Olympic snowboarder - Scotty James

Olympic snowboarder Scotty James recently won the hearts of Australian’s across the country when he won bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The 23-year-old was the flag bearer for Australia’s PyeongChang Olympic team and showed why as he continually took it up to snowboarding legend Shaun White in the half-pipe.

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Scotty James was born in 1994 in Warrandyte, an outer suburb of Melbourne which is not particularly well known for its snow. From a young age though, he showed both an affinity and a talent for the sport. He was competing as just a six-year-old and made his way onto the international stage at just 14 years of age when he competed at the 2008 Europa Cup in Switzerland.

A couple of years later and Scotty was the youngest male competitor at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, and Australia’s youngest male Olympian for 50 years.

He wasn’t initially expected to compete, but after Nate Johnstone was forced to miss with injury, Scotty got the call-up, officially becoming an Olympic snowboarder at age 15. He finished 21st, but the experience was undoubtedly an invaluable for a kid just a couple of years into his teenage life.

Over the next few years, he continued to hone his skills, and it became increasingly clear that the Halfpipe was where he excelled most, despite also putting in good performances in Slopestyle and Big Air.

In the 2013/14 season, he won the bronze medal in the Halfpipe – his first World Cup medal.

With a couple of other handy results under his belt, Scotty won the Overall World Cup Title for Snowboard Half Pipe.

Soon after he competed in the Sochi Olympics in both the Halfpipe and the Slopestyle, but he was still a cut below the best of the best, finishing outside the top 15 in both events.

Unsurprisingly, he kept getting better, and now has some very useful awards to his name. He won the Winter X Superpipe in Aspen in 2017, beating Shaun White, he took home gold at the Olympic Test Event the same year, and was promptly named the Australian Institute of Sports Male Athlete of the Year last year.

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In snowboarding circles, he’d certainly developed a name for himself prior to PyeongChang 2018, but for the rest of the public, he was relatively unknown. His performance at the halfpipe changed all that.

After the first qualification run, he sat in 3rd place with a best score of 89, behind the USA’s Ben Ferguson, and of course Shaun White. The second qualification run saw a significant step up in quality, led by White, James and Japan’s Ayumu Hirano.

Hirano seemed the man to beat after he put in a huge 95.25, but James showed off the ice in his veins by following that up with a 96.75. White then put down a 98.50, but who cares. James was endearing himself to Australia and the world alike.

His laid-back demeanour at the top of the run combined with a seemingly affable personality made the 23-year-old a fan favourite, particularly against the Demon they call Shaun White. White’s already won a whole bunch of stuff in his career, and with a few claims against his character to boot, James was clearly the man everyone wanted to win.

He put in a first run 92, which placed him in second behind White. His second run wasn’t as good and earned just an 81.75, and on his third ru,n he stacked early as he went for broke. Nonetheless, he finished in third place behind Hirano and White and won over a whole bunch of people who had never heard of him a day earlier.

At just 23 years old, he’ll continue to improve, and the marketing deals his affable demeanour will secure him will keep him at the forefront of the public mind. The Winter Olympics are far from the most popular sporting event on the calendar for Australian’s, but Scotty James is certainly helping to boost their popularity.

Which Olympic Snowboarder is your favourite? Who do you aspire to be like in the future? Let us know in the comments below and share this page on Facebook and Twitter

Feature Image: The Australian

Olympic snowboarder - Scotty James

PyeongChang Olympic Halfpipe

If you ever hear anyone doubt the talent of snowboarders, tell them to go and watch the Halfpipe event at this year’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

In the event, competitors scooted their way down a halfpipe roughly 160 meters in length. The slope is between 17 and 18 degrees – not exactly flat – and the height of the pipe is a little under 7 meters.

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They fly their way down this pipe, launching themselves huge distances into the air while travelling at some serious speeds.

Impressive, and frightening, enough in itself, but combine it with some of the outrageous manoeuvres they perform and its enough to make it seem more like a video game than reality.

Many of the guys launch themselves in excess of 5 meters into the air from the top of the pipe on their first couple of jumps. For those of you who aren’t mathematicians, this puts them well over 10 meters off the ground at their peak.

The pipe itself is 6.7 meters, and the jump can propel riders over 5 meters high – add these together and you’ve got a total of around 12.

To put this into perspective, a regular story in a building is generally between 3 and 4 meters, meaning these guys are close to 4 stories high while they’re tumbling around like a spinning top.

To make things worse (or better?), ‘tumbling around like a spinning top’ doesn’t even go close to doing justice to the things they’re doing in the air.

