The sad reality is that interest in global sports contests appears to be waning. Look at Seoul, battling to sell tickets at present. I for one, gave up on the Tour de France at least two years ago. I did not watch the Rio Games, I am uninterested in the Winter Games. I no longer follow the so-called 'X' games, winter or summer, no matter the variety of circus displays on show. Who cares; these are mostly so self-focused that they are of little interest other than to small bands of narcissistic insiders, or cabals of over-doped podium wannabees. Call me a cynic, but I will bet that I am not the only person who feels this way.

Did this writer do any research for this article? Did he talk with any ski and snowboard coaches (even at a local mountain) to find out the preparation to attempt "Big Air"? Typically, hundreds of jumps into air bags or bubble pools (e.g. camps at Lake Placid, Utah Olympic Park and other mountains) precede "Big Air" attempts. Did the writer inquire with USSA or any organizations hosting events on injury rates? The New York Times should review its publishing standards covering writers and editors before placing opinionated and uninformed articles such as this on its website.

What do tree wells or avalanches have to do with big air snowboarding? This is like writing an article about Olympic swimming and talking about shark attacks. This article involves about the same amount of thought. It portrays snowboarders as a bunch misguided morons who might as well play in traffic, or play Russian roulette, because we are all going to die.

Why no video of the amazing things these people do? I want no part of it but to each his own. I was recently in North Conway, New Hampshire, and stopped into a snowboard shop there - Border Patrol. The owner, Ted, was a super friendly, enthusiastic guy, who gave me a tour of his shop. He pointed out these fancy hardwood boards as his most expensive. I was curious where they were made and his answer shocked me - Dubai. Sure enough, a month or so later I looked into it and found some videos on YouTube. They have this huge indoor snowboard park in Dubai that the enthusiasts love. The manufacturing company bases its operations there. The snowboard scene is a whole different world in a lot of ways.

This piece is pretty lame. Snurfers had ropes. Who knows maybe some Laplanders may have boarded centuries before when they stepped on a frozen animal pelt while hiking. Modern snowboarding was hatched in the 70's at a little place called Snow Valley in West Dover Vermont that closed around 1983. Jake Burton was working at Stratton and maybe he tried them out there at night or something but Stratton didn't allow boarding to the public. In between Manchester and Stratton was Snow Valley, a sleepy little place that was run by one guy basically, Bart Tuttle. Bart allowed the local kids free reign to test and help improve Burton's boards. They road through trees and slid over rocks. They jumped. That was the beginning of modern boarding.

This piece tells us absolutely nothing about snowboarding or the Olympics, it misrepresents alpine sports in general, and it is insensitive to those who lost their lives doing what they loved. But c'mon, it is pretty funny.

Best way to make this sort of flair competition fair, is a complete standardization of form for each move, and then let computers analyze the form of fhe athletes to the standardized one. The human judges are flawed, they contnually make mistakes. An arm too loose,legs not bent, or too bent, etc... Flair comperitions are notoriously unfair when the better, elite athletes take the course, ice, etc. Newbies can perform as equally well, but the built in bias of fhe veey commercilized industry rules the day.

I am shocked that such an article as this would be published in the NYTimes. This type of writing and reporting is tabloid at best and undercuts an entire subculture on the basis of bias and clear intent to slight. Let's be clear, the origin of almost all sports types is complex and with a mixed history of characters and influencers and beginnings. And, the vast majority of sports are dangerous and result in injuries and yes sometimes deaths. To cast down a single sport based on these attributes is akin to the so-called "fake news" of our time. This author could have shed light on the supremely diverse and nuanced art of snowboarding. Like its snow partner, skiing, snowboarding has many advocates in the movement to protect our globe from ecological harm and global warming, Jeremy Jones is but one name that comes to mind. Snowboarding is not just about tricks and stunts but also about grace and harmony between one's mind and body. Snowboarding also brings many races of people together over a shared love of the outdoors and mother nature. I'm thinking of the snowboarders in Japan, Russia, in South America, Alaska, Switzerland... I strongly urge the NYTimes to remove this slanderous article because it does significant harm to the image of a sport that is loved and shared by many and one that has much to offer the world.

