The trends of resort terrain parks are ever-changing. The types of jibs, highlighted features, favorite set-ups of the season, the go-to tricks each year that we all know exist - it's never predictable.

Cue the new winter season that has quickly dawned upon us and the declaration of multiple resorts to re-create popular local urban street spots. We can all understand the angle of this genius idea, can't we? The urban jibbing that a lot of riders dedicate themselves to minus an important hindering factor. No one yelling at you to pack up and leave and/or threatening to arrest you.

Forum Snowboards and Seven Springs have announced their partnership to create "The Streets", an urban park replica at the Pennsylvania resort.

This urban playground is the love child from Forum, their team riders Pat Moore and Nic Sauve, along with the park masters and builders of Seven Springs, saying they "pulled their inspiration from the surrounding area of Pittsburgh". The local riders of PA have got to be throwing a rager right now celebrating this addition to the terrain park. The Grand Opening of "The Streets" at Seven Springs is January 19, 2012. Think you can wait that long?

This latest announcement isn't quite surprising. Although awesome and exciting, it's playing along with the urban trend that is dawning upon multiple resorts' parks. Urban jibbing is a major part of snowboarding, especially on the east coast. Many riders have a special place in their heart for riding the streets due to a wide variety of reasons. It could be all they know. Or maybe riding street rails is how they first began snowboarding. Or it's simply what they prefer. Whatever it may be - park staff, companies, and riders are in on this factoid and have taken action. They've begun to answer the prayers of street shredders and make their favorite spots more accessible to session for hours upon hours with no interruptions.

In addition to Seven Springs' "The Streets" set up, Mountain High and Bear Mountain have joined the force of urban replication; Big Bear with their new "Red Bull Plaza" and Mt. High with the "Los Angeles Features". Bear's plan was to create a street set-up where people can just chill out while hitting progressive street features without a crowd or liftlines. Mountain High wanted to bring the City of Angels, that is their backyard, to the mountains. The first iconic street rail that was unveiled was the "Concert Hall Handrail" - an exact replica of the down-flat-down staircase in downtown Los Angeles. Throughout the season they will continue to release these real-life features originating from LA.

Impressive? Yes. Burly? Duh. Progressive? No doubt. The question is, does it get the job done? Will riders that will always prefer sessioning a street spot for hours upon end find the same kind of pleasure from similar features at a resort? At the end of the day, these snowboarders might just get some kind of thrill from discovering a new rail, staying up all night filming, with the possibility of getting chased down by the cops. And that's fine.

It's admirable and inspiring that resorts these days can even step back and appreciate the urban scene and it's following. This is one more aspect of snowboarding in present day that demonstrates how progressive and forward-thinking the sport and industry surrounding it actually is.

Being part powder junkie and part park rat myself -- I think this new movement is a great step in a new direction. If only because it is an example that embraces all parts of snowboarding because as we all know, there are many parts. So here it is, the new era of urban. Ready and accessible at your local resort. Are you ready for it?

Top photo courtesy of Forum, middle photo courtesy of Snowboarder Magazine - Mike Yoshida, bottom photo courtesy of Mountain High