Boardsport
Encyclopedia
Boardsports are sports that are played with some sort of board as the primary equipment. These sports take place on a variety of terrain, from paved flat-ground and snow covered hills to water and air. Most boardsports are considered action sports or extreme sports, and thus often appeal to youth. A large proportion of youth partaking in these sports, together with aesthetic damage to property from sports like skateboarding, has led to many board sports being marginalized by the greater world of sports in the past. However, many board sports are ever-more frequently gaining mainstream recognition, and with this recognition have enjoyed wider broadcast, sponsorship and inclusion in institutional sporting events, including the Olympic Games
.
Surfing
was the first boardsport, originating from Polynesian culture. Skateboarding
was then invented by surfers looking to "surf" on land. It is hard to estimate when most boardsports were "invented" because people have been making homemade versions throughout history. For example, it is not hard to conceive of a person, who is familiar with the concept of skiing
or sledding
, standing sideways on a plank of wood and riding down a snow-covered slope. M.J. "Jack" Burchett is credited with first doing this in 1929, using horse reins and clothesline to secure his feet on the plank of wood. Most boardsports have similar, equally unknown origins.
Using data collected in the past decade, it is estimated there is 18-50 million skateboarders, 5-25 million surfers. and 10-20 million snowboarders in the world. Approximately 100 million people participate in boardsports worldwide.
: The grandfather of all board sports, is a surface water sport that involves the participant being carried by a breaking wave.
Windsurfing:Also known as sailboarding. A water sport involving travel over water on a small 2-4.7 metre board powered by wind acting on a single sail. The sail is connected to the board by a flexible joint
Kiteboarding
:Also known as kitesurfing. Boards similar to those known from windsurfing or wakeboarding are propelled by an inflatable or foil kite, allowing for high speeds and high jumps.
Bodyboarding
:Wave riding consisting of a small, roughly rectangular piece of foam, shaped to a hydrodynamic form. The bodyboard is ridden predominantly lying down, (or 'prone'). It can also be ridden in a half-standing stance (known as 'dropknee') or can even be ridden standing up.
Stand Up Paddle Surfing (SUP)
:A variant of surfing where one always a stands up on the board and propels oneself by a one-bladed paddle, without lying down on the board. Although originally the goal was to catch and surf the waves, a racing modality has emerged with similarities to kayaking.
Wakeboarding
:A surface watersport created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing
setup.
Wakeskating
:A rider is pulled behind a boat on a wakeskate which is smaller than a wakeboard and has no bindings with a foam or griptape surface.
Skurfing:Another fast growing boardsport is skurfing a mix of surfing and more conventional water sports in which the participant is towed behind the boat.
Kneeboarding:A discipline of surfing where the rider paddles on his belly into a wave on a kneeboard, then rides the wave face typically on both knees.
Kiteboarding: Involves using a power kite to pull a small surfboard, or wakeboard on water. Other variations are to use a wheeled board or buggy on land, or skis or a snowboard on snow.
Skimboarding
:A discipline of surfing involving riding a board on wet sand or shallow water. A predominantly recreational activity that has evolved into a highly competitive water sport.
Riverboarding
: A boardsport in which the participant is prone on the board with fins on his/her feet for propulsion and steering
Flowboarding
: Similar to surfing but done on a man-made artificial sheet wave.
Wallyboarding: Powered surf gliding on a body or surf board.
: Uses a board mounted on wheels, and often ridden on a "half-pipe" or in urban settings. Some of the most famous skateboarders, and early pioneers of the sport are Rodney Mullen
and Tony Hawk
.
Streetboarding: Similar to skateboarding, but also influenced heavily by snowboarding. Also known as Snakeboarding.
Caster Skating: Similar to casterboarding, but the rider can move both feet independently. Also known as Street Skurfing.
Longboarding
: Similar to freeboarding but with long skateboards that come in different shapes and sizes, longboarding is mostly a racing sport but there are many other styles as well
Carveboard: A board that has wheels similar to a car except smaller, it turns better than most boards on four wheels, its main purpose is to cruise and carve, it can turn 65 degrees, and has spring-loaded trucks that are almost as unique as a flowboards trucks.
Caster board
: Two narrow platforms known as "decks" are adjoined by a rubber or aluminium coated metal beam that houses a strong spring. Each truck has one wheel that is connected to the board in such a way that each wheel can rotate independently. Both wheels are mounted on slants that measure around 30° in angle, facing away from the front of the board.
