The Future of Snowboard Competitions

There are so many different forms of snowboarding contests taking part across the globe that it's sometimes hard to keep up with them all.

With a growing amount of different disciplines and factures within snowboarding there is bound to be disagreement about the true nature and intentions of these competitions. 

Traditionalists would argue that snowboarding should traverse specific genres of riding, and that the increase and intensity of today's competitions further puts strain on the value of the "sport." 

Others would disagree, pointing to these increasingly focused disciplines as being a driving factor in the progression of snowboarding as a whole. 

Meanwhile, some companies are more than happy to capitalise on snowboard specific trends, knowing they can make a quick buck from the latest fad or fashion.

Whatever you may feel about these big competitions, it is certain they are pushing the limits of riders, and putting snowboarding firmly in the limelight. This certainly seems good in encouraging a new generation of riders to take up snowboarding, and the more support young athletes can get from new sponsors is great.

Perhaps the boundaries between disciplines will soon be a thing of the past? The recent showcase contest 'Supernatural' showed to the larger (generally American) public the current state of snowboarding.

Combining a big mountain approach to riding, most often seen in snowboard movies (admittedly only really seen by snowboarders), combined with naturally inspired man made features, a big kicker, and a jib section, 'Supernatural' challenged competitors to bring together skills from a range of disciplines. 

They would first have to navigate a powder-drenched slope of over 45 degrees, trying to hit as many of the features as creatively as they could on the way down. Next saw riders square up for a mammoth 250-foot wide kicker, before a mini-park zone packed full of features at the bottom. Each run would last over 2 minutes long - a lifetime compared with traditional snowboard contest runs. 

Travis Rice, the man behind the mission to change the contest scene, said 'Supernatural' is designed to find the best all round snowboarder in the world.

"As far as contests, nothing is on par with what you see in a snowboard video... I wanted to create an event where a contest run has the potential to be more progressive than a video part. I'd like to see this event become the highest echelon of competitive snowboarding"

I certainly feel this is a breath of fresh air within competitive snowboarding, and the quality of riding throughout the event was, as you can imagine, quite amazing at times.

 

However, I still felt the overtly Americanised format of the finished televised programme pretty vulgar. Pushing snowboarding into the eyes of the public in this direction doesn't sit well with most snowboarders I know. But this is always seems to be the case with large snowboard competitions.

As a concept 'Supernatural' is by far the best way of showcasing the extraordinary talents of these snowboarding 'artists'. I'm looking forward to future events from the Travis Rice stable, but even more so to other offshoot contests that will hopefully arise from this great idea.