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The American Midwest isn’t usually thought of as a hotbed of snowboarding or downhill skiing, but it has made its contributions to both, even at the highest levels.

When it comes to competition, skiers and riders have to leave the region, but their humble beginnings can take them to the top of the podium. For example, Lindsey Vonn, the reigning champion of downhill racing on the World Cup, started started skiing in Minnesota. Another Minnesota native, Steve Fischer, was for a while considered the top rival to Shaun White. Louie Vito, like Fischer, has been part of competitive snowboarding. He learned to ride outside Columbus, Ohio, before moving to Vermont to hone his snowboarding skills–and finish middle school.

Winter X games 12, which finishes today, features some of the world’s best athletes on the snow. It’s likely, given the history of Vonn, Fischer, and Vito, that some of the X games contenders who now claim Aspen, Breckenridge, Mammoth Lakes or Park City as their hometown learned how to ski or ride on a humble hill in the Midwest.

Two competitors in this year’s games still claim a hometown in the Midwest, and they’re both skiers, competing in slopestyle. Ashley Battersby, of Chicago, finished fifth in the women’s final. ESPN notes that she “got her start as an inline skater back in Chicago.” Nick Goeper, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, started skiing at Perfect North Slopes, which is about as far south as Cincinnati. He took silver in slopestyle.

Note that this list will not include any athletes who hail from the Midwest but who have moved out of region for training other other purposes.

Update: Looks like Vito is in the games after all!

If you’ve had the same kind of board for your snowboarding life, it may be time to buy a different board. If you’ve always had a flexible snowboard that’s easy to turn, buy a stiff one. If you’ve got a stiff board, buy a board with noodle-like properties. In either case, use your new board to explore different types of terrain.

At least that’s the conclusion I’m coming to after my second summer with a mountain bike, which is demonstrating the value of different rides for different types of terrain.

My 1985 Motobecane Super Mirage is an old-school road bike. It’s got 10 speeds, drop (curled) handlebars, shift-levers on the stem, two sets of brake handles (including “suicide levers”), and rim brakes. The tires, which should be inflated to 90-100 psi, are a mere 1.25 inches wide. Everything about the bike encourages the cyclist to ride in the classic hunched-over position.

Last year I purchased a mountain bike, a 2010 Gary Fisher Piranha. It’s got 27 speeds, flat handlebars, handle-bar mounted brake and gear levers, and hydraulic disk brakes. The tires, which should be inflated to 55-65 psi, are 2.25 inches wide. Everything about the bike encourages the cyclist to ride in a sitting-up position. The bike, by the way, also has a shock absorber in the front.

The differences between the two bikes represents more than the passage of time. They also reflect differences in design and intended use. While you can certainly ride the mountain bike on a paved road, its wide tires and lower psi will impede your progress. These two qualities, which provide stability on an off-road trail, also increase the rolling resistance. This means that on a paved road, you’ll have to work extra hard to get anywhere. (The same logic explains why your car gets lower gas mileage if the tires are under-inflated: the engine must do more work than it otherwise would.)

The road bike, which excels on the road, can indeed be taken to an off-road trail. Compared with the mountain bike on the same terrain, however, you’ll have a more uncomfortable ride (you’ll feel every bump). You will also have less control. Worse yet, the tree roots, rocks, logs, and drops on the off-road trail may damage the wheel or other components of the bike.

In other words, different terrain, different rides.

To a certain degree, the same logic holds for snowboards. A board that is extremely flexible may be good for hitting objects in a terrain park (jibbing), but it’s not so good for making large, sweeping turns at high speed down the mountain. A big-mountain board, meanwhile, will be so stiff that it will be hard to use in a terrain park.

Now, it’s important to not overlook the importance of learning good technique. But if you’re having trouble getting your board to do what you want, perhaps you’re using the wrong board. Extremely skilled riders can get away with a mismatch and still look good. Shaun White could outperform 99 percent of all snowboarders in the halfpipe, regardless of the kind of board he uses, while Jeremy Jones could scream down an Alaskan glacier while riding a park board. But I’m not White or Jones, and chances are, neither are you.

So before the season begins, consider the terrain you’re going to ride, and then ask whether it’s time to buy another board. Stiffness is just one quality that sets one board apart from another, so ask at your local shop.

Getting a second (or third) board will cost you some money. But it may be one of the best things that has happened to your snowboarding experience.

