Skateboarding & Surfing

Skate boarding is one of the most popular "board sports". This is probably because it was one of the earliest invented (Surfing is first because it is 3000 years old). The ironic thing about these two sports is that surfing started skateboarding. In a study preformed by a college professor, it was found that surfers could easily learn to skateboard while the skateboards couldn't learn to surf as easily. This also is ironic because skateboarding was invented by surfers. When the waves were flat surfers wanted something to do. So, the skateboard was invented. Originally a piece of wood with roller-skate wheels attached, early skateboards allowed riders to "surf the sidewalk". This led to some development, as always, and boom, the skateboard revolution. When skateboarding became more than a downtime hobby for surfers, the mass media got involved. Kids everywhere wanted a skateboard and mostly guys. 85% of skateboards are under the age of 18. 74% of skateboards are male. This shows that the sport is dominated by "skaters", young guys looking for a crazy sport. Skateboarding originated the X-Games, brought extreme sports into almost mainstream sports. Skateboarding and surfing, like most other "boarding" sports are similar in stats. They are mostly done by guys under the age of 25.

I have no title because i don't really want to talk about anything. I guess i will just talk about wake boarding. Wake boarding was a sport developed through a combination of snowboarding, skiing (water), and surfing. The board is similar to that of a short snowboard, with fins, like a surfboard, and abilities like both, gliding across a surface with ease. It is like skiing, because it uses a boat and a rope to go not gravity or waves or a mountain. Wake boarding was originally called Skurfing, because it was like surfing, the water, and skiing, the rider was towed behind a boat by a rope. The name was changed to wake boarding because technically, the rider is and was "Boarding the Wake" (riding the wake). Like snowboarding, wake boarding use to be the thing that no one socially accepted. It was for those crazy teenagers. But again, they transformed it into a worldwide popular sport, not yet reaching Olympic levels but getting there. There are old designs on wake boards (I own the original O'Brien Freestyle board from 1986) still being used today, but most people prefer the new boards because every year there are new and much better models of boards.

Shaun White

Considered a superstar by today's standards, Shaun White is one of the greatest X-Games athletes of all time. He has also competed at the Olympic level and won gold on several occasions. This year Shaun was the first to achieve a 3-peat gold in the Super pipe event. Shaun White has competed in both the Winter X-Games and the X-Games. He has won gold at both, but is more famous for his snowboarding than he is for skateboarding. Shaun White is now a world famous athlete. He is known across the world by millions of people. He had humble beginnings in California, before becoming "The Shaun White". He has revolutionized the sport of snowboarding through his new tricks, different styles, and new gear. Shaun has had a few setbacks in his career, like this year he didn't even qualify for the slope-style finals. Shaun has tried out new things recently, like competitive drift racing and snowmobiling trying to find another sport to dominate. Shaun's development of snowboarding was a secret until recently. He has his own, personal mountain side, covered with freestyle terrain, and one massive super-pipe. He has to keep quiet and keep secret so he can stay the best.  

X-Games

With the X-Games recent beginnings, we have seen an explosion in extreme sports across the world. The most popular of the X-Games sports is Snowboarding. Snowboarders use to be a small group of crazy teenagers going against the normal winter sport-skiing. When these teenagers became good at what they were doing, the started events, which became very popular. Their exciting tricks and daring jumps excited the mainstream audience to a point of evolution in the sport. This was the X-Games. The X-Games showcased the best in all extreme sports. Originally it was BMX, skateboarding, and wake-boarding. Then came snowboarding. The winter X-Games were created mainly for snowboarding, with a few skiing events. This led to an almost mainstreaming of the sports, making them world famous. The snowboards would continue to develop their sport until the sport it mainstreamed, when many of the crazy, excitement searching teenagers will do look for some other adrenaline filled sport to do. This year in the winter X-Games marked the year of the Triple Cork, Shaun White three-peating gold on the Super pipe, and a 15 year old winning silver in the skiing Super pipe. Not a bad year for the X-Games. Hopefully, the X-Games will be able to live up to its winter opposite.