A Look Back at the History of Snowboarding

Picture yourself going downhill on a snow-covered mountain at breakneck speed, adrenaline pumping in your veins. Indeed nothing beats the thrill of snowboarding. It is a sport loved by almost everyone who enjoys the snowy outdoor. However, this extreme sports as it is known nowadays came from humble beginnings - back in the time when a father thought of making a new toy for his child to play with. This article will attempt to go back and trace the history of snowboarding.Snowboarding is a sports highly influenced by surfing and skateboarding. It involves going down a snow-covered slope with one's feet bound on a board. It all began in 1965 when Sherman Poppen, an engineer from Michigan decided to create a new toy for his daughter to play with. He fastened two skis together and placed a rope at one end for balance. He called it the snurfer, from the words snow and surfer combined. Little did he know then, that within a decade he would be selling millions of the same toy.Riding on the popularity of the sport, Poppen began organizing demonstrations and competitions acrossMichigan, which attracted thousands of participants all over America. The popularity of the sport has started to pick up and more and more people were trying to learn it especially those who were from the skateboarding and surfing world. One of them was Tom Sims who created his own version of the snowboard with a piece of wood, a sheet of carpet on top for traction and aluminum foil at the bottom for speed.On the other hand, Dimitrje Milovich, a surfer created his winter stick which was a surfboard for snow. These two innovations added fuel to the fire and caught the attention of the media including Newsweek, which made the sport more popular. In 1977, Jake Burton Carpenter, a snurfer enthusiast added the first bindings on the board which secure the user's foot on the board for better grip.The first Snurfing World Championship happened in 1979 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Since then the sport has changed its name to snowboarding as it is more popularly known now. Its popularity grew even more. During the 70's and 80's, the number of people who showed interest in snowboarding steadily grew. Other pioneers like Tom Sims and Chuck Barfoot, both professional skateboarders, began to compete in the sports. They also made improvements and modifications, making the snowboard look and function as it does now. The first half pipe snowboarding competition was held in 1983 and in 1985 the first Snowboarding World Cup was held in Zurs, Austria. At that point, snowboarding has become a global sport, attracting participants from all over the world. The sport has reached the ultimate stage when it became an official Winter Olympics sport in 1998.So the next time you gear up and prepare to zoom down that slope, try to remember the humble beginnings of snowboarding and how a humble toy for a kid became one of the most popular winter sports.

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