This Board + Backcountry Powder = Pure Joy

By Drew Prindle December 12, 2014

There are few sensations in this world that can compare to the feeling of floating through an untouched waist-deep powder stash on a crisp winter morning. Doing it on skis or a snowboard is one thing, but doing it on a board designed specifically for powder is a completely different experience.

Enter the Mountain Surfer from Jones Snowboards. Designed by infamous surf designer Chirs Chirstenson, the board features a wide, gently curved nose section similar to what you’d find on a surfboard. Unlike a surfboard, however, the tail end of the Mountain Surfer is more concave, and built with a subtle swallowtail design that allows you to charge through pow while still maintaining control.

Up top, the board is equipped with a set of removable hooks, which make it easier to keep your feet locked in while you ride, but without forcing you to physically strap in like you would in a traditional snowboard. It’s basically been designed from the ground up to be the perfect powder board. Check it out in the video below.

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What to Know About the Winter Olympic Figure Skating Events

olympic figure skating skater

If you were to survey a large cohort of people about their favorite events to watch at the Olympics, many would enthusiastically respond with figure skating. Figure skating at the Olympics is a sport characterized by beauty, grace, athleticism, precision, strength, flexibility, and technique, and Olympic figure skating routines are brief demonstrations of talent, skill, and athletic prowess.
Watching figure skating at the Olympics is always a memorable experience. As viewers, we watch with bated breath as a competitor approaches a figure skating jump, and cheer from the comfort of our armchairs when they stick a landing. We also study every second of slow-motion replays of epic figure-skating falls. Feed your excitement and anticipation for figure skating at the Olympics with our guide to Olympic figure skating below.

Is Figure Skating Part of the Olympics?

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What is the Luge at the Winter Olympics?

Symbol of winter olympics luge.

Most of us love watching the Olympics to see the greatest athletes do things we could never dream of doing. From landing a graceful quadruple axel in figure skating to blazing through a slalom at record-breaking speeds, it’s inspiring and awe-inducing to tune in every few years and catch humans doing the seemingly impossible physical feats.
Perhaps no winter sport better exemplifies the guts, intensity, and skill that Olympic athletes possess than the luge. This blazing-fast race may look simple, but requires extreme precision, focus, and strategy, making it extremely exciting to watch. To maximize your appreciation of the Winter Olympics for your watching experience this year, keep reading for our guide to the luge and get to know everything that goes into this unique sport.

What Is Luge?
Luge is a winter sport that involves racing on special sleds down a banked ice track. Athletes lie supine, or on their backs, with their feet leading down the track. The roots of luge are thought to date back as far as the year 800 with the Vikings competing in sled races on the mountains along the fjords near present-day Oslo. The first confirmed model-day luge competition was in Switzerland in 1183, and luge became an Olympic event at the 1964 Olympic Games. Luge athletes from Germany tend to dominate the podium at the Winter Olympics, with athletes from Italy and Austria often making a good showing as well.

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Why is Bandy Not Supported in the Winter Olympics?

goal net on an ice rink.

Although the Olympic Games tend to grow larger with time -- adding new sports and events to the existing lineup -- existing sports are also sometimes eliminated. For example, the inaugural Winter Olympic Games in 1924 featured a discipline of cross-country skiing called military patrol, which has long been removed.
The Olympic Games also used to occasionally feature demonstration sports, which were sports played at the Games as a means to showcase them, but they were not included in the medal ceremonies. While the inclusion of demonstration sports in the Olympic Games has been suspended, one of the previous demonstration sports at the Winter Olympics was bandy.

Bandy is a version of hockey that even many sports enthusiasts know very little about. Though you won’t find bandy on the Winter Olympics schedule for 2022, it’s still contested internationally outside of the Olympic Games. Keep reading to learn more about the sport of bandy, and what other ice sports you can catch at the Winter Olympics.