History of Snowboarding

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The Snurfer
The modern snowboard looks very different from it's previous iterations. The original snowboard was actually known as the "Snurfer", and it was invented by a man named Sherman Poppen in 1965. Poppen invented the snurfer for his daughter, and gave it to her as a Christmas present. Poppen's inspiration for the "Snurfer" came from watching his daughter stand on a sled and attempting to ride down a hill while keeping her balance. The original design of the snurfer was simply two skis bounded together with a string attached to the nose for control and steering capabilities. Poppen patented the "Snurfer" and began selling them with the tagline "Surf the snow!".

The Modern Snowboard
It wasn't long before the "Snurfer" drew a cult following, and competitions started appearing at ski resorts. It was a snurfing competition at Pando Winter Sports Park in Rockford, Michigan that changed the sport forever. A man known as Jake Burton Carpenter entered the competition with one of his own creations. Carpenter's snurfer had special bindings that securely held him to his board. Carpenter's creation wasn't met with much enthusiasm, however, and he was forced to compete in a special division for prototype boards. Jake having the only prototype board in the competition won his race by a landslide, but many professional snurfers were impressed by his design and it would soon replace the original snurfer. Jake Burton Carpenter is today known as the the father of snowboarding, and he owns the largest snowboarding company in the world "Burton Snowboards".

The Skiier/Snowboarder War
The snowboarding community was not well liked by skiiers at resorts. Actually, throughout the 1970's it was banned at nearly every resort in the world. Skiiers considered the sport to not be safe and the people that tended to snowboard did not quite fit in on the mountain. The reason for this is that snowboarders tended to be from the surfing and skating communities while skiiers tended to be from upper class communites. Finally, in 1977 a man named Dimitrije Milovich managed to get snowboards covered under liability insurance. This marked a huge win for snowboarders as mountains began to slowly allow snowboarders into their resorts because they were less risky. Today most resorts allow snowboarders on thier mountain's, however, their are still three resorts that ban snowboarding which include Mad River Glen Resort in Vermont, Alta Resort in Utah, and Deer Valley Resort, also in Utah. Snowboarders retaliate against these mountains by "poaching" them which involves sneaking into one of these forbidden resorts and riding the mountain. Jake Burton actually held a poaching competition in 2008 rewarding $5,000 dollars to the best video of someone poaching these resorts which can be found here. Today, the skiier/snowboarder feud has all but dissipated.