Every move seems impossible to complete without landing on your face, yet they rarely fall. In Shaun White’s, and the event’s, final run, he scored 97.75 to take home a third Halfpipe Olympic Gold Medal. In it, he completed back-to-back 1440’s. Admittedly this was an outrageously good run, but let that sink in for a moment.

Snowboarding Fact

Red Bull built Shaun White A Private Superpipe in 2009

Again, for those of you who aren’t mathematically inclined or who aren’t familiar with snowboarding terminology, 1440 degrees is four times more than 360.

This means he spun his entire body around four times while flying through the air, before not only landing on his feet but landing with enough speed to repeat the same manoeuvre just a second later on the opposite side of the pipe. If that isn’t one of the most impressive things any person has ever done I’ll go away.

Of course, with these ridiculous tricks comes plenty of inherent risks, adding bravery to the list of impressive traits these guys possessed.

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In this event itself, 16-year-old (yes, 16!!) Japanese rider Yuto Totsuka landed flat on the lip of the pipe, and it looked like his body should have snapped right in two. He slid down the mountain for a little, eventually got stretchered off and was taken to the hospital. Turns out he was okay, but my God that must’ve hurt.

Shaun White himself knows the dangers all too well. Just a few months ago, he was practising the trick that would eventually win him Gold at PyeongChang, only he didn’t quite pull it off like he did in this event.

Instead, his board landed awkwardly on the lip of the pipe, and his face followed. Remember, he was around five meters in the air during the trick, so landing on his face inevitably did some damage. He received 62 stitches.

These guys are freaks. As talented as they are insane, their bravery and ability to perform ridiculous manoeuvres under huge amounts of pressure cannot be undersold.

If it isn’t the most impressive event at the Winter Olympics then I don’t know what is, and it speaks volume for the dedication and talent involved at the top of professional snowboarding.

Did you watch the Olympics? what were your thoughts about the halfpipe? Leave a comment below or share this post on Facebook and Instagram

PyeongChang Olympic Halfpipe

Learn to Jump on a snowboard the fast way

Have you ever dreamed of learning how to jump on a snowboard in the least amount of time possible? Do you feel you want to go past the learning curve and get more air than most professionals?

Well then watch this 1-minute tutorial below to get all the required tips to seriously increase your skill.

Ski lift from hell! pic.twitter.com/2aly25bzJT

— jfg (@allin1jose) March 16, 2018

like a way to bypass the difficult and usually not so enjoyable parts of learning a new skill and going straight to stardom.

But today is not the day that it’s going to happen. In fact, if you are still planning to learn the jumps then you are still going to have to put in the hard yards.

Bite the pow and make pain your friend. You might fall during your training, you definitely will experience bumps and end up with bruises.

But the sweet sweet taste of success once you overcome the difficulties that were laid in front of you, will get you gasping for more.

You will push yourself harder and harder, to go from a simple ollie to a 540 Mctwist and even then probably reach for more.

Don’t be a sucker and seek out the quick bypass way to learn how to jump on a snowboard. Do what the best do and be determined.

 

All fun and games aside, this would have been the kind of experience that would forever give you nightmares when going on a chairlift. Luckily most people walked away with a few bumps and bruises thanks to their quick thinking.

So on that note, are you prepared to push yourself or will you still seek out the simple way to learn to jump a snowboard? While you are commenting below what is a jump you have done in the past? What are you seeking to do in the future?

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Featured image: insurancejournal

Learn to Jump on a snowboard the fast way

So Is It Easy To Snowboard? Find out now

Many a man has debated whether it is easy to snowboard or to ski. Generally, there’s a pretty straightforward rule which is accepted as fact by most people.

Skiing is easier to learn, but harder to excel at. In contrast, snowboarding ain’t as easy initially, but once you get going you can get pretty good pretty fast.

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Is It Easy To Snowboard

Whether this means snowboarding is easier or harder is up to the individual. In your initial few days snowboarding, there’s no doubt you’ll think it’s harder, assuming you’ve ever skied.

You’ll spend half the time on your arse and the other half on your face, potentially be covered in bruises, and wonder why on earth people ever bother with this ridiculous sport. Don’t let any of that deter you though! It will all be worth it in the end.

One of the major hurdles to overcome is simply getting accustomed to the fact that your feet are stuck in a certain position.

Unlike skiing, where you can flay a leg out to keep yourself balanced, and generally just have much greater control over your legs, snowboarding requires your feet to remain exactly the same distance apart, and this can be initially hard to come to grips with.

Once you get used to this though, you’ll find it’s actually an advantage. There’s a whole lot less than can go wrong when your feet are bolted into position – at least after you get over the initial unnaturalness of it.

The early stages are tough, there’s no doubting that, but becoming a relatively competent snowboarder isn’t all that difficult after you get down the fundamentals.