Start with a new snowboard. Add in bindings, boots, a helmet, goggles, and other supplies, and getting into snowboarding can easily require a commitment of $1,000–and that’s before lift tickets.

My summertime diversion of choice has been golfing, which, like lift-served snowboarding, requires laying out cash for access. I’ve been saving money this summer by leaving the clubs in the garage. That’s just as well, since my game has been stuck in the sub-basement ever since I started.

While some snowboarders enjoy a round of golf, many more, I suspect, take up road cycling or mountain biking. Riding a bike keeps your legs working, and can be a good aerobic activity. Both activities can also help you push yourself, as, for example, you navigate obstacles on a mountain bike trail or deal with a steep, winding descent on a road bike.

But is biking any cheaper than snowboarding or golfing? Not necessarily, at least in my experience. True, there is no fee for riding on the “open road,” beyond what you’ve paid in gas and other taxes, but you may need to pay a fee to park at a state park, or use a mountain-bike trail on private lands.

The biggest expense, though, is equipment. My wife received a bike-store gift card for $500 last year when we bought a new Subaru, and we used that money towards a new mountain bike for me. I could have bought a low-end mountain bike, but decided to upgrade to a Gary Fisher Pirana. Even the previous year’s model cost about $650, which meant that my new hobby cost me $150.

Many reviews of the bike panned the grips, so I bought a pair of riding gloves. Another $25. Still, $175 is about half the price of what I’d pay for a cheap set of golf clubs. Even so, I was going on the cheap by not buying bike shorts or biking shoes, and using a helmet that had been sitting around for a while.

This season brought more expenses. It started with getting a tune-up on a 25-year old road bike that I had left neglected for years. The shop recommended a new chain and a complete breakdown/reconstruction, so that was $300. A mishap with an old bike carrier resulted in a bent wheel, and another $50 for a new wheel. So that’s $350 on an old bike. (I should have thought to buy a new model. Oh well.) The incident with the bike carrier convinced me to buy a newer, sturdier model, the Saris Bones 3, for about $150. With the new carrier, I’ve been able to transport my road bike to a trail head that has led to some great urban rides.

This season, the trail I like to take my mountain bike on has gotten overgrown with brush, so I thought it was a good time to finally buy a hydration pack/back pack that would store water and some pruning shears. I opted for a more expensive model, the Camelback Mule, and at retail that came in at $90.

Subtotal so far: $765. And now I’m looking at $25 for another pair of gloves and maybe $75 for a new helmet, after I left both at a trail head the other day. (Truth be told, a 10-year old helmet should be replaced anyway.) So that’s $865. Add in some more money for a modest tune-up to my wife’s bicycle for those times we casually ride short distances from home, and the total is about $1,000–about the cost of getting geared-up for snowboarding.

The golf course I’ve given up, meanwhile, charges greens fees of $15 for a 9-hold round, which is my default outing. That means I could have spent the same amount for 66 rounds of golf–something that would take 4-5 years to do.

The moral of the story, which might be a case of “do as I say, not as I do,” might be this: Plan ahead, and go cheap if you can.

While you might find snowboarding sites in a few places yet, if you look hard, most of the country has firmly moved into summertime mode. That’s not necessarily a great thing, however. Here are some less-than-pleasant facts about summer:

1. Pollen and seasonal allergies infect sinuses and make life miserable
2. Oppressive humidity drains your energy
3. Lawns require mowing every week
4. Dandelions, crabgrass, and other weeds grow like, well, weeds
5. Going outside requires either donning greasy sunscreen or accepting a sunburn (pick one)
6. Hail, wind damage, and tornadoes threaten
7. Steering wheels and other parts of your car catch on fire
8. Birds start chirping outside your window … at 4am.

What else am I missing? There are a few nice things about summer–15 hours of daylight are better than 8–but it’s easy to overrate it.

Snowboarding depends business–to create products, to distribute products, and even to cultivate interest in the sport. TransWorld Business has a review of data on sales during the 2010-2011 season.

Here are a few highlights:

• Most sales occur at specialty shops.
• Sales slumped in the West and Midwest but grew in the South and Northeast. Perhaps this suggests a “stay close to home” reaction to the Great Recession?
• Among youth, skiing is picking up interest at the expense of snowboarding. Twin tips–an adaptation from snowboarding–is likely the reason.

