The
history of snowboarding
How a piece of wood changed world history.
Many times someone doing something a little different and
having his or her ideas catch on has changed history. The
pasteurizing of milk to prevent spoiling and contamination
is a perfect example. Snowboarding was also the result of
someone doing something a little different. In a few short
years we have taken a crazy idea and turned it into a household
word and created a culture and language around it. Snowboarding
has become an Olympic event and has even forced us to ask
ourselves questions about our society when we use the phrase
“Smoke a fatty for Rebagliati”.
The history of snowboarding officially begins in 1929 with
a man named M.J. Burchett. For some unknown reason, perhaps
a dare from friends or the result of drinking, Mr. Burchett
changed history when he cut a plank of plywood and secured
it to his feet using a clothesline and horse reins. This humble
beginning changed history forever.
Not much changed for snowboarders until 1965 when Sherman
Poppen invented a toy for his daughter and eventually marketed
it. His “Snurfer” consisted of 2-ski bound together
with a rope at the nose of the skis to hold on to. This idea
caught on fast and Mr. Poppen sold half a million of his Snurfers
by 1966. Mr. Poppen helped create demand for his product by
holding contests for Snurfers. Jake Burton took part in many
of these competitions until he broke his collarbone in a car
accident.
Snowboards as we know them came into existence in 1969 when
riding down snowy hills on a cafeteria plate in college inspired
Dimitrije Milovich. Mr. Milovich decided to make snowboards
that where based upon the design of a surfboard but worked
the same way skis did. In 1972 Mr. Milovich started a company
called Winterstick and really fired up the idea of snowboarding
until 1980 when he left the industry. To this day Milovich
is seen as a very important pioneer in the industry.
In 1977 Burton came back to his first love, the Snurfer.
After completing university, Burton moved to Vermont and needing
to make some money, started to produce Snurfers again. Burton’s
snowboards where made of laminated wood and he shocked the
world when he won a Snurfer competition on his own board.
One major reason for Burton being able to win the competition
was the skiing styled binding that he added to his boards
thus allowing him to control them much better.
During this time Burton had on major competitor, Tom Sims.
Sims borrowed from skateboarding technology to create his
own version of the snowboard. Sims snowboards came from an
idea he had in shop class when to glued carpet to the top
of a piece of wood and aluminum sheeting to the bottom of
the board.
In order to showcase their innovations, Burton and Sims held
the first ever snowboarding competition in Vermont in 1982.
This competition was more of a survival contest as the runs
where icy kamikaze runs. This event helped to launch the magazine
Absolutely Radical that became the International Snowboarding
Magazine.
Snowboarding technology continued to improve, as did the
fame of its competitions. The competitions became so popular
that the International Snowboarding Federation was formed
to help judge competitions. In 1998 snowboarding made its
grand entrance into the world of the Olympics at Nagano, Japan.
This too was a controversial time. The IOC dismissed the
ISF and instead had the Federation Internationale de Ski over
see the events. While this policy is still in effect to this
day, tensions are easing between the two factions and things
are running much smoother.
Of course no history of snowboarding would be complete with
out mentioning Rebagliati in the 1998 Olympics. Rebagliati,
a Canadian from Whistler BC, won the gold medal that year
but later tested positive for trace amounts of marijuana and
was stripped of his gold medal. Rebagliati appealed the ruling
and won since marijuana is a controlled substance, not a banned
substance and is not a performance-enhancing drug. This event
helped to decriminalize marijuana in Canada and caused many
people to rethink their position on marijuana. "Smoke
a fatty for Rebagliati" was a common phrase to show support
for Rebagliati and show support for the reforming of the Canadian
laws.
Snowboarding has come a long way in 70 odd years. Snowboarding
started as a crazy idea that only fools would try and has
become an accepted Olympic event due to its popularity. Arguably,
snowboarding is the fastest growing sport and industry. Few
other innovations have caught on this fast or have become
an Olympic sport so soon. |
