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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]

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