Freebording: Often said to be the board whose feel is the most similar to snowboarding. There are two extra castor wheels in the middle of the base that are somewhat lower than the other four. This allows the rider to distribute his weight to only one "edge", as in snowboarding. This gives the rider the ability to slide, an ability no other land board has.
Vigorboard
: Constructed from two platforms, each supported by a single caster with a single wheel giving the board a total of two wheels. the two platforms are connected by heavy metal torsion bar that enables the board to twist in the centre.
: Similar to snowboarding, but on snowless peaks (in between winter seasons). The board is wider and sturdier. Mountainboarding
is similar to skateboarding in the way that mountainbiking is similar to regular biking.
Kite landboarding
: Similar to Kite Surfing but the kite is used to pull the rider along flat ground (often a hard packed sandy beach) on a mountainboard.
On-shore boards: A type of board that has four inline wheels and four in the back(two on each side) and is deeply concave in the front.
Balanceboarding: Maintaining balance on a cylinder while using a board-shaped (rectangular or oval) object as the balancing mechanism, which is placed on top of the cylinder. Cylinder diameter sizes range from 4” to 8”. Board sizes range from 25" to 40" in length and 10" to 18" in width. A Balance board
is like a see-saw that a user stands on with one foot at one end of the board and one foot at the other end.
Street Surfing: A split deck board connected by a spring rod to allow each half of the board to twist independently from the other, each side only having 1 caster wheel, allowing for tight maneuvers and self propulsion.
T-boarding:A skateboard deck with two wheels that can spin 360 degrees.
:A cross between skateboarding and skiing, the board medium is snow, although the condition of the snow can have a major impact on snowboarding style and technique. The four subcategories are freeride, freestyle, alpine and powder. The top-ranked snowboarder today is Shaun White
.
Snowskating:This is similar to snowboarding but there are no bindings used, therefore you are enabled to do skateboard style tricks.
Snowkiting
:This is when a kite is used to pull a snowboarder along.
: A recreational activity similar to snowboarding that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered hills.
: A kind of skydiving in which the skydiver wears a board attached to their feet and performs surfing-style aerobatics during freefall.
Hover boarding
: A fictional board sport whereby the participant rides a hovering board.
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
.
Surfing
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
was the first boardsport, originating from Polynesian culture. Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
was then invented by surfers looking to "surf" on land. It is hard to estimate when most boardsports were "invented" because people have been making homemade versions throughout history. For example, it is not hard to conceive of a person, who is familiar with the concept of skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
or sledding
Sledding
Sledding , sledging , sleding or tobogganing is a common activity in wintry areas, similar to sliding, but in a prone or seated position requiring a device or vehicle generically known in the US as a sled or in other countries as a sledge or toboggan...
, standing sideways on a plank of wood and riding down a snow-covered slope. M.J. "Jack" Burchett is credited with first doing this in 1929, using horse reins and clothesline to secure his feet on the plank of wood. Most boardsports have similar, equally unknown origins.
Using data collected in the past decade, it is estimated there is 18-50 million skateboarders, 5-25 million surfers. and 10-20 million snowboarders in the world. Approximately 100 million people participate in boardsports worldwide.
Water
SurfingSurfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
: The grandfather of all board sports, is a surface water sport that involves the participant being carried by a breaking wave.
Windsurfing:Also known as sailboarding. A water sport involving travel over water on a small 2-4.7 metre board powered by wind acting on a single sail. The sail is connected to the board by a flexible joint
Kiteboarding
Kitesurfing
Kitesurfing or Kiteboarding is an adventure surface water sport that has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. Kitesurfing harnesses the power of the wind to propel a rider across the water on a small surfboard or a...
:Also known as kitesurfing. Boards similar to those known from windsurfing or wakeboarding are propelled by an inflatable or foil kite, allowing for high speeds and high jumps.
Bodyboarding
Bodyboarding
Bodyboarding is a surface water sport . The average board consists of a small, rectangular piece of hydrodynamic foam, sometimes containing a ridged spine called a 'stringer'...
:Wave riding consisting of a small, roughly rectangular piece of foam, shaped to a hydrodynamic form. The bodyboard is ridden predominantly lying down, (or 'prone'). It can also be ridden in a half-standing stance (known as 'dropknee') or can even be ridden standing up.
Stand Up Paddle Surfing (SUP)
Stand up paddle surfing
Stand up paddle surfing , or in the Hawaiian language Hoe he'e nalu, is an emerging global sport with a Hawaiian heritage. The sport is an ancient form of surfing, and reemerged as a way for surfing instructors to manage their large groups of students, as standing on the board gave them a higher...
