Snowboarding and popularity in the UK
SpaceToilets
Posts: 3,343 Forum Member
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I briefly brought up this subject in another thread during the women's slopestyle competiton:
Do you think snowboarding's popularity will increase due to the showing at this year's Olympics?
Jenny Jones picking up the bronze (especially with all the years she has grafted at the sport) definitely feels like it has captured the public's imagination, and going by comments on here, Twitter and speaking to people who have never really sat down to watch the sport before they have been impressed by what they have seen. The talent on offer has been a great showcase to what is capable in the sport.
I would love for the sport to gain more popularity, and especially for more people to actually partake in the sport, but at the same time speaking as someone who does it on a pretty regular basis it definitely is not the most accessible sports, especially when you need to buy all the clothing and equipment once you have decided you are serious about it, as well as finding an indoor or dry slope to practice on.
So yeah, do you think these Winter Olympics Games will see a growth in popularity and participation in the UK?
Do you think snowboarding's popularity will increase due to the showing at this year's Olympics?
Jenny Jones picking up the bronze (especially with all the years she has grafted at the sport) definitely feels like it has captured the public's imagination, and going by comments on here, Twitter and speaking to people who have never really sat down to watch the sport before they have been impressed by what they have seen. The talent on offer has been a great showcase to what is capable in the sport.
I would love for the sport to gain more popularity, and especially for more people to actually partake in the sport, but at the same time speaking as someone who does it on a pretty regular basis it definitely is not the most accessible sports, especially when you need to buy all the clothing and equipment once you have decided you are serious about it, as well as finding an indoor or dry slope to practice on.
So yeah, do you think these Winter Olympics Games will see a growth in popularity and participation in the UK?
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Although as you say the cost and relative difficulty of finding places to do it is a problem (I think there are maybe 6 indoor slopes in the UK now?) But I do think the exposure GB athletes are having in both freestyle skiing and snowboarding should have an impact.
It will also be interesting to see if the success in snowboarding leads to a change in the mix of people trying that rather than skiing, at the moment I reckon probably something like 75% or so of people who do hit the slopes are skiers, it would be good to see a more even split between skiers and snowboarders.