https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=UtZofZjccBs
Modern snowboarding began in 1965 when Sherman Poppen, an engineer in Muskegon,
Michigan, invented a toy for his daughters by fastening two skis together and attaching a rope to
one end so he would have some control as they stood on the board and glided downhill. Dubbed
the "snurfer" (combining snow and surfer) by his wife Nancy, the toy proved so popular among his
daughters' friends that Poppen licensed the idea to a manufacturer, Brunswick Corporation, that
sold about a million snurfers over the next decade. And, in 1966 alone over half a million snurfers
were sold.[3]
In the early 1970s, Poppen organized snurfing competitions at a Michigan ski resort that attracted
enthusiasts from all over the country. One of those early pioneers was Tom Sims, a devotee
of skateboarding (a sport born in the 1950s when kids attached roller skate wheels to small
boards that they steered by shifting their weight). As an eighth grader in Haddonfield, New Jersey,
in the 1960s, Sims crafted a snowboard in his school shop class by gluing carpet to the top of a
piece of wood and attaching aluminum sheeting to the bottom. He produced commercial
snowboards in the mid 70s and it became an olympic sport in 1998. Articles about his invention in
such mainstream magazines as Newsweek helped publicize the young sport.
The pioneers were not all from the United States; in 1976, Welsh skateboard enthusiasts Jon
Roberts and Pete Matthews developed their own snowboards to use at their local Dry Ski Slope.
Also during this same period, in 1977, Jake Burton Carpenter, a Vermont native who had enjoyed
snurfing since the age of 14, impressed the crowd at a Michigan snurfing competition with
bindings he had designed to secure his feet to the board. That same year, he founded Burton
Snowboards in Londonderry, Vermont. The "snowboards" were made of wooden planks that were
flexible and had water ski foot traps. Very few people picked up snowboarding because the price
of the board was considered too high at $38, but eventually Burton would become the biggest
snowboarding company in the business.[4]
The first competitions to offer prize money were the National Snurfing Championship, held at
Muskegon State Park in Muskegon Michigan.[5] In 1979, Jake Burton Carpenter, came from
Vermont to compete with a snowboard of his own design. There were protests about Jake
entering with a non-snurfer board. Paul Graves, and others, advocated that Jake be allowed to
race. A "modified" "Open" division was created and won by Jake as the sole entrant. That race
was considered the first competition for snowboards and is the start of what has now become
competitive snowboarding. It was also the first competition to offer prize money. Ken Kampenga,
John Asmussen and Jim Trim placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Standard competition
with best 2 combined times of 24.71, 25.02 and 25.41 and Jake Carpenter won prize money as
the sole entrant in the "open" division with a time of 26.35. [6] In 1980 the event moved to Pando
Winter Sports Park near Grand Rapids, Michigan because of a lack of snow that year at the
original venue.[7][8]
As snowboarding became more popular in the 1970s and 1980s, pioneers such as Dimitrije
Milovich, Jake Burton Carpenter (founder of Burton Snowboards from Londonderry,

Vermont), Tom Sims (founder of Sims Snowboards), and Mike Olson (founder of Gnu
Snowboards) came up with new designs for boards and mechanisms that slowly developed into
the snowboards and other related equipment that we know today.[9]
In 1982, the first USA National Snowboard race was held near Woodstock, Vermont, at Suicide
Six. The race, organized by Graves, was won by Burton's first team rider Doug Bouton. [10]
In 1983, the first World Championship halfpipe competition was held at Soda Springs,
California. Tom Sims, founder of Sims Snowboards, organized the event with the help of Mike
Chantry, a snowboard instructor at Soda Springs.[11]
In 1985, the first World Cup was held in Zrs, Austria, further cementing snowboarding's
recognition as an official international competitive sport.
In 1990, the International Snowboard Federation (ISF) was founded to provide universal contest
regulations. In addition, the United States of America Snowboard Association (USASA) provides
instructing guidelines and runs snowboard competitions in the U.S. today, high-profile
snowboarding events like the Winter X Games, Air & Style, US Open, Olympic Games and other
events are broadcast worldwide. Many alpine resorts have terrain parks.
At the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, Snowboarding became an official Olympic
event. Canadian Ross Rebagliati[12] was the first ever to win an Olympic gold medal for Men's
Snowboarding at the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Initially, ski areas adopted the sport at a much slower pace than the winter sports public. Indeed,
for many years, there was animosity between skiers and snowboarders, which led to an ongoing
skier vs snowboarder feud.[13]Early snowboards were banned from the slopes by park officials. For
several years snowboarders would have to take a small skills assessment prior to being allowed
to ride the chairlifts. It was thought that an unskilled snowboarder would wipe the snow off the
mountain. In 1985, only seven percent of U.S. ski areas allowed snowboarding, [14] with a similar
proportion in Europe. As equipment and skills improved, gradually snowboarding became more
accepted. In 1990, most major ski areas had separate slopes for snowboarders. Now,
approximately 97% of all ski areas in North America and Europe allow snowboarding, and more
than half have jumps, rails and half pipes.
An excellent year for snowboarding was 2004, with 6.6 million participants. [15] An industry
spokesman said that "twelve year-olds are out-riding adults." The same article said that most
snowboarders are 1824 years old and that females constitute 25% of participants.
There were 8.2 million snowboarders in the USA and Canada for the 2009-2010 season. There
was a 10% increase over the previous season, accounting for more than 30% of all snow sports
participants.[16]
On 2 May 2012, the International Paralympic Committee announced that adaptive snowboarding
(dubbed "para-snowboarding") would debut as a men's and women's medal event in the 2014
Paralympic Winter Games taking place in Sochi, Russia. [17]