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paintballimpact.com / Sports / Snowboarding Half Pipe
Snowboarding Half Pipe
Snowboarding is a sport that has grown into a mega-industry, in just a number of years. The last 100 years, there have been countless technological innovations that have given us the ability to go to the moon, journey to the bottom of the sea, and transform snow covered mountains into manicured ski slopes. With our new ability to travel quickly to the tops of mountains, we have come to enjoy the art of skiing and snowboarding. Skiing was the first means of traveling down and across snow that was developed. A skier is equipped with two skis, one attached to each foot, with two ski poles that are held on each hand. The ski poles are used for balance, and for pushing the athletes forward. Skiing was developed as a sport in the first half of the 18th century in Norway. Snowboarding came much later, all the way into the last third of the 20th century. Snowboarding riders are connected to a single board via two bindings that connect on each foot. In competitive snowboarding, there are two main categories, speed timed events, and freestyle acrobatic events. One of the most popular acrobatic events is the Snowboarding Half Pipe.
The Snowboarding Half Pipe is a popular event because it involves a long course that enables boarders to perform a lot of tricks at some great heights. Snowboarding, like Freestyle BMX is a scored event, and boarders have their performance scored on a zero to ten scale based on the execution of their stunts, and the creativity of their routine. The Half Pipe has a long straightaway, about 130 meters long from the starting gate, to the finish area. The middle of the straightaway is flat with two curved verticals on the sides. The 18 degree incline of the straightaway and the curved verticals enabled the boarder to build up enough energy for them to perform their various tricks during the entire routine. The entire straightaway is about 13-17 meters wide, with 4-5 meter hurdles. The Half Pipe Competition is choreographed to music. The snowboarder performs the entire Half Pipe event to a song of his choice. The boarder goes down the runway, alternating from one side to the other, while performing his stunts and tricks up and over the verticals. The boarder executes a series of maneuvers up and over the verticals using many tricks in his arsenal including twists, jumps, and aerial maneuvers.
The boarder performs as many maneuvers if he can, all the way into the finish area, and is judged based on the creativity, originality, and execution of his entire routine. Four to six judges, along with one head judge, award the boarder with a score out of 10, with a 10 score for a perfect performance. Several factors are considered before recording a final score, including rotation maneuvers, non-rotation maneuvers, height of the vertical stunts, and overall performance.
Special Stunts of the Half Pipe.
One famous maneuver call them McTwist was originated by Mike McGill in the 1980s. This maneuver involved rotation of 360° around the lateral axis and a vertical rotation of 540° around a vertical axis. This McTwist involves flips and twists, like the swimming high dive.
Like the Snowboarding Half Pipe, paintball is one sport that has experienced a surge in popularity in the last twenty years.
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