The snowboard halfpipe will take place at the Kanbayashi Snowboard Park in Yamanouchi Town , which, after it was built in 1995, became one of the few slopes in Nagano made exclusively for snowboarding. The giant slalom events will be held at Mount Yakebitai, just north of Mount Higashidate. Good powder, varied terrain and steep slopes make the location ideal for the event. Snowboarding, which resembles skiing but looks more like surfing or skateboading, will make its Winter Olympic debut in the Nagano Games. It consists of two events.
Competitors ride with both feet on a single wide board that is specialized for each event.
Boarders are judged on speed and technique. The halfpipe event takes place on a U-shaped course, where competitors ride back and forth up to the edge of the pipe while performing aerial tricks and jumps. There will be men's and women's events for both giant slalom and halfpipe. The halfpipe is performed on a course shaped like a cylinder cut lengthwise, about 390 feet long with an 18-degree slope. Using speed gained on the slope, snowboarders come up over the rim of the course to perform jumps, rotations and other midair maneuvers.