The 14th annual Superstudy of Sports Participation, conducted in January, 2001 by American Sports Data, Inc. of 14,772 Americans nationwide found that during the year 2000, Snowboarding skyrocketed by 51% to 7.2 million participants. The kindred activities of Skateboarding and Wakeboarding surged by 49% and 32% respectively, giving this sub-genre of "board" sports a clean sweep of the top three growth positions.
The report also said

Traditional team sports such as Baseball, Basketball and Football reflected traditional values: cooperation, teamwork, character-building and group competition. The new Extreme sports are rooted in a diametrically opposite set of values which include fierce individualism, alienation, defiance and some degree of inwardly-focused aggression. Unlike the Scooter craze, which has nothing to do with the changing social fabric, these new sports are an authentic slice of the wider youth culture, and not just a fad.

But skiers shouldn't be disheartened by the report as cross-country skiing and downhill skiing came in at 11th and 20th respectively.

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