Below you will find tips to make your first snowboarding session easier for you:

 

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Be Prepared for a workout

One thing new snowboarders will notice after spending a little while doing it is just how involved your upper body, particularly your abdominals, are in a session.

If you’ve skied before, you might anticipate that you’ll come off a big day snowboarding with pretty sore legs, as that’s what happens after you ski. Snowboarding isn’t the same discipline though and utilizes an entirely different range of muscles.

Since snowboarding is such an upper body dominant sport, you’ll need to have a pretty strong core if you want to spend an entire day out on the slopes.

As a result, exercises which strengthen this area of your body will make the sport a whole lot easier for you.

Crunches and the like are great for building strength in the area, and other sports such as paddle boarding, which really relies on core muscles, can have major benefits for your snowboarding.

 

Lean Forward

Another great tip for snowboarding beginners is to place your bodies weight on the front foot while shredding your way down the slopes. This might seem quite ridiculous, especially considering that you are literally putting your weight towards the bottom of the hill.

Mastering turns with weight on the front foot means that you can regulate your speed and safely go down the hill with control.

 

Don’t Pretend to be what you ain’t

When you first start as a snowboarder you are most likely going to look like a total goof. After all, it isn’t easy to snowboard at first but that is OK though. We all had to start at the bottom.

The best way you can progress in the sport is if you to literally don’t pretend and take it easy.

The enjoyment will come after a learning curve and trust me, the sooner you come to terms with being a beginner at the start, the more time you will have to focus on your footwork and learning the sport.

 

Get Profesional Lessons

Yes, it might seem obvious, but the amount of people who try and skip professional lessons is ludicrous.

Yes, it might seem a bit annoying to have to pay someone to teach you the basics, but it will cost you more if spend the whole week trying to learn how to get the correct balance. Additionally will take the fun out of the sport.

Additionally, as a beginner, you are very likely to fall and injure yourself. Broken wrists, shoulders and collar bones happen quite often, and without proper teaching, you might get added to that statistic.

 

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Hire your gear

I know for a lot of you big spenders it might feel weird hiring gear from a store but the best thing about hiring is that you won’t necessarily start with equipment that isn’t right for you. You will be able to get someone to recommend the best sizing and bindings for you 

After all, you can switch your gear around till you become more competent and when you do, fireworks, you will easily be able to figure out the snowboarding style that best works for you

 

Learn the Lingo

Just like learning a new language, snowboarding has a language of its own.

It’s not a crazy difficult language, but it will make your time so much easier if you decide to correspond with pro snowboarders who are more likely to share some tips with you if you take the time to learn some of the basic snowboarding terms.

Additionally, you might not be a pro but at the end of the day you can tell everyone you “shredded the pow like it was your bitch” and instantly get some respect points

 

Learn some interesting facts

You might be thinking, what does this have to do with if it is easy to snowboard or not. To that I say, snowboarding isn’t just the sport but the whole community and one of the best communities to be a part of.

If you want a foot in the door then why not talk about a common interest. Which most likely in this case will be snowboarding. If you can share some incredible snowboarding facts with people then they will more likely open up to you.

 

All in all, it isn’t easy to snowboard, but it’s certainly doable for people of all ages.

All it requires is a little patience, and anyone with an ounce of coordination can become pretty decent at within a relatively short timeframe.

Focussing on developing muscles which are key to snowboarding will have a massive impact, and will make the sport significantly easier to learn and progress at.

By learning a few things about snowboarding as well, you will have a higher likelihood to enjoy the full range of things that snowboarding has to offer.

There will be plenty of bumps along the way, both figurative and literal, but it’s certainly worth it in the end. And as we all know, nothing good comes easy.

 

Did you find it easy to snowboard? What kind of tips do you have that made your whole experience better? Let us know in the comments below and if you liked this article share it on Facebook and Twitter

So Is It Easy To Snowboard? Find out now

Snowboarding Exercises to Increase your Skill

When you think of snowboarding you tend to not focus on exercises outside of the sport itself. But in all honesty, snowboarding exercises can be used by you to really improve and enhance your snowboarding ability.

Best of all, you can perform them in the comfort of your own living room during the summer so that when the snow arrives you are ready to shred the slopes.

 

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Besides being a super fun sport and being able to look super cool in the latest gear, snowboarding requires quite some sort of stamina and fitness. 

To most it might seem like just straight sliding down a hill like most of the snowboarding games would suggest, but for people who have tried it in the past and gave it some effort, it is very much known that it can actually be quite a physical sport.

450 calories per hour kind of a sport and because of that, it is important to work out prior to hitting the slopes to get the most out of the sport.

