As the excitement of fall winds down, many people fall into a depression. The leaves are gone, the woods are desolate, and the chill of winter air has crept upon us. While most people find this sad, I find it exciting! Why? Because it is time for my favorite sport, snowboarding.
Snowboarding’s a new, challenging sport that’s attracting new fans from all around the world. It has really changed since it was first invented. It’s become one of the largest and fastest growing sports in the world. Everywhere, people, including myself, are waiting for the snow to get a chance to go snowboarding. Snowboarding is the cross between surfing and skateboarding.
Snowboarding use to be known as a child’s story, but now has evolved into a …show more content…
But in 1929, M.J. “Jack” Burchett invented one of the first snowboards. He used clothesline and horse reins to secure a piece of plywood to his feet. Thirty years later, Sherman Poppen, a chemical gases engineer invented “The Snurfer” as a toy for his daughter. He made the “snurfer” by bounding two skis together and putting a rope at the nose, so that the rider could hold it and keep it stable. Poppen licensed his idea to manufacturer when his daughter’s friends wanted a “snurfer” too. In 1966, “the snurfer” sold over a half million times. In 1979, Poppen left the snowboarding business after Jake Burton came up with the bindings and went back to his old …show more content…
Sims was an avid skateboarder who made a “snowboard” in a junior high school shop class. He made his out of carpet wood and aluminum. He glued some carpet to the top of a piece of wood and put an aluminum sheet on the bottom. He started making snowboards in 1977 in his garage with his friend and employee Chuck Barfoot. Barfoot actually made the boards and came up with the “Flying Yellow Banana”. It was a skateboard deck on top of a plastic shell with skegs. During 1980 Sims signed a skate-snowboarding deal with a big company called Vision Sports. Signing the deal helped Sims get out of his financial problems, but his friend Barfoot, was left out and tried to go into business for himself. He couldn’t compete with big competitors like Sims and Burton.
The first modern competitive snowboarding contest took place in Leadville, Colorado in 1981. Then snowboarding competition took off from there and became worldwide. In 1982, the first national snowboarding race was held in Suicide Six, outside of Woodstock, Vermont. Because of the conditions of the hill, the goal of the race appeared to be mostly just surviving the race. The race was on a steep icy downhill run called “The Face”. Paul Graves put it on and Tom Simms and Jake Burton competed. Doug Bouton won first place overall. This race marked the last time that snowboards and snurfer’s raced