SNOWBOARD

Snowboarding is a fantastic sport which has taken off in Scotland. Riders perform on a single board and rapidly progress into freestyle and park, borrowing many of their styles from skateboarding, skating and bmx. Many of the same tricks performed in these disciplines can be performed on a board.

Snowsport Scotland is involved in four areas of snowboarding:

  1. Grass roots development through Snowsport Development Officers for West of Scotland, Highland Region and Midlothian - see the Contacts page.

  2. Education and training split into two pathways:

  3. Performance programmes for snowboarders at national squad standard in conjunction with Snowsport GB.

  4. Organisation of competitions at the Scottish centres during the season.

Competition in Snowboarding can be divided into three main categories: Freestyle, Boardercross and Slalom ...

  • Freestyle can be divided into Big Air, Half Pipe and Slopestyle. These have developed out of skateboarding and wave riding. They all involve performing various tricks while airborne, and slopestyle also includes rail slides, boxes and other objects for riders to perform on. These events are judged on style and the technical difficulty of the moves.

  • Boardercross is a head to head battle of between four and eight riders. They have to get down a course full of jumps and berms, with the first rider across the line the winner. Elbows, pushing and cutting up are all definitely allowed making it the event for budding gladiators. It is fast, furious and fun to ride and great to watch.

  • Slalom is the speed discipline of snowboarding where competitors can either race alongside each other, record the times and then swap lanes for their second run (dual slalom) or race against the clock on a timed course.