Colorado, but his all-time favorite place to board was in the French Alps.
Do many people in Sheboygan snowboard? According to Mike Miller, owner of Second Revolution in the Sheboygan Memorial Mall, a snowboard and skateboard store, people in Sheboygan are in fact catching on.
Miller said he has seen increasing sales in recent years, causing him to expand his store in the mall. He has his own opinion about the reason for the sport's surge in popularity in this area.
* First, there are actually a lot of places to snowboard which are easy to get to from Sheboygan — there are 40 ski hills in Wisconsin and upper Michigan.
* Second, he pointed out that it's easier to snowboard than to ski when there isn't much snow, which has certainly been the case in this area in recent years.
* Miller also said believes that his store has helped to create interest in snowboarding in the Sheboygan area.
"This store turned a lot of skateboarders into snowboarders," he said.
Surprising to some people is that snowboarders aren't mostly males.
Females make up a big portion of boarders, too. When snowboarding first started in the 1980s, almost everyone who participated in the sport was male. The male-to-female ratio used to be 9 to 1, but over the course of 15 years the ratio has fallen to 3 to 1.
Whether you're male or female, or whether you have enough guts to go off a jump or slide down a rail, snowboarding is an exhilarating and intriguing sport, and you should definitely give it a try.
Samantha Norman is an eighth-grader at Sheboygan Falls Middle school.