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Street and terrain park snowboarding has come along way in the past few years, the hardest tricks in 2008 are now warm-up maneuvers in 2014. Take Zak Hale’s ‘front board through a curved kink’ picture here, this is not an easy thing to do on a snowboard, especially in the streets where the consequences are cold cement stairs. Guys like Zak are so good now they’ll start a session by hopping right into some gnarly stuff right outta the gate. The skill level and board control nowadays fascinates me on a daily basis, it’s never gets old. Photo: Blotto
When an architect sets out in designing a building, city park, overpass, or any other structure that includes public safety devices, never did it cross their minds that these long metal bars called handrails — sometimes square, sometimes round — would fuel an entire niche within snowboarding while influencing terrain parks worldwide. The handrail, in its simplest form, is the classic down-bar, a piece of metal running straight down a set of stairs used for pedestrian stability, and perfect for enthusiastic snowboarders. It was the early street-riding pioneers taking what they knew from skateboarding and applying it to the snowboarding process during the winter months that fueled a revolution. It’s absolutely incredible where it’s gone from there and hopefully this gallery shows you a little bit of that.
As a bonus, I included the trick names with each image, because you’ll get a kick out of saying them aloud, whether you’re the seasoned snowboarding veteran or an innocent bystander taking note of these freestyle fanatics risky life and limb in the name of fun and filling up video parts. Enjoy.
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