Snowboarding History: How it All Began
A brief look back at snowboarding history
Snowboarding history isn't really very historical, because snowboarding is a relatively 'new' pastime, even though people have probably been figuring out how to slide down hills for fun for a very long time.
Of course, snowboarding history has grown out of what folks knew about surfing, skateboarding and skiing -- and has borrowed components from all of them along the way.
Snowboarding History as we know it Today
Although it's hard to give credit to specific people, snowboarding history may have begun way back in the 1920s, when a dude named Jack Burchett strapped himself to a crude piece of plywood with some horse twine. This monumental undertaking may very well have been the first 'snow board.' :)
It took almost another 40 years before Sherman Poppen strapped two skis together and added a rope 'handle' to create a toy for his young daughter that his wife called a 'Snurfer (as in, "snow surfer.")
Millions of them sold before the next stage in snowboarding history, when Dimitrije Milovich started making something akin to what we know today as snowboards, in 1969. In the meantime, an early Snurfer rider by the name of Jack Burton began producing boards (and Burton boards are still in the forefront of the sport today!), as did a dude by the name of Sims.
All of this competitive activity among manufacturers eventually paid off in snowboarding history, as boarders took to the slopes in droves -- driving the ongoing demand for better boards!
All of this snowboarding history took place in the state of Vermont, which may well still be the snowboarding capital of the world.
Eventually, snowboarding competitions became more and more well-known, and it's only a few years ago now that snowboarding became an official Olympic sport -- spiraling it into the world spotlight as a sport whose time has come.
Snowboarding history continues to be made as I write!