What is Snowboard Cross

Among the recently emerged Olympic Games, Snowboard cross forms a part of it. It refers to a snowboard competition which involves a group of four boarders who start to race from the starting line on top of a narrow, inclined course, racing down to reach the finishing line at the first place. Snowboard cross has also become a part of Winter X games, since the annual event started in 1997. From there the game is also termed as Snow board X. The other common terms used for the game are SBX, Boarder-X or Boardercross.

Snowboard cross is overseen by the International Ski Federation (FIS) who interprets the rules and regulations of the game thereby limiting the pushing between the racers into casual contact. The word “Snowboard cross” emerges as a translation made by FIS, however it is still widely known by the name of “Boardercross” among the community of snowboarding. Another interesting fact is that the term “Boardercross” is also used in the sport of mountainboarding which involved a similar race on snowless courses.

The courses of Snowboard Cross are generally very narrow including jumps, drops, sharp turns and steep sections specially designed to make the game more challenging and thrilling. There are possible chances of the players getting collided to each other. Therefore they are well protected with helmets covering the full face. This also reflected the traces of the game “motocross” which is a form of motorcycle racing held on off road circuits that were enclosed. This is another game which demands absolute physical strength and fitness. There was also another comparison made by the observers to ice speed skating competitions like “short track speed skating”.

The snowboard cross competition begins with the riders competing against the clock for two runs and finally the top 32 gets through to the next level. Now the race begins with groups of four competing till the stage last four of the participants are left to enter the final. Red and blue gates are marked on the course with triangular flags denoting the entrance of obstacles. The obstacles come in the form of jumps and banked corners which are often very narrow leading to crashes. Finally the one who reaches the finishing line beating the time, is declared the winner.

Snowboard Cross which was originally called Boardercross was held as an event for the first time in 1991 in a resort of British Columbia. The event was staged by Steve Rechtschaffner and Greg Stump who has to filmed the event as the last and final episode of their TV show which was screened on Fox TV. Much later after that, Rechtschaffner went on to create his video games SSX which was a hit series with multimillion selling history.