Judged sports reward everything from reputation to likeability to connections to passivity in the presence of a sexual predator. They should be ended. Big Air, Gymnastics, Figure Skating. They can all be entertaining and beautiful. But they should not be competitive.

Another example of why my interest in the Olympics has waned to nil. They keep making up 'sports' that make no sense -- Half-pipe, short track , moguls, etc, etc. Put this nonsense together with the politics (small 'p') of figure skating where the most favored skaters are pre-ordained and the judges' scores are reflective of that, and you get an attraction which has become progressively less interesting. The Olympic movement has simply become a big group of officials who just are in it for the perks. Consider the contingents in the 'Parade of Nations' at opening ceremonies in both winter and summer games. Many have only one or two athletes , but, they still have a half-dozen officials. The country committees and the parent organization pay all expenses for these 'officials' to attend meetings, the games, and PARTY. What a scam. There are still some actual competition events such as downhill skiing and track & field. But, the TV coverage shows less of those and more of things like 'rhythmic gymnastics' where scantily clad girls run around waving crepe paper streamers for judges to pick a winner (how do they judge, anyhow?). Who pays the expenses of the judges? The Olympic organizations? Most likely. So, the organizations become even more corrupt with income from donations and selling broadcast rights. Then they concoct more 'sports' in their search for more income. Enjoy it Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. Public. You're paying for it in more ways than one.

This article is unbelievably flip and snotty. The headline and first few sentences promised an introduction and explanation of a new olympic sport but it quickly devolved into a sicken, almost gleeful recitation of random snowboarding tragedies. None of them seemed to be related to the new olympic sport. It's weird. Like promising to explain the new Formula-E car racing but instead just describing some random security cam footage found on YouTube of drunk drivers getting themselves killed! I expect this sort of tripe from the free click-bait "media" not a respected subscription news service like the times. Of the basic who, what, when , where and why, the author managed to bat a perfect zero, while leaving me with the odd feeling that (despite my university degree and numerous patents) he thinks my life isn't worth very much because I snowboard. Talk about an epic wipeout!

This is a really dumb article. It's one of those 1990s-style "ooh, look at the natives who do extreme sports; I'm so naive" stories, like a faux anthropology exercise where the writer deliberately gets the name of the sport wrong (snurfing?), and the joke is that he's just discovered that it exists. There wasn't a single knowledgeable editor who could have worked on this piece? And, just as a point of fact, big air snowboarders are the same height off the ground as aerial skiers, who have been in the Olympics for decades.

For a different perspective on falling face-first while training on a halfpipe, see "The Crash Reel", the story of Kevin Pearce (once a rival of White's) and his struggle to recover from a near-fatal head injury. It's a very moving film that highlights the dangers of competitive snowboarding.

The author clearly has not spent much time shredding pow pow. These guys are professionals. Of course there is risk involved as there is in many of these events. Skeleton anyone? Thats fine though, don't hit the mountains because there may be a tree well somewhere off trail. More for the rest of us.

Snowboarding is a great sport but still in its relative infancy. I'm a life long alpine skier, mountaineer, rock climber, and fly fisherman. I was raised in the Rockies. I've climbed all over North America. I've skied all over north America. I own a home at a ski resort in CO. In all my years skiing, climbing and fishing I have never once seen a hand rail in the middle of a mountain. I have seen a half pipe magically appear in nature either. Unlike other natural structures that allow skiers and boarders to race, jump and do tricks, these man made structures don't exist. Snowboarding, as it exists now, simply mimics skateboarding. Why is it again they have to grab the board every time they jump? The board is attached to their feet with bindings... it's not going anywhere. A skateboard will. Not a snowboard. Hopefully the sport will distance itself from skateboarding and embrace the natural surroundings that make the sport possible. Big air is a great start. At least it's possible in a natural environment. Similarly, why isn't skateboarding an Olympic sport?

This joins synchronized swimming, biathlon, and curling as the most ridiculous Olympic sports.

