What was with all the snowboarding video games?

So what was with all the snowboarding video games franchises from the late 90 through to mid 2000. 

Off the top of my head there was:

1080 snowboarding

Snowboard kids

Cool Boarders

SSX (My personal favourite)

Shaun Palmer's pro snowboarder 

Amped

Dark Summit

and Shaun White's Snowboarding.

I know that at the time extreme sports where a big deal at the time but why did everyone seem to pick snowboarding as the extreme  sport to make a video game about? Was it easier to make? Anyone mid 2000s gaming experts know this? 

Also anyone else have a personal favourite snowboarding video game?