The sport of snowboarding has a short, yet storied history. The modern development of snowboarding began in the 1960s, and throughout this time we have seen the sport grow to extreme heights. I recently read this interesting article, which outlines some of the greatest moments in snowboarding history.
1) The Snurfer is Invented (1965)
On Christmas morning, back in 1965, Sherman Poppen went to his garage and cross-braced two K-mart skis together. Poppen took it to the top of his backyard hill and went down, surfing the snow. This device ride gave rise to the Snurfer (combination of snow and surfer) and become an instant hit.
A couple weeks later, after messing around with the Snurfer, Poppen decided to add a rope to the front of the board to make it easier to turn and prevent it from sailing away when riders feel. The Snurfer ended up selling more than 750,000 units over the next 15 years. Moreover, the device inspired a new generation of kids to surf the snow, giving birth to future snowboard innovators.
2) Dimitrije Milovich Drops Out of Cornell to Snowboard (1972)
Dimitrije Milovich is the creator of the first modern snowboarding company. Milovich was introduced to snowboarding back in 1970 by Wayne Stoveken, and two years later, he made the decision to drop out of school and begin testing board prototypes. Stoveken followed Milovich out to Utah to pursue the dream and by 1974 they had two “Snow Surfboard” patents. The duo sold the boards out of a shop in Salt Lake City.
The company, Wintersticks, received national publicity for the new boards. However, getting the company and the sport off the ground proved to be an enormous challenge because retailers were simply not interested in the new invention. Wintersticks was losing money, so Milovich closed its doors in 1982. He did reopen in 1985 but eventually shut down for good in 1987, just a few short years before snowboarding’s first boom.
3) The Burton-Sims War Begins (1978)
Jake Burton Carpenter (Jake Burton) and TOm Sims played an insurmountable role in pushing the snowboarding into the mainstream sport that we know today. Burton first began selling a Snurfer knockoff, called the Burton Board, in Vermont during the 1977-78 season. Burton was only able to sell six units throughout the season. Tom Sims, a skateboarder from the West Coast, began selling Sims snowboards during the 1978-79 season and faced similar resistance.
Eventually, both men persevered and emerged as leading forces within the sport. For over a decade, the two snowboarding icons engaged in a bitter war for industry supremacy. The competition, however, helped push the sport forward. In the end, Burton reigned supreme, as Sims was more passionate about surfing than he was about running a company. He ended up licensing his brand name to Collective Licensing, which sells Sims Snowboards through Sports Authority.