Freeriding

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Equipment

Freeride snowboards make up a large part of the market as they are the ideal choice for the all-rounder.

A freeride board will usually have a directional shape and flex pattern. A truly directional board will have a nose that is softer than the tail - this helps with turn initiation and with handling cruddy/choppy snow conditions. Overall a freeride board will be stiffer tip to tail and edge to edge for a more precise and stable ride. Boots and bindings are usually stiffer than their freestyle snowboarding counterparts as well. double neck guitar

Some freeride boards are designed more specifically for powder than for groomers and there are all sorts of designs to help facilitate this. Many powder boards are tapered, which means they have a narrower tail than nose. Some have rocker, which means instead of camber these boards have their lowest point between your bindings and they bend up towards the tips. And some powder boards have different shaped tails, some have a swallow tail design which allows the tail to sink easier which in turn keeps the nose up and some have pintails which make the board faster edge to edge in deep snow. bongo drums

Personalities fender telecaster american

Craig Kelly (April 1, 1966 - January 20, 2003) is known as the 'Godfather of Freeriding'; Terje Haakonsen called Kelly the best snowboarder of all time.

He shocked the snowboard industry by walking away from multi-million dollar deals at the height of the snowboard craze to pursue his passion for freeriding, at the time an unheard of strategy for a pro snowboarder. It was in the mountains where Craig felt the happiest.

The distinctive fluid manner in which he rode was recognized and acclaimed in the snowboarding community. He was called a "style master" by snowboard magazine editor Jon Foster. Kelly also appeared in an enormous number of video and photo shoots. He was known for looking straight at the camera, even in the midst of a difficult aerial maneuver. Craig was a Sims Snowboards team rider for a few years early in his career, but spent most of his life riding for Burton Snowboards owned by Jake Burton Carpenter.

Craig was responsible for the design and development of many snowboards for the Burton Snowboards brand. The company's founder, Jake Burton is quoted as saying, hen I started listening to Craig, that was when my company became successful and really took off. He added, when the rest of the industry listened to Craig, that was when the sport really took off.

Craig Kelly died on January 20, 2003 near Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada in an avalanche which trapped 8 people and killed 6 others.

Filmmaker Jacques Russo created "Let It Ride" a documentary on Craig Kelly's life as a tribute to his friend and subject of many of his films.

Johan Olofsson (born October 27, 1976) is a snowboarder known for being one of the first riders to take freestyle tricks more commonly performed in man-made terrain parks into the big mountain freeriding environments of Alaska. Originally coming from a freestyle background, when Olofsson arrived on the Alaskan snowboarding scene he quickly adapted his spin tricks and jibs to the backcountry environment. Olofsson rapidly gained attention and respect from the freeriding community when he started performing these tricks off natural features such as windlips and cliffs in the midst of terrifyingly steep lines in the Alaskan ranges.

Jeremy Jones (born 14 January 1975) is a former snowboard racer now regarded as a pioneer of professional big mountain riding. His style is a seminal influence on modern big mountain freeriding.

Travis Rice (born October 9, 1982) is regarded as the aul Revere of the big mountain freestyle movement. More widely known for his success in the realm of freestyle snowboarding competition, his ability to adapt his skills to extreme terrain has gained him legendary status in backcountry circles as well.

Competition

As the original ethos of freeriding was to break away from (amongst other things) the restrictive confines of ski competition, it's somewhat ironic that freeride competitions are surging in popularity on the international stage. However these competitions mirror the sport itself in their random variable formats, and in the fact that usually there is no set course, and very little (if any) rules to abide by.

Freeride competitions basically involve negotiating steep natural terrain fluidly in a similar approach to slopestyle competitors in a terrain park. However unlike the freestyle discipline of slopestyle, there are no perfect man-made takeoffs or landings - each individual rider's route varies, and is personally plotted out in pre-run inspections. Constantly changing weather and snow conditions add an extra element to these events, and the unpredictably random aspect of freeride terrain contributes to a high risk of personal injury.

World Heli Challenge: Deemed the most legendary freeriding and freeskiing event on the planet, New Zealand's World Heli Challenge invites the world's freeriding and freeskiing elite to compete head to head amidst the many peaks which form New Zealand's Mt. Cook National Park. Three days of helicopter-accessed competition occurs over a two-week period, allowing for perfect weather and snow conditions for the Big Mountain, Backcountry Freestyle and Downhill heats to take place. The Big Mountain section consists of charging down 3,000 feet (910 m) of extremely steep terrain including seemingly unrideable cliffs and couloirs, pushing the athletes beyond their known limits. The Backcountry Freestyle realm allows athletes the ultimate in self-expression, showcasing their best aerial maneuvers utilizing the many natural terrain features available on the way down. And the Downhill is just that an en masse assault down 3,000 feet (910 m) of vertical no rules, first one down is the winner!

See also

Alpine snowboarding

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