Friday, March 2, 2018

Big Air: the Winter Olympics’ Newest Snowboarding Event for 2018


The owner of Tsaina Lodge in Valdez, Alaska, Jeffery Scott Fraser is a seasoned executive with more than two decades of experience sponsoring a broad range of business ventures. Jeffery Fraser enjoys snowboarding in his spare time and follows the sport in the Winter Olympics. The Winter Olympics added a new snowboarding event to its 2018 lineup: Big air. 

Snowboarders who compete in the event slide down a steep, 160-foot ramp that ends with an upward curve designed to launch them high into the air. While airborne, boarders attempt to perform a single outstanding trick. The steepness of the ramp allows boarders to achieve extreme heights, enabling them to perform many of the most challenging and memorable snowboarding maneuvers. PyeongChang owns the largest ramp worldwide with a 40-degree drop at its steepest point. 

Both men and women alike may compete in the event. Judges assess each competitor’s performance according to four major factors: trick difficulty, trick execution, amplitude, and landing stability. They particularly focus on the boarder’s balance and control as they hit the ground. Reverting, stance switching, and dragging a hand on the ground will cost points. Boarders can receive scores between 1 and 100. 

While new to the Olympics, the big air event has been a component of the X Games and snowboarding world championships since 2003. Numerous smaller-scale snowboarding competitions have also included the event far back into the sport’s competitive history and its origins date back to the days of the snurfer, the snowboard’s predecessor.