Snowboarding
The “Snurfer” the first snowboard was designed by Sherman Poppen in Muskegon, Michigan, the year 1965. First built as a child’s toy Poppen licensed the idea to Brunswick Manufacturing, and over the next ten years, upwards of a million Snurfers were produced. However before Poppen, there were accounts of WW1 soldiers standing sideways on old barrel halves whilst stationed in Europe, but Poppen introduced the concept to the masses.
Jake Burton Carpenter, founder of Burton Snowboards produced his first model, the Backhill in 1977 and other companies progressively produced the Skeeter, the Winterstick, the A-Team, the Barfoot and the Sims Skiboards. It was not until 1986 that Burton began selling in Australia.
The year that started the snowboarding explosion was 1985 when the first dedicated magazines began appearing in the US. Snowboarding started to appear at Buller in 87, however in very small numbers, as 88 was such a bad season numbers did not increase. In 1989 boarders were prevented from using the southern slopes because of the steepness of the terrain. From 1990 onwards snowboarding has had access to all areas.
Many North American resorts banned boards with Deer Valley, Utah and Taos in New Mexico still holding out today. Aspen only allowed boards in 2001!
