Boardsport
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Boardsports are sports that are played with some sort of board as the primary equipment. Surfing, first mastered in the Pacific islands, was the first board sport. Eventually, it was expanded to land applications, often with the addition of wheels. Many board sports are classified as action sports or extreme sports, and thus often appeal to youth. Board sports have had a history of being dangerous, "punk" or reckless, and thus were marginalized in the sports community. However, many board sports have gained mainstream recognition, and with this recognition have enjoyed wider broadcast, sponsorship and inclusion in institutional sporting events, including the Olympic Games.
Contents |
[edit] Classifications
There are a variety of board sports, which are characterized by terrain:
[edit] Water
- Surfing
- The grandfather of all board sports, is a surface water sport that involves the participant being carried by a breaking wave.
- Windsurfing
- Also known as sailboarding. A water sport involving travel over water on a small 2-4.7 meter board powered by wind acting on a single sail. The sail is connected to the board by a flexible joint
- Bodyboarding
- Wave riding consisting of a small, roughly rectangular piece of foam, shaped to a hydrodynamic form. The bodyboard is ridden predominantly lying down, (or 'prone'). It can also be ridden in a half-standing stance (known as 'dropknee') or can even be ridden standing up.
- Wakeboarding
- A surface watersport created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing setup.
- Skurfing
- Another fast growing boardsport is skurfing a mix of surfing and more conventional water sports in which the participant is towed behind the boat.
- Kneeboarding
- A discipline of surfing where the rider paddles on his belly into a wave on a kneeboard, then rides the wave face typically on both knees.
- Kiteboarding
- Involves using a power kite to pull a small surfboard, or wakeboard on water. Other variations are to use a wheeled board or buggy on land, or skis or a snowboard on snow.
- Skimboarding
- A discipline of surfing involving riding a board on wet sand or shallow water. Not usually competitive, it is considered a miscellaneous beach recreation activity.
- Riverboarding
- a boardsport in which the participant is prone on the board with fins on his/her feet for propulsion and steering
[edit] Land
- Skateboarding
- Uses a board mounted on wheels, and often ridden on a "half-pipe" or in urban settings. The most famous skateboarder, and early pioneer of the sport is Tony Hawk.
- Streetboarding
- Similar to a skateboarding, but also influenced heavily by snowboarding.
- Mountainboarding
- Similar to snowboarding, but on snow-less peaks (in between winter seasons). The board is wider and sturdier. Mountainboarding is similar to skateboarding in the way that mountainbiking is similar to regular biking.
- Kite landboarding
- Similar to Kite Surfing but the kite is used to pull the rider along flat ground (often a hard packed sandy beach) on a mountainboard.
- Pineboarding
- A recreational boardsports that takes wheelless boards and skates across fallen pinecones in forrests.
- Rope boarding
- Uses a board hanging from a rope, ridden by swinging through the air, and landing on elevated platforms of launching off the tree it hangs from.
[edit] Snow
- Snowboarding
- A cross between skateboarding and skiing, the board medium is snow, although the condition of the snow can have a major impact on snowboarding style and technique. The four subcategories are freeride, freestyle, alpine and powder. The top-ranked snowboarder today (as of 2006) is Shaun White.
- Snowskating
- This is similar to snowboarding but there is no bindings used, therefore you are enabled to do skateboard style tricks.
- Snowkiting
- This is when a kite is used to pull a snowboarder along.
[edit] Sand
- Sandboarding
- A recreational activity similar to snowboarding that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered hills
[edit] Air
- Skysurfing
- A kind of skydiving in which the skydiver wears a board attached to their feet and performs surfing-style aerobatics during freefall.
[edit] See also
[edit] External Links
www.ukboardsports.com UK Boardsports Forum - Information and discussion forums for boardsports enthusiasts in the UK
