Snowboarding competitions

Common

Having already held the first snowboard race in 1981, the World Championships were held for the first time in 1985. In 1996, the FIS decided to implement a World Cup and also held world championships, but those races were initially boycotted by the drivers of the ISF.

There was an agreement between the two groups, based on the Qualification System for the 1998 Winter Olympics, as Olympic snowboarding was to be held for the first time at the Olympic Games. After the insolvency of the ISF in the summer of 2002, the FIS Snowboard World Cup international racing series was only temporarily held.

There is now a new competition series, the Burton Global Open Championships. This international series of snowboarding events will be held in five countries at different dates, and can come up with a total of over $700,000 in prize money. In 1997, the X Games in the U.S. allowed snowboarding for the first time in its program and thus laid the foundation for one of the most important competitions in snowboarding.

In the winter of 2002-03 several independent competitions joined together with Ticket to Ride World Snowboard Tour (TTR). From this, organized by the snowboarding industry and independent operators, a competition series was created before the 2005-06 season, the TTR World Snowboard Tour.

For the first time there were TTR world rankings, and a tour event for women was organized. The TTR competitions contrast with the strong reputation enjoyed by the FIS World Cup. Many of the athletes take part in the World Cup only to qualify for Olympic Games.

Events
In 1982, in Vermont (USA), the first National Snowboarding Championships at Suicide Six were organized by Paul Graves. They are now called the Burton U.S. Open, and make up the final of the TTR tour. In Innsbruck in 1994, the first Air & Style Contest was held. This laid the foundation for major events, and today is a so-called 6-star TTR event, the premier class of TTR events. Focus is primarily the straight jump (Big Air) and now also slopestyle.

Events were held for the first time in Tokyo (Japan) in 1999, instead of the X-Trail Jam, and gave the sport another high point. In the straight jump (Big Air) or quarterpipe and slopestyle event, taking place inside a large hall, a new record was made in 2005 with 75,000 spectators. The sport enjoys a remarkable popularity in Japan.

This year Laax (Switzerland) also launched the first Burton European Open competitions (slopestyle, halfpipe), which today is just like the X-Trail Jam, a 6-star TTR contest.
In Davos (Switzerland) in 2000, the first O’Neill Evolution Contest was conducted, mainly on the halfpipe and quarterpipe slopestyle, as well as concentrates.

In 2002 the first Arctic Challenge was held in Midstuen (Norway), which had primarily the quarterpipe at the center. The event serves as a further challenge to apply for FIS and ISF coordinated by ex-rider Terje Hakonsen. Since 1998, snowboarding is an Olympic sport and is performed with a halfpipe, snowboard cross and dual slalom.

Medical aspects
In general, most studies show that skiing and snowboarding are equally dangerous. Skiers are not injured as frequently, but the injuries are usually more serious.

While the risk of injury while skiing focuses on the areas of knee ligaments, legs and head, snowboarding injuries are most often to wrist joints, tailbone, shoulder, ankle and meniscus, though the knee while skiing is more at risk. For freestyle riders there is also the risk of injury to the knee and the neck.