Wow - I'll join the crowd of commenters. This article was never intended to teach us about big air snowboarding. It's only hear to illustrate the things we don't know and for the author to tell us (in very radical language, brah) how much he knows. Oh, and snowboarding's hella dangerous. Thanks.

No photos? That might be the craziest thing about this.

Many years ago I started heli skiing in British Columbia with Hans Gmoser. I was one of the younger/stronger heli skiiers and one year some guys from CA and HA showed up with surfboards and rode those. The speed they had was amazing and controlling those things was next to impossible. These guys designed custom single boards in Salt Lake City a guy who has my same last name. We used to say Heli skiing was the most fun U could have with some clothes on - mono skiing really raised the sport to another level. A few of us figured out how to ride the back of our ski's and really increased the speed to what the mono ski guys were doing. But U had to be careful because there were colours over 50 feet deep and pulling someone out of a tree well was a task I always got to do because we always wanted to keep our group Guiodo fresh for a real rescue. Canada has less restrictive laws and lots more could be done - too many lawyers down here. Butch

This about TV ratings and money. Oh, and also about ruined spinal cords.

Worth noting here that while snowboarding is indeed dangerous to the uninitiated, so is snowmobiling. That's what McMorris was doing when he injured himself in B.C.

Life-threatening potential should not be a concern of this or any 'sport.' The planet is increasingly overcrowded with humans, whose activities are the sole cause of the rapid environmental degradation that threatens all life on the globe. Any activity (skydiving, BASE-jumping, riding motorcycles, etc) that offers humans the potential to voluntarily eliminate themselves from the environment while having the time of their lives is not to be discouraged. To the extent that the death-potential of snowboarding draws participants and fans alike, it holds great environmental promise. ;-)

A 22 foot faceplate offend results in a debilitating spinal cord injury. Who pays for the expensive, lifelong treatments for spinal cord injuries because some adrenaline junkie wants to show off? We all do. This is reckless behavior should never be encouraged on an Olympic level.

Definitely goes with the "Citius, Altius, Fortius" motto of the Olympics. Especially the altius part!

This is literally the dumbest thing I have ever read in this paper. I'm pretty sure the author has never even seen, let alone stepped foot on, a mountain. Big air snowboarding has nothing to do with the many ways snowboarders (and skiers) can hurt themselves in on the resort or in the backcountry. Flying 65 feet in the air "like a flaming squirrel" into a tree well? This almost too stupid to comment on, but I feel the need to say something.

Any history of snowboarding before the 1970s would be simply contrived; like saying baseball history goes back to the first caveman who swung a stick at a rock. Snowboarding really started with Jake Burton who did several years of experimenting with materials and board shape to create a viable sport. These advancements were eagerly followed by many skateboarders at the time but frowned on by skiers, and ignored by surfers who preferred warm weather sports. I'm not sure why the article implies that Hawaii got snubbed.

Guess I see the latest way my grandson is going to want to try and kill himself doing. Thanks IOOC.

All right John, what is the purpose of your article here ? You can not claim that Hawaii is the home to snowboarding without showing us your proof - Even if your story is true, it happened in California and was a one time thing. The idea was not followed thru by this person, and it is extremely unlikely that the people who truly invented the sport knew of this incident, even if it did happen.

This article is all over the place, conflating the dangers of hitting trees, falling into tree wells, getting buried by avalanches, and falling off a cliff with Olympic big-air snowboarding. I think these athletes would say they are in nearly complete control when they hit these monstrous jumps, which are designed with perfect pitch, transitions, and landing areas. Is there danger involved? Sure, but i'd argue that it's no more dangerous than some of the more traditional Olympic events like cycling, equestrian, pole-vault, or even ski jumping.

Wow, so snowboarding is basically a death wish for everyone participating?? Snowboarding (and skiing) are generally safe outdoor winter sports. While hazards exist, basic precautions such as a helmets and riding terrain within your ability dramatically minimize any risk. Shame on the writer for solely focusing on such a small and tragic number of snowboarding deaths each year. I wish this article addressed or explained snowboarding big air, which will be one of the Olympic's main events this year!

Something you never to warn your son about that you never want to catch him doing or else!