Snowboarding Research Paper

Extreme sports such as Snowboarding have been gliding their way into today’s society. Year by year, snowboarding has become popular among young adults and teens. It has been a growing epidemic for centuries. It appears on television and is written about in articles. Its popularity has become worldwide. Some may know of it as “Snurfing”; Snow surfing. It competes with the Olympic sport of Skiing. They have their differences, yet they both are performed on snowy mountains. With snowboarding you use a single board, and with skiing you use two stick-like boards that you put on each foot while holding on to what seems like two separate forks. Snowboarding has much simpler equipment. Snowboarding has evolved throughout the years, becoming more popular with time. From 1929 to 1965, with many trial and errors, the first successful snowboard was created. It actually came into limited production in 1966 when Sherman Poppen created the Snurfer (short for snow surfer) for his daughter. It became popular and desired by others so he manufactured them selling them for $15 each. The Snurfer was basically a large skateboard without wheels. It was marketed as a children’s toy. In 1977, the two creators Jake Burton Carpenter and Mike Olsen designed a very unique board made of bent wood and fiberglass.

Men and women both take part in this extreme sport. From young kids to adults, the sport has been growing in popularity for centuries. The number of snowboarders increased significantly from 2000 to 2010, by 1.8 million people. In 2012 the most popular snowboarding age was 12-24 years old (57.7%) (“Snowboarding Statistics”). In the late 1980s women snowboarders were rare. Women accounted for 18% of overall snowboarders in the United States (White). There are 31.8% of female snowboarders based on Snowboarding Statistics in 2012. Men have been known to be sportier, they do more things outside than women