:A variant of surfing where one always a stands up on the board and propels oneself by a one-bladed paddle, without lying down on the board. Although originally the goal was to catch and surf the waves, a racing modality has emerged with similarities to kayaking.
Wakeboarding
Wakeboarding
Wakeboarding is a surface water sport which involves riding a wakeboard over the surface of a body of water. It was developed from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques....
:A surface watersport created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing
Cable skiing
.Cable skiing is a way to water ski , where the skier's rope and handle are pulled by an electrically driven cable, whereas traditionally a waterskier is pulled by a motorboat. The mechanism consists of two cables running parallel to one another with carriers between them every 80 metres. The...
setup.
Wakeskating
Wakeskating
Wakeskating is a water sport and an adaptation of wakeboarding that employs a similar design of board manufactured from maple or from fibreglass. Unlike wakeboarding, the rider is not bound to the board in any way, which gives the sport its own unique challenges...
:A rider is pulled behind a boat on a wakeskate which is smaller than a wakeboard and has no bindings with a foam or griptape surface.
- WakesurfingWakesurfingWakesurfing is a water sport in which a surfer trails behind a wakeboard boat, surfing the boat's wake without being directly attached to the boat. The wake from the boat mimics the look and feel of an actual ocean wave...
: A rider is pulled behind a boat on a mini surfboard and can ride the boat's wake with no rope.
Skurfing:Another fast growing boardsport is skurfing a mix of surfing and more conventional water sports in which the participant is towed behind the boat.
Kneeboarding:A discipline of surfing where the rider paddles on his belly into a wave on a kneeboard, then rides the wave face typically on both knees.
Kiteboarding: Involves using a power kite to pull a small surfboard, or wakeboard on water. Other variations are to use a wheeled board or buggy on land, or skis or a snowboard on snow.
Skimboarding
Skimboarding
Skimboarding . is used to glide across the water's surface. Unlike surfing, skimboarding begins on the beach by dropping the board onto the thin wash of previous waves. Skimboarders use their momentum to 'skim' out to breaking waves, which they then catch back into shore in a manner similar to...
:A discipline of surfing involving riding a board on wet sand or shallow water. A predominantly recreational activity that has evolved into a highly competitive water sport.
Riverboarding
Riverboarding
Riverboarding is a boardsport in which the participant lies prone on their board with fins on their feet for propulsion and steering. This sport is also known as hydrospeed in Europe and as riverboarding or white-water sledging in New Zealand, depending on the type of board used...
: A boardsport in which the participant is prone on the board with fins on his/her feet for propulsion and steering
Flowboarding
Flowboarding
Flowboarding is a late-20th Century alternative boardsport that is an alchemy of board designs, techniques, tricks and culture derived from surfing, bodyboarding, skateboarding, skimboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding....
: Similar to surfing but done on a man-made artificial sheet wave.
Wallyboarding: Powered surf gliding on a body or surf board.
Paved surface
SkateboardingSkateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
: Uses a board mounted on wheels, and often ridden on a "half-pipe" or in urban settings. Some of the most famous skateboarders, and early pioneers of the sport are Rodney Mullen
Rodney Mullen
John Rodney Mullen is a professional freestyle and street skateboarder. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and influential street skaters in the history of skateboarding...
and Tony Hawk
Tony Hawk
Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk , nicknamed "The Birdman" is an American retired professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk gained significant fame for completing the first 900 as well as his licensed video game titles distributed by Activision...
.
Streetboarding: Similar to skateboarding, but also influenced heavily by snowboarding. Also known as Snakeboarding.
Caster Skating: Similar to casterboarding, but the rider can move both feet independently. Also known as Street Skurfing.
Longboarding
Longboarding
Longboarding is the act of riding on a longboard.Longboarding is an offshoot of street skating, but, like all board sports, its roots lie in surfing. Developed as a single sport on the west coast in the 1950s, by the 1990s, Longboards and Skateboards branched off into their respective disciplines...
: Similar to freeboarding but with long skateboards that come in different shapes and sizes, longboarding is mostly a racing sport but there are many other styles as well
Carveboard: A board that has wheels similar to a car except smaller, it turns better than most boards on four wheels, its main purpose is to cruise and carve, it can turn 65 degrees, and has spring-loaded trucks that are almost as unique as a flowboards trucks.
Caster board
Caster board
A Casterboard, also known as a Waveboard, is a two-wheeled, human-powered land vehicle that is closely related to the skateboard and the snakeboard. Two narrow platforms known as "decks" are joined by a "torsion bar", which consists of a metal beam, usually coated by rubber, that houses a strong...
