going down the mountain. Since the board is attached to the feet with bindings, it will not go anywhere. Even if the bindings do come undone for some odd reason, there is always the leash that is snapped to the snowboarder's ankle. The only objects a snowboarder might loose when they fall are their sunglasses, and possibly a beanie. On the other hand, when a skier falls, it can be a complete mess. Skis are basically designed to come unattached from the boots if they get caught in the snow. When a skier hits the snow after a hard fall, they can lose both of their skis and poles, as well as their hats and glasses. Then the skier has to either climb a ways up the mountain to get a pole, or wait for a kind soul to come by and pick it up for them. This process of falling can be completely embarrassing if it's next to a ski lift because there will be those snowboarders yelling comments such as yard sale! from the lift. Snowboarding has rapidly grown to a full medal Olympic sport (Prosl) within the last decade. Tom Sims believes snowboarding is inherently more fun It's hard to explain, but when you do a snowboard turn and can drag your hand in the snow and pretend you're on a 20-foot wave, it just seems more fun than planting a ski pole and making a turn." (Atkin) Snowboarding has a lower cost for the equipment that is necessary. When a person skis, they have to buy the skis, poles, boots, and whatever type of special clothing they decide to use. Some of the skiers go on to buy helmets to ski in. Snowboards are a bit more basic. It requires a person to purchase the board, bindings, and boots. Some snowboarders will ride the slopes in a plain pair of pants, and a sweatshirt. Most of the newer snowboarders are of course young people, fearless people, people with 100 percent synthetic bodies who can hurtle down a mountainside at 50 mph and knock down mature trees with their faces and then spring to their feet and go, "Cool." (Barry) The lower co...
