From Hidden Valley to Colorado and all the way to Bulgaria, students speed down the slopes on snowboards.

Nia Ovcharova, senior, has shredded the slopes in Bulgaria since she was a young kid growing up there. Starting by going to the resorts, her parents would ski, and she would snowboard down the mountains.

“It’s a really fun activity to share with a parent,” Ovcharova said, “Especially whenever you can experiment and try what you want.”

Ovcharova said snowboarding is something fun to do rather than just sit around, but there are challenges with snowboarding besides the cold frigid temperatures.

“One of the biggest challenges, in my opinion, is finding the right equipment because it took me a while to find the right size board and the right pants,” Ovcharova said. “You also grow out of them, and that gets annoying.”

Jordan Stinehagen, senior, started snowboarding this year and said it’s quite similar to wakeboarding. But Stinehagen said that snowboarding and skiing is not similar at all.

They are very different because in skiing you’re facing forward down the mountain, but in snowboarding you’re facing to the side. Its also quiet different because in skiing your feet are on two separate skis but in snowboarding its on one long board.

“Skiing didn’t help me transition into snowboarding, but the best thing that did was wakeboarding,” Stinehagen said. “In both you have to keep the edges of the board down because you need that back and front edge to be down. This is to make sure you don’t fall, and it’s the same in both sports.”

Newport Brandt, sophomore, has been snowboarding since he was a kid at his family’s house in Colorado. Brandt said the biggest challenges for snowboarding is that it’s expensive and that there aren’t many places near here that fit the conditions. It roughly costs around $1000 for the equipment alone and he goes when ever he can.

“I like when it’s sunny out after it snows because when it’s snowing it’s pretty cold,” Brandt said.

Brandt said these conditions make it most enjoyable to him.

“Everyone should try it. It’s a fun hobby,” Brandt said.