Check out the simple exercises below which you can incorporate into your daily routine and in no time you will notice the improvements.

The Plank

A pretty common exercise, and a pretty easy one to perform. If you’re not accustomed to it though, your abs will feel it the next day.

For those who don’t know, the plank is a position which you use your core muscles to hold for as long as possible.

To get into position, picture your setup for a pushup, but rather than placing your hands on the ground, place your elbows on the ground with your forearms lying flat in front of you. Use your core muscles to maintain a straight body position.

This is a terrific drill for the development of core stability and balance, which is vital for snowboarders of all levels, making this one of the better snowboarding exercises to do.

 

Walking Lunges

This one aims to strengthen your legs, which are also a relatively important piece of equipment in the arsenal of a snowboarder.

Take a long stride forward with one leg, and bend your back leg until the knee almost touches the ground.

Both knees should be at 90-degree angles at the conclusion of this movement, after which you use your quadriceps to push yourself back up, and repeat the same motion but with the opposite leg in front.

This will help to develop the legs in terms of both strengths, necessary for jumps and general movement, and stamina, necessary for repeat movements and longevity on the slopes.

 

Getting a exercise routine ready to perfect my snowboarding skills #snowboarding #exercises Click To Tweet

Bike Riding

This may not seem like a snowboarding exercise, but it’s probably one of the most useful exercises around for snowboarders.

Spending an extended period of time on the bike helps to develop your aerobic capacity, which you’ll need if you want to spend a long day on the slopes.

More importantly, it develops strength and stamina in your legs.

This will enable you to complete long, arduous runs without needing to break.

In terms of technique, bike riding shares very few similarities with snowboarding, but in terms of the muscle groups used it is very similar, making it a really useful exercise to complement your riding.

 

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Pull-ups

Finally, there needs to be some focus on the back muscles.

The back is often ignored, not just by snowboarders, but by people in general when trying to build muscle, largely because it’s not a ‘party muscle’.

That is, when you’re walking around in everyday life wearing a shirt, no one will even know that you work out, so what’s the point?

The point is that the back muscles are some of the biggest and most important in the body, and play a huge role in strength, stability, and balance – all pretty important aspects of snowboarding.

 

Many people don’t bother working on their fitness to benefit their snowboarding, and for casual riders, this isn’t a problem.

As long as you can still do what you want to do, who cares?

If you want to improve your skills though, undertaking these snowboarding exercises, all of which are relatively easy to do, can help enormously. Give them a try, and you’ll see the results.

What sort of snowboarding exercises do you have to perfect your skills? Let us know in the comments below and as always share this page on Facebook and Twitter.

Featured Image: Holmesplace

 

Snowboarding Exercises to Increase your Skill

Bikini Snowboarding Will Get Your Heart Racing

In my opinion, snowboarding is in the top 10 best things on earth, but when you combine it with beautiful women in bikini’s it quickly becomes the best thing on earth. If you haven’t had the opportunity to witness bikini snowboarding then this post will give you an appetizer of what the fuss is all about. Don’t wait up and dive right in

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Bikini Snowboarding

Let’s face it, sex sells, and what better way of getting the main target audience (males in their 20’s) to check out a sport than having sexy ladies wearing bikinis, snowboarding down the slopes.

It definitely got your attention seeing as you are reading this informative article 🙂

But don’t you worry, we are in this together now, so you might as well strap yourself in and scroll your way down the page appreciating the best that nature has to offer.

Also, just so people don’t start calling this a super sexist post (the world we live in) let’s take the time to acknowledge how tough and brave these ladies are. I personally enjoy shredding the slopes in full attire.

 

 

 

 

Interesting snowboarding facts

The population of snowboarders is dominated by 73.1% being under the age of 25 and 51.7% of snowboarders are under the age of 17. Also, 74.2% of snowboarders are male.

 

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If you’re in need of a bit more action, then why not play some snowboarding games where you are bound to unlock a character wearing just bikinis.

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Bikini snowboarding is becoming more and more popular because of the fact that it brings a crowd too many of the resorts hosting it. Sooner or later you might come across one at a snowfield near you.

But for those that are a bit more interested in where you can definitely come across one of these events and even take part in it then head over to Russia at the Sheregesh resort which also boasts having some of the best snow in Russia itself.

Well, that is enough for compiling a page full of the sexiest pictures of bikini snowboarding babes I could come across on the internet. Now it’s time for me to take some time to myself.

Have you in the past participated in a Bikini Snowboarding day? Do you want to participate at one? Let us know in the comments below, and as usual, make sure to share this post on Facebook and Twitter

 

Bikini Snowboarding Will Get Your Heart Racing