It is hard to say who
actually "invented" the first snowboard. People would have
always figured out how to slide down a hill on some sled,
thus it would be unfair to point out one specific person,
who came up with "the first" snowboard.
There were some people, though, who built snowboard like
sleds before. 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. Burchett came up with on of the first "snowboards".
Before the next step for the snowboard was taken, it had to
wait over 30 years until 1965. In this year
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 lincensed 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 took
part in those competitions and became really interested in
the snurfer. For him it was a cool thing to do, not having
the oppurtunity to go surfing (his parents would not buy him
a board). But Burton was really seriuos about skiing. After
breaking his collarbone in a car accident, he was not able
to take part in skiing competitoins anymore. While Burton
was into riding the Snurfer, Dimitrije Milovich
started making snowboards in 1969. After
sliding down some hills on a cafeteria plate in College, he
came up with the idea. His boards were based on surfboards
combined with the way skiis work. 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 now finished NYU,
moved to Londonderry, Vermont to make some money by building
different versions of the Snurfer, which he still
remembered. His first boards were made of laminated
hardwood. Burton shocked all the Snurfer riders by winning a
Snurfer competition with his own board, which had the first
binding. This first binding made a big difference fro
handling the board, and thus 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 snowboards in
1977. Beeing 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 aluminium
sheeting on the bottom. After he focussed on producing
skateboards in his garage, with the help of his friend and
employee Chuck Barfoot, he started making snowboards in
1977. Barfoot, who actaully made the snowboards, came up
with the "Flying Yellow Bannana". It was just a skateboard
deck on top of a plastic shell with skegs.Oficially 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 solving his financial problems.
Barfoot was left out, and 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 apeared mostly to be "survival", because
the race consists of a steep icy kamiaze downhill run,
called "The Face". In 1985 still only 39,
of the approximatly 600 ski areas allow snowboards. The same
year one of the first (there was another one in 1981, called
"Snowboarder") Snowboarding magazin came out. It's name was
"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.
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