: Two narrow platforms known as "decks" are adjoined by a rubber or aluminium coated metal beam that houses a strong spring. Each truck has one wheel that is connected to the board in such a way that each wheel can rotate independently. Both wheels are mounted on slants that measure around 30° in angle, facing away from the front of the board.
Freebording: Often said to be the board whose feel is the most similar to snowboarding. There are two extra castor wheels in the middle of the base that are somewhat lower than the other four. This allows the rider to distribute his weight to only one "edge", as in snowboarding. This gives the rider the ability to slide, an ability no other land board has.
Vigorboard
Vigorboard
The Vigorboard is a board similar in style to a skate board or long board. A Vigorboard is constructed from two platforms, each supported by a single caster with a single wheel giving the board a total of two wheels...
: Constructed from two platforms, each supported by a single caster with a single wheel giving the board a total of two wheels. the two platforms are connected by heavy metal torsion bar that enables the board to twist in the centre.
Land, off-paved surface
MountainboardingMountainboarding
Mountainboarding, also known as Dirtboarding, Offroad Boarding, Grass Boarding, and All-Terrain Boarding , is a well established if little-known extreme sport, derived from snowboarding...
: Similar to snowboarding, but on snowless peaks (in between winter seasons). The board is wider and sturdier. Mountainboarding
Mountainboarding
Mountainboarding, also known as Dirtboarding, Offroad Boarding, Grass Boarding, and All-Terrain Boarding , is a well established if little-known extreme sport, derived from snowboarding...
is similar to skateboarding in the way that mountainbiking is similar to regular biking.
Kite landboarding
Kite landboarding
Kite landboarding also known as Land kiteboarding or flyboarding, is based on the ever-growing sport of Kitesurfing, where a rider on a surf-style board is pulled over water by a kite. Kite landboarding involves the use of a mountain board or landboard, which is essentially an oversized skateboard...
: Similar to Kite Surfing but the kite is used to pull the rider along flat ground (often a hard packed sandy beach) on a mountainboard.
On-shore boards: A type of board that has four inline wheels and four in the back(two on each side) and is deeply concave in the front.
Balanceboarding: Maintaining balance on a cylinder while using a board-shaped (rectangular or oval) object as the balancing mechanism, which is placed on top of the cylinder. Cylinder diameter sizes range from 4” to 8”. Board sizes range from 25" to 40" in length and 10" to 18" in width. A Balance board
Balance board
A balance board is a device used for recreation, balance training, athletic training, brain development, therapy, musical training and other kinds of personal development....
is like a see-saw that a user stands on with one foot at one end of the board and one foot at the other end.
Street Surfing: A split deck board connected by a spring rod to allow each half of the board to twist independently from the other, each side only having 1 caster wheel, allowing for tight maneuvers and self propulsion.
T-boarding:A skateboard deck with two wheels that can spin 360 degrees.
Snow
SnowboardingSnowboarding
Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...
:A cross between skateboarding and skiing, the board medium is snow, although the condition of the snow can have a major impact on snowboarding style and technique. The four subcategories are freeride, freestyle, alpine and powder. The top-ranked snowboarder today is Shaun White
Shaun White
Shaun Roger White is an American professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. He rides regular stance, twelve and negative three degrees on his board.-Early life:Shaun White is an Irish American...
.
Snowskating:This is similar to snowboarding but there are no bindings used, therefore you are enabled to do skateboard style tricks.
Snowkiting
Snowkiting
Snowkiting is an outdoor winter sport where people use kite power to glide on snow or ice. The sport is similar to kitesurfing, but with the footwear used in snowboarding or skiing. In the early days of snowkiting, foil kites were the most common type; nowadays some kitesurfers use their water gear...
:This is when a kite is used to pull a snowboarder along.
Sand
SandboardingSandboarding
Sandboarding is a board sport similar to snowboarding.It is a recreational activity that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains....
: A recreational activity similar to snowboarding that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered hills.
Air
SkysurfingSkysurfing
Sky surfing is a type of skydiving in which the skydiver wears a board attached to his or her feet and performs surfing-style aerobatics during freefall....
: A kind of skydiving in which the skydiver wears a board attached to their feet and performs surfing-style aerobatics during freefall.
Hover boarding
Hoverboard
A Hoverboard is a fictional hovering board used for personal transportation in the films Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III. Hoverboards resemble a skateboard without wheels. Through special effects the filmmakers depicted the boards hovering above the ground...
: A fictional board sport whereby the participant rides a hovering board.