First developed in the 1960s in the USA, snowboarding was introduced in to the Olympic programme at the 1998 Nagano Olympic Games. This relatively young sport has both racing and freestyle disciplines.
Halfpipe
Riders use gravity and their own bodies to generate speed and power to zig zag down the halfpipe. That momentum that launches them up the vertical walls of the 22ft tall ‘pipe’ and out of the top of it performing acrobatics in the air before landing back in the pipe and repeating on alternating walls to the bottom. Just like figures skating and other creative sports there are 6 judges, each of whom award points to the riders for style, amplitude and technical difficulty.
The maximum amount of points available per run is 100. Riders complete two runs with the highest scoring of their two runs counting.