Snowskating – The Latest Snow Craze

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If you love snowboarding and skateboarding then you most probably already know what snow skating is. If you’ve never heard of it before then get ready for the next best snow-related sporting craze!

Snowskating is basically a mixture of snowboarding and skateboarding. It allows participants to enjoy snowboarding with more or less the same amount of maneuverability and expression that a skateboard allows. The sporting concept is still relatively new, but for those who prefer skill over speed, it’s just the sort of sporting activity they were looking for. It all started late one night in Washington at a bonfire party at Stevens Pass. Those gathered around the fire that evening were burning old skis in a sort of mock ceremony to the ‘snow gods’ in an effort to get it to snow so that they could start enjoying the winter season. As they watched the skis and the skate decks they’d used to feed the fire become engulfed by flame, a man by the name of Steven Frink – who is now regarded to be a living legend by fans – was struck with a brilliant idea. When he got home he took an old skateboard deck and attached it to a broken ski, creating the first bideck snowskate.

That was how the sport of snow skating was born. Today it is fast becoming a global trend which snow parks are scuttling to cater for. The boards are known as a ‘bideck’ or ‘bilevel snowdeck’ – a reference to the two boards which are put together to create a suitable skate deck. The skateboard deck is mounted on a mini snowboard or bi-directional ski by means of special trucks. There are different kinds of snow skates available, however, and you may find that the single deck snowskate is more popular due to the fact that it is easier to use. Even more common are the home-made varieties which are essentially old skateboards with the wheels and trucks removed. The snow skates are leashed to their owners to prevent injuries to other snow users, but for a long time several snow parks did not allow them, since the user was not strapped to the equipment as it the case with traditional snow equipment. Today several companies manufacture these boards and a variety of designs are available.

Skaters with excellent balance find that they can perform many of the tricks possible with regular skateboards and fans are finding that they can take their snowskate virtually anywhere instead of being limited to ski resorts like they are with other snow equipment. All the snowskate needs to work is a few meager inches of snow. The sport is cheap and accessible and Steven hopes that in a few years it will be every bit as popular as snowboarding. Ironically, though snowskating has been permitted in many resorts and snowskates are manufactured by more than one company, it is still not allowed on Stevens Pass, Washington.

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