Snowboarding is King of the Hill

Here's the ultimate site for people who like to slide downhill on a single board...in style! Self-described as, "Your one-stop boarding source," Snowboarding2 is the place for looking good, feeling good, and being good on a board. Here are just some of the great kinds of information presented at the site:

• A full, online store complete with snowboard packages, bindings, boots, jackets, clothing, goggles, helmets, sweatshirts, t-shirts (in snow?), bags, dvds, snowskates, watches, sunglasses...the list goes on and on.

• A terrific forum with action photos, tips and tricks, upcoming events, music, reviews, games, and classifieds

• Up-to-the-minute weather reports for all major boarding venues

• A glossary of snowboarding terminology

• Videos

• and much, much more

One of the more interesting pages has feeds from fixed video cameras on the slopes of ski resorts from all around the world. While writing this article, I snuck a quick peek at a lone boarder negotiating a Falls Creek Summit in Australia! Too cool!

Reading about the history of snowboarding was also quite interesting. To quote from one article on the site:

"The real change was made in 1970 when Dimitrije Milovich gets an idea after sliding on cafeteria trays. Milovich, who was a surfer on the east coast, started developing snowboards based on surfboards and the way skis work. In 1975 Milovich and his "'Snowboard', called 'Winterstick', get a write up in the March edition of 'Newsweek' and a two-page article in 'Newsweek'."

Who'd have thought that stealing cafeteria trays to slide down a hill would lead to the invention of modern snowboarding? Go figure. Yet, 28 years later, it became an official Olympic sport.

I wonder what happened to those cafeteria trays?