Snowboard Was Invented In The 1960s
Its Popularity Continues To Rise Today
As far as winter sports go, snowboard is a young one. Its appearance next month at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver will only be the fourth time in Olympic history.
Snowboard is a hybrid of skiing, surfing and skateboarding. In the 1960s and 1970s, early adopters of snowboard and the boards they used were called “snurfers.” Snowboard’s rising popularity and cool factor are undeniable, yet like many things in life, the evolution of this sport is a bit murky.
If you gathered old photos of the sport for picture scanning services, you could use the converted digital images to create a visual timeline that looks something like this:
Sherman Poppen is credited with the invention of the snurfer by attaching two skis together for his daughter in 1965. Five years later, a surfer by the name of Dimitrije Milovich, inspired by cafeteria tray-sledding, designed the first snowboard. Other early designers include Bob Webber and Jake Burton Carpenter. The media, including skateboard magazines, started paying attention to the sport in the mid to late 70s. The first official competition was held in 1981 in Colorado. In 1985, a snowboard-specific magazine debuted.
As illustrated in this photo taken at the Breckenridge Dew Tour, the sport of snowboard is an impressive one that involves high jumps, spins, rotations and tricked-out choreography. It gets more difficult and intense each year. (One Olympic halfpipe hopeful, Kevin Pearce, sustained a serious brain injury in late December while training for a complicated new move, and still remains in the hospital.)
Today, you’ll often find snowboarders sharing snowy mountains with skiers. Lessons are easy to sign up for, and gear is simple to buy or rent. We’ve come a long way from the days of Poppen’s bolted skis, but photos from that era remain a treasure, so preserve any that you discover. Picture scanning services make it a cinch to explore the evolution of snowboard.