Snowboarders shred slopes

jacob ROBINSON

From Hidden Valley to Colorado and all the way to Bulgaria, students speed down the slopes on snowboards.

Nia Ovcharova, senior, has shredded the slopes in Bulgaria since she was a kid. Starting by going to the resorts, her parents would ski, and she would snowboard down the mountains.

“It’s a really fun activity to share with a parent,” Ovcharova said, “Especially whenever you can experiment and try what you want.”

Ovcharova said snowboarding is something fun to do rather than sit around, but there are challenges with snowboarding besides the cold frigid temperatures.

“One of the biggest challenges, in my opinion, is finding the right equipment, because it took me a while to find the right size board and the right pants,” Ovcharova said, “You also grow out of them, and that gets annoying.”

Snowboarding is also quite similar to other sports said Jordan Stinehagen, senior, such as wakeboarding. But Stinehagen said that snowboarding and skiing is not similar at all.

“Skiiing didn't help me transition into snowboarding, but the best thing that did was wakeboarding,” Stinehagen said. “In both you have to keep the edges of the board down because you need that back and front edge to be down. This is to make sure you don’t fall, and its the same in both sports.”

Newport Brandt, sophomore, has been snowboarding since he was a kid at his family’s house in Colorado. Brandt said the biggest challenges for snowboarding is it's expensive and there aren’t many places near here that fit the conditions.

“I like when it's sunny out after it snows, because when it’s snowing it’s pretty cold,” Brandt said.

Brandt said he prefers these conditions because they make it most enjoyable to him, and it's a great way for him to enjoy the outdoors.

“Everyone should try it, it's a fun hobby,” Brandt said.