Even so, says TW Business, margins are up.

The Wall Street Journal captures the dilemma that some adult snowboarders have: “if you want nonboring skis [or snowboards] it’s very easy to end up looking like a skate rat: Ridiculously loud graphics. Ironic slogans. Colors as bright as traffic cones.”

But what if your taste is somewhere between the ridiculous [including skulls and blood] and boring? What if you want something with a little design flair, but nothing outrageous? Your choices are limited.

The Journal mentions three snowboards that are both “elegantly nonconformist” and suffused with “impeccable taste.”

They are the Burton Method, the Jones Flagship, and the Yes Optimistic.

The Burton Method:

The Jones Flagship:

The Yes Optimistic:

On visual qualities alone, I’m not as enthusiastic about the Yes, but any of the three would work just fine.

For more on this topic, see the Grays on Trays discussion board as well as the Grays on Trays page on Facebook (scroll back on the wall to about this date.)

There are two things I always take with me when I go snowboarding. One is a helmet. The other is a pair of snowboarding gloves with wrist protectors built in. I realized the need for both during my second-ever lesson, when I crash-landed on my back and hands while descending the bunny hill. My head hit the ground, but I didn’t suffer a concussion. When I realized this, my first thought was, “Thank you, God.” My second was “It’s time to get a helmet.”

While my head was fine, my right wrist were not. I sprained it. The injury gave me some action-sports-hero cred with some young cousins, but it made it tough to type for a few weeks. Sometime later I found Flexmeter gloves with built-in wrist protectors, and I’ve worn them ever since. I think they’ve saved me a few times, especially when I tried to use an arm to control my board in the trees.

I lost my old pair of gloves recently, and asked my supplier if she had any in my size. She volunteered to send me a replacement pair free, in exchange for a small mention in my blog. I have long sang the praises of these gloves to anyone who will listen, either on my website or on the slopes. I think they’re that good. If I’ve convinced you of that fact, visit Flexmeter.com, where you can buy a pair.

Now, here’s Lauren to give you a few details about the Flexmeter gloves.

Hi, I’m Lauren a snowboarder journalist and importer and distributor of the Flexmeter Snowboard Glove and Wrist Guards that John has been wearing for years.

Did you know:

Wrist injuries ARE the most common injury in snowboarding.

Beginners have 4 times the chance of a wrist injury.

Flexmeter gloves and wrist guards were designed by a doctor and proven to reduce snowboard wrist injuries by 67 to 85%.

Flexmeters are specifically recommended on the number one snow sport safety website at http://ski-injury.com/prevention/wrist_guards.

Flexmeter Wrist Guards and Gloves, for snowboarding, skateboarding, ice skating, Trikke, mountain biking, and more.

Flexmeter Snowboard Wrist Guards and Gloves are available only at Flexmeters.com.

Don’t wait until AFTER an injury to get yourself the best wrist guards on the market.

p.s. Another name for fun people over 50 like YOU is Twifties! Sign up for the national Twifties Fun List and see entertaining videos of Twifties having fun at my site Twifties.TV. Also fun to watch is my other video channel, www.SnowboardSecrets.TV.

Remember, the best way to deal with an injury is to prevent it in the first place.

For some people, snowboarding is more than an enjoyable activity–it’s a way of life, a passion, or an addiction. So, for example, Midwesterners move from the flatlands to the Rockies. A friend of mine recently moved from Minnesota to Montana to pursue a long-time dream of living in the big mountains. Last I knew, he was living in a van and enjoying the life of a snowboard bum. On the other hand, my plans have never gotten beyond the “wouldn’t it be nice stage” and thinking, “I wish we had that kind of terrain around here.” Last time I mentioned that in an online forum, someone who lives in Colorado told me, “Hey, you can always move here.”

That’s true. I could move. But I haven’t. Why not? Because as much as I like snowboarding, I value other things more. Snowboarding, in short, is an important part of my life but it doesn’t define it.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy snowboarding in many different ways. There’s a quiet joy of cruising down an easy slope. The exhilaration of looking back up a difficult slope and saying, “I skied THAT! Woot!” The drop-my-jaw beauty of the mountains on a bluebird day. The God-it’s-so-good-to-be-alive feeling that comes when everything comes together on the slopes. From meditative contemplation to adrenaline rush to sense of accomplishment, I get it.

