Snowboard History

It’s truly hard to pinpoint the first snowboard as people have experimented with the idea of sliding down a snow-covered hill sideways in the early 1900’s. The Snurfer is often credited with being the first snowboard to popularize snowboarding with the masses.

• M.J. "Jack" Burchett made a snowboard like sled in 1929, by tying horse reins to a piece of plywood.
• Vern Wicklund video was found showing him dressed very elegantly riding a snowboard-type sled sideways down a small hill in Chicago in 1939.
• Wicklund's family has uncovered patents for the board Vern Wicklund was riding.
• Sherman Poppen created the Snurfer in 1965 while watching his daughter stand on a sled going down a hill in Muskegon Michigan.
• Sherman put two skies together and tied a rope at the end to hold onto for control, his wife called the new toy a Snurfer by putting the words “snow” and “surf” together.
• The Snurfer became all the rage with his daughter’s friends. Poppen then licensed the manufacturing of the Snurfer and would sell over half a million in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

• In 1979 Pando Ski area in Grand Rapids Michigan held the “World Championships of Snurfing”.
• That year Jake Burton Carpenter competed on a new prototype with straps to hold your feet to the deck.
• Many of the Snurfer competitors protested the new board and the finally decided to make a separate division.
• Jake won that first ever competitive snowboard race, he was the only one entered.
• This led Jake to work harder creating better boards and go on to establish Burton Snowboards.
• Other pioneers of snowboarding like Dimitrije Milovich, Tom Sims, and Mike Olsen started to make snowboards with new designs and different production methods.
• Water ski bindings were being fitted to the new snowboards to help with control and fins on the bottom were used to stabilize the snowboards.

• Many resorts in the early 80’s would not allow snowboarding on its hills, citing that it was a danger to skiers.
• In 1985 only 7% of ski areas in the US allowed snowboarding, with Europe resorts very similar.
• Snowboarding continued to grow with better equipment that was easier to control.
• Now over 98% of resorts allow snowboarding, and many have designated freestyle areas called Terrain Parks.
• Snowboarding gained the highest recognition as a sport with an appearance in the Olympic games in 1998.
• In the 2002 Olympics in Park City, Utah, the U.S. men's snowboarding team swept the halfpipe event, being the first nations sweep in the Olympics sense 1956.

• 2010 Shaun White three peats Halfpipe Gold in Winter X Games

Snowboard history quick facts

• 1929 M.J. "Jack" Burchett made a snowboard like sled, by tying horse reins to a piece of plywood.
• 1939 Vern Wickland was videoed sliding sideways down a hill in Chicago on a snowboard-like sled.
• 1965 Snurfer is invented by Sherman Poppen in Muskegon Michigan.
• 1977 Tom Sims started making snowboards.
• 1977 Bob Webber made the famous Yellow Banana snowboard constructed of polyethylene.
• 1979 first World Championship of Snurfing at Pando ski area in Grand Rapids Michigan.
• 1979 first snowboard half pipe in Tahoe City.
• 1980 ski technology is used in snowboards with a P-Tex base.
• 1981first Snowboarding magazine called Absolutely Radical.
• 1982 first National Snowboard race held in Vermont at Suicide Six.
• 1983 first World Championship half pipe competition held at Soda Springs, California
• 1985 first World Cup held in Zürs, Austria.
• 1987 TransWorld Snowboarding Magazine launches onto news stands.
• 1994 ISA (International Snowboard Association) was founded to provide universal contest regulations.
• 1994 May 6th Ride Snowboards became the first snowboard specific company to go public and raised over $5.50 million in its first day on the market.
• 1998 snowboarding made it’s debut in the Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
• 2004 Romain De Marchi and Travis Rice became the first two snowboarders to conquer the infamous Chad’s Gap in Utah.
• 2005 Mads Jonsson soared 187 feet off one of the biggest kickers ever built landing him a place in the history books.
• 2007 Terje Haakonsen set the record for highest air on a quarterpipe boosting an astonishing 37-feet in the air at the Artic Challenge.