Shovel Racing: The Unique Sport That Started in New Mexico

When you think of sports, you probably think of football, baseball, basketball...how about shovel racing? Well if you live or have visited one snow cabin in New Mexico, you know that's indeed a sport. It even had national tv attention at some point.

Where & how did New Mexico invent shovel racing?

In the small village known as Angel Fire, New Mexico (near the Rocky Mountains), is where you'll find the Angel Fire Resort, a tiny ski resort that has been around since 1966. However the natives would call this the home of shovel racing & the home to the shovel racing world championships.

Invented in the 1970s, the Angel Fire Resort said on their website that the sport was started by their lift operators riding down the mountain on their shovels when they would finish their shifts. From that point, it became a yearly tradition.

So how DO you race on a shovel? Well it's pretty simple...you just sit on your shovel facing the handle and lean back with your feet pointed forwards. For extra speed, just wax the bottom of the shovel. Some racers have topped speeds as high as 75 mph!

In fact, shovel racing got SO POPULAR, it was once an official sport of the X Games in 1997. It was the only year that shovel racing was part OF the X Games (it was removed for being too dangerous), but it's part of X Games history now! There's even an entire series dedicated to the history of shovel racing from back in the 90s on YouTube.

Shovel racing was even banned at one point in 2005 but would return in 2010 to the Angel Fire Resort, where it was remained there ever since. The Shovel Racing World Championships was even held earlier this year back in February, so it's still very popular to this day.

I think I'd be too nervous to try this sport out, but if you happen to visit Northern New Mexico in the future and you wish to try it out, now you can.