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Marmi gets a fright. Is it a bird? Someone with a board on his feet jumps over his head. It’s a snowboard! The cool sport of the 1990s and 2000s is experiencing a mini revival.

Gian Simmen. Iouri Podladtchikov. Two big names from the first big snowboard wave of the 2000s. Back then, the sport was seen as cool and rebellious. And now here comes Marmi. He read in the paper that more and more young people are now going back to the boards, which allow you to surf down the slopes sideways to the direction of travel.

This relatively young sport has its roots in the 1900s, but it wasn’t until 1970 that its popularity started to grow. The first snowboard world championships in Europe took place in 1987. The safety of the material has been continuously improved since then.

In the sport’s heyday, more than 110,000 boards a year were sold in Switzerland. Today, that figure is well below 20,000. According to a study by the Federal Office of Sport, a mere 4 percent of the Swiss population regularly go boarding – most of them women. However, the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper recently noted a revival. In the United States, around a third of winter sports enthusiasts would go snowboarding. And in Switzerland, snowboarding schools are also seeing growing numbers of admissions of young people.

Marmi climbs onto his board. It’s quite short, custom-made for him because the length is determined by body height. The board should reach up to the chin. Numerous board variants are available, depending on your style. And if you need one board for everything, all-mountain boards are a versatile solution. Freeride and freestyle boards are more for people who want to go off-piste, or to do their stunts in snow parks or half-pipes. If you don’t want to risk a bad buy, you can borrow a test board. Whatever the case, advice is key to learning the movements you can do with the right board.

Marmi now hits the snow, the powder starts flying and he feels freer than ever before.