Among the most famous sports in Europe and America, the Skate Boarding has quite a number of competitions that have been played in several parts of the world. The most popular among them is probably the X-Games. Though each of the competitions has its own rules and regulations, there are some similarities in their playing procedures. The most common competitions are as follows:
1) Big Air - When the Selection Session of this Skate Boarding tournament is going on, nine skaters will take four jumps each. Their main object is to earn one of the three spots in the Finals where they will compete with the best three skaters of the previous year`s tournament. Each of the six skaters takes five jumps in the Finals. The skater who has got the highest score wins the tournament. This is not a timed competition and it is mainly judged based on the style, creativity and amplitude of the skaters.
2) Street Men`s - In the Selection Session for Street Men`s 19 skaters take part. Among them, only 9 skaters will be allowed to participate in the finals. The skater who got the first place from last year`s competition will automatically qualify for the finals and make the number of competitors count as 10. The Finals of this tournament normally divided into three fifteen-minute sessions. The judges will rank the riders from 1-10 at the end of each session and then assign each of the riders a score from 1-100. This assignment of the scores will be based on aggressive execution of maneuvers. The different parts of this execution are: content - the number, difficulty, originality and variety of tricks that the skater performs successfully; style - the fluid linking of individual skater`s tricks; and the use of the course and course obstacles such as ramps, boxes, handrails, etc. by the skaters. Each skater has the liberty to hit the feature as many times as he chooses within the allotted time. After that, the judges will again rank the riders from 1-10 and assign each rider a session score from 1-100. The total score of a rider from the three sessions are divided by three to give an overall score to each of the skaters. After all the calculations, the skaters are ranked as 1-10 on the Final`s leader board.
3) Street Women`s - The Street Women`s contest usually follows almost the same format and procedures as the men`s. However, there are some little changes in this tournament. They are: there is no selection session here, the number of competitors is eight and the duration of the three sessions decreased to only seven minutes.
4) Vert Men`s - Here, the total number of the competitors is 10. Each of them takes three different 45-second runs. The best score amongst the three will serve as the final score for the standings. The judges will judge the competitors based on their aggressive execution of maneuvers, degree of difficulty, variety, continuity of run, originality and style, amplitude, height of airs, length of grinds and use of the ramp.
5) Vert Women`s -In this type of competition, eight skaters take part in a 30-minute jam session and the judges normally judge them based on the originality, variety and difficulty of the maneuvers that they have performed. The judges rank them from1-8 at the end of the session.
Among the types of competitions that have been discussed above, the `Big Air` is the newest addition. This competition features the athletes skating down a 60-80 foot high roll-in. Here they choose to launch over a gap of 50 or 70 feet long and continue into a 27-foot quarter-pipe. The Skate Board legend Danny Way developed this discipline and it is showcased exclusively at the very famous X-Games. The Street competitions usually showcase the skaters performing tricks in an existing concrete plaza that is completed with stair sets, banks, manual pads and ledges. In the Vert competitions, the skaters usually compete on 120-foot wide ramp that is completed with 11-foot transitions and two feet of vert. In fact, Skate Boarding is a competition between two or more skaters.
History of Skate Boarding
There is a big question about the exact timing of the game`s invention. The main aspect of the game is the Skate Board. According to some people, this Skate Board was first invented as a kind of homemade scooter that was designed with roller-skate wheels. Initially, these wheels were attached with a milk crate that was standing vertically at the front and formed one type of handle.
Rules of Skate Boarding
The Skate Boarding is such a strange game that does not have that much rules and regulations like most of the other sports. The reason behind this is probably that it is a freestyle sport, mainly based upon the innovative performances of the skaters. However, this is not without any rules as well. There are some rules that govern the Skate Boarding.
Terms of Skate Boarding
There are quite a few terms and vocabularies in the game of Skate Boarding that include certain aspects of the game like the Skate Board, the skating tricks and also the obstacles. As the game is very simple and easy to play, the terms of the game are very limited.
