The History of Snowboarding... in a nutshell

The History of Snowboarding... in a nutshell

It is hard to say who actually "invented" the first snowboard. There are websites, magazine articles, extreme sports blogs dedicated to this subject but I think we should start the exploration of this topic with this observation; People have always figured out how to slide down a hill on some sort of sled, so perhaps it's impossible to state who the 'inventor' of the snowboard was. However there are some big players who have certainly helped towards the growth of snowboarding, the sport and snowboarding, the industry.

There have been some adventurous folk however who have been documented as strapping a makeshift board to their feet and pointing it downhill in the snow. One of them was M.J. "Jack" Burchett. He cut out a plank of plywood in 1929 and tried to secure his feet with some clothesline and horse reins. Before the next step for the snowboard was taken, it had to wait over 30 years until 1963 when an American kid named Tom Sims, a student in eighth grade, constructed what he called a "Ski Board" for a class project.

In 1965 Sherman Poppen, a chemical gases engineer in Muskegon, invented "The Snurfer" (his wife came up with the name) as a toy for his daughter. He made the Snurfer by bounding two skis together and putting a rope at the nose, so the rider could hold it and keep it more stable. Many of his daughters friends wanted one of those new Snurfers, and soon Poppen licensed his new idea to a manufacturer. The Snurfer was sold over half a million times in 1966, but was only seen as a toy for kids, even though Poppen organized competitions with this new board.

Jake Burton (founder of Burton Snowboards) took part in those competitions and became really interested in the snurfer. For him it was a cool thing to do, not having the opportunity to go surfing (his parents would not buy him a board).

But Burton was really serious about skiing. After breaking his collarbone in a car accident, he was not able to take part in skiing competitions anymore. While Burton was into riding the Snurfer, Dimitrije Milovich spent some time sliding down some hills on a cafeteria plate in College, he comes up with the idea of an invention based on surfboards but combined with the way skis work. He started designing and making snowboards in 1969.

In 1972 Milovich started a new company called "Winterstick". He produced several boards, and even got articles in the "Newsweek", "Playboy" and "Powder" which helped to make snowboarding better known. Even though Milovich left the snowboarding business in 1980, he is still recognized as a very important pioneer of the sport.

In 1977 Jake Burton, who by now had finished NYU, moved to Londonderry, Vermont to make some money by building different versions of the Snurfer. His first boards were made of laminated hardwood. Burton shocked the Snurfer community by winning a Snurfer competition with his board prototype which had strange 'bindings' attached. This first binding made a big difference in handling the board and made it easier for him to beat the other riders.

After that, in 1979, Poppen stopped producing the Snurfer and went back to his old profession. He was out of the business, and never came back.

Parallel to Burton, Tom Sims produced his first set of snowboards in 1977. Being obsessed with skateboarding, Sims tried to go out in the snow and slide down the hill with a "snowboard" he built in a junior high shop-class. He just glued some carpet to the top of a piece of wood, and put an aluminum sheeting on the bottom. Prior to this he had been focussing on producing skateboards in his garage but with the help of his friend and employee Chuck Barfoot, snowboards became his main focus.

Barfoot, who actually made the snowboards, came up with the "Flying Yellow Banana". It was just a skateboard deck on top of a plastic shell with skegs. Officially the first real ski technology for snowboards was introduced by Burton 1980 (it is said Winterstick already used a P-Tex base in 1974).

The new prototype had a P-tex base and combined more of the ski technology into snowboards with that. In the same year Sims signed a skate- and snowboarding deal with a big mainstream company (Vision Sports), which helped him financially and allowed the design of snowboards to move forward.

But Sims' pal Barfoot was left out, and he tried to built his own firm. He did not succeed against the big competitors Sims and Burton. In 1982 the first National Snowboard race was held in Suicide Six, outside Woodstock, Vermont. The goal of the race appeared mostly to be "survival" as the race consisted of a steep icy kamikaze downhill run, called "The Face". In 1985 still only 39, of the approximately 600 current snowboard trails in the area allow snowboards.

The same year one of the first (there was another one in 1981, called "Snowboarder") Snowboarding magazines comes out. It's name is "Absolutely Radical". Later on the name is changed into "International Snowboarding Magazine". In 1986 Regis Rolland, a French snowboarder, stars in "Apocalypse Snow". His staring launches a new European Snowboarding generation of fans who organize their own regional events, such as the Swiss championship in St. Moritz. Snowboarding is becoming a more and more popular sport.

In 1994 Snowboarding was declared as an Olympic Sport. Now it finally became accepted as a real competitive sport, not only a new trend which would disappear again. Snowboarding debuted in the 1998 Olympics.

Image 1. Image courtesy of MySpace
Image 2. 'Suicide Six' snow trail in Vermont, USA. Image courtesy of suicide6.com
Image 3. Image courtesy of Snowboarder Magazine

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/extreme-sports-articles/the-history-of-snowboarding-in-a-nutshell-4154648.html

Liv Williams is a 28 year old extreme sports fanatic, who enjoys researching urban sports and dangerous activities for her extreme sports blog which she writes with wit and an easy reading style. She won the Junior Welsh Triathlon Championships in 2000 and 2001, surfs, snowboards, is learning to fly a helicopter and makes her own extreme sports films. She has lived in New Zealand where she surfed everyday and now resides in Cornwall. She worked for the BBC in London for 3 years making programmes for BBC2 and BBC3. She supports organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage and presents extreme sports programmes for the web as well as writing treatments for TV.