But I’m still in the flatlands.

There are some people who say, “My daddy lived and died here, his daddy lived and died here, I’m going to live and die here.” They have a strong anchor to a particular region that is part of the family heritage. I’m not like that. I’ve made three major moves in my life, and now I’m living in my fourth state, so I don’t have that degree of connection to where I am now. But while I don’t necessarily have deep roots, I do have things that keep me here, at least for the foreseeable future.

The first is family. My octogenarian in-laws moved here 7 years ago, largely to have two of their children near them should the need for help arise. (And they do receive such help from time to time.) My sister-in-law is here, too, and she has a boy who is in elementary school. Over time, I have helped her, and she has helped me. I’d like to see her boy graduate from high school. Getting even closer to home, my wife enjoys being around her parents and sister, and that’s no small consideration for me. Finally and most recently, I have a young child who enjoys seeing at least one set of grandparents on a regular basis, as well as an aunt and a cousin. All of these factors ground me here.

A second reason for not moving west in pursuit of snowy mountains is that it’s hard to move, period. It’s hard in many ways. There are emotional, financial, and physical costs, to say nothing of the question of “What are you going to do for a living?” The fact that it’s hard to move doesn’t mean I can’t. But it’s a factor.

A third reason is that snowboarding is an interest, but not a core part of who I am. Instead, my primary identity is in God. and what I have to do with him. Do I mean to say, “God told me not to move?” No, nothing like that. But snowboarding is far down the list of items that define me. The scriptures say “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). In other words, a relationship with God is the most important thing in life, and other things pale in comparison. This isn’t to say that I cannot meet God through snowboarding (I do), or that I can never strive to change anything about my life–get a new job, a new house, undertake a new challenge, or so forth. But I’m not as driven to move for the sake of snowboarding as I might otherwise be.

I don’t condemn anyone for moving to the mountains to spend more time snowboarding. We all have different situations and factors to consider. But for me, for now, my times in epic snow and terrain are limited to a few days a year rather than an entire season. I can live with that.

How popular are the X Games, which give a prominent place to freestyle snowboarding? Not as popular as you might think. Numbers from this year’s event isn’t yet available, but last year the games averaged 1.6 million viewers per night.

Yesterday, the closing night of the games featured the men’s superpipe competition. Shaun White won (for a record fourth consecutive year) but in terms of viewers, the winner, far and away, was the NFL’s all-star game, which had some 13.4 million viewers. Note that many observers believe that the game was a dud.

Snowboarding or skiing is a mixture of the natural and the man-made. Both rely on gravity and snow, of course, but technology is used all over the mountain, including in making and shaping snow.

Resorts across the country rely on snowmaking systems to supplement natural snowfall, or in some cases, to even stay in business. Snowmaking is an expensive process, with (for example) some portable snowmaking guns costing $22,000 a piece. Add in the costs of pumping water to the guns and the electricity to run them. Mix in grooming equipment ($100,000 new) necessary to keep the slopes from being littered with chunks of ice (“death cookies”), and you begin to understand why a lift ticket costs as much as it does.

Freestyle events–riding on rails and jumps and in halfpipes–require both equipment that is left in the ground (rails, fun boxes, etc.), and machinery for shaping the snow. Groomers, again, come to the rescue, especially those that are specifically designed to properly shape jumps.

Another piece of equipment (known as a “Pipe Dragon” or “Pipe Monster”) shapes and maintains halfpipes, which for many people is the face of snowboarding. Making and maintaining a halfpipe is more science than art, a topic I will discuss at a later point. But for now, take a look at two companies who make a business of making the leading halfpipes and terrain parks in North America.

Snowpark Technologies created the pipe for the recently completed X Games.

Planet Snow Design (warning: you might want to turn off your speakers if you’re in an office) created the features for the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City) and continues to provide freestyle professionals and amateurs with designs at the US Open, the USSA Grand Prix, and other events.

Even if you prefer to stay on the ground when you’re snowboarding or skiing, freestyle events are a big part of the mountain scene. Resort managers often believe they need to have freestyle terrain to attract and retain teenagers–the next generation of their customers. Depending on where you go, you’ll have to ride past them to get to the slopes you prefer anyway. So check out these two companies (I’ll add more as I find them) to learn more about how natural forces and engineering work together to bring about freestyle terrain.