The thrill of racing down a slope, the adrenalin rush, the wing slashing against you and the excitement and pleasure of sliding past on the snow: all these are things you simple can’t live without? You are made for snowboarding.

Snowboarding is pretty much an adventure sport. Sliding on the snow down the slope of a hill, balancing yourself on a single board attached to your feet and doing the amazing stunts and tricks are the core elements of this high voltage sport. People may tend to confuse with skiing as they are similar in many respects but difference lies in the fact that snowboarding involves skateboarding and surfing techniques

Skiing is different
Skiing and snowboarding share similarities in the thrill of racing down the slope of a mountain on the snow and dodging or sliding past the different mountainous obstacles with amazing and subtle skills. But while it has been found that skiers achieve higher speeds than snowboarders and both almost require similar levels of skills and expertise.

The difference is in the fact that skiers use poles which provide support, speed and balance. Also skiing is more strenuous to the knees that snowboarding.

Types
The success of snowboarding is in the comfort and friendship between the snowboard and the snowboarder. There are various types of snowboarding. You have to decide which thrills you the most. Hence as you can already guess that there are different types of snowboard according to the type of snowboarding.

Jibbing or rail riding: As the name suggests, it is sliding on the rails or similar things. This may be done in parks and streets.

Free ride: This means riding down any available terrain and doing some jibs and aerial tricks and stunts. The tricks may be borrowed form freestyle too.

Dry slopes: These are man made slopes for those who want to do snowboarding in summer or people who live far away from snowy mountains.

Free style: Here the obstacles in the path are man made. Such as half-pipes and ‘boxes’

Free Carve or alpine snowboarding. This is a hard core speed race snowboarding down a steep slope. Does not involve aerial tricks and jumps. Very fine tunes directional boards are used for sharp turns that racer has to take.

The snowboard compatibility varies with the type of snowboarding.

For instance
All-mountain snowboards are good for both free ride
Free style though there are different boards for both.
Alpine snowboards are for alpine snowboarding and hence must be long, rigid, sleek and directional.
Park/rail snow boards are thick yet flexible for the rail tricks.

So if your adrenalin has already started racing what are you waiting for. Go hit the slopes. There is nothing to be afraid of. Today there are thousands of protective gears available. With a few sessions of proper training and exercise you will be sliding past the professional snowboarders.