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The origin of Snowboarding dates back to the 1960s although there are reports of people making a crude snowboard equipment as early as the 1920s.

It is quite difficult to point to a single ‘inventor’ of the snowboard, but one of the earliest introductions to this sport was brought by M. J. ‘Jack’ Burchett in 1929, when he made a wooden plank and tied his feet to it with the help of clothesline and horse reins.

In 1965, in Michigan, nearly 35 years after Burchett’s attempt, Sherman Poppen made a board by joining two ski boards and called it ‘Snurfer’, obviously combining snow and surfing. This board had a rope attached to it to help the rider balance and steer. Although Poppen designed the board as a toy for his daughter, it soon gained popularity. This was the first marketed snowboard.

The early days

In 1972, Bob Webber patented a prototype snowboard like piece of kit. This patent was famously purchased by Jake Burton of Burton Snowboards in 1990. This caused a bit of concern in the industry at the time, but Burton has not since exercised any authority over any other manufacturers, though they remain the largest manufacturer of snowboards today.

Significant changes came about when, in 1975, Dimitrije Milovich developed a snowboard that worked on the principles of skiing and gave the snowboarder the experience of surfing. In 1976, he founded Winterstick brand boards. Winterstick is still a reputed snowboard manufacturing company though Milovich has himself left the snowboarding business.

A few interesting things happened in snowboarding in 1977. First, Mike Olson built his own snowboard when the rest of the world had never even heard of one. He later co-founded Mervin Manufacturing with Pete Saari and the company is based in Sequim, Washington. The company produces two brands, ‘gnu’ and the ‘libtech’ snowboards. A unique feature of the company is the production of snowboards indigenously. Mervin claims to be the most ‘environmental’ snowboarding factory.

It was also in 1977 that that Jake Burton first drew inspiration from Poppens snurfer and started building snowboards out of steam bent wood and fiberglass. As a kid he had always fancied the snurfer and wanted to modify it. He added prototype bindings to the board to secure his feet to the deck. Burton was always experimenting with new and innovative ideas to improve the quality of the snowboard.  In 1977, he founded Burton Boards, his own snowboard company in Vermont, which is very successful to this day.

At about the same time, former skateboard champion Tom Sims, who was obsessed with snurfing, started making snowboards. His friend and employee, Chuck Barfoot assisted him. Barfoot also worked for Bob Webber. In 1976, Sims founded Sims snowboards. He introduced the first freestyle snowboard and first women’s specific snowboard into the market.  Barfoot left Sims in 1980 and started Barfoot Designs which was a big company in the mid ‘80s with as many as fifty employees. He was a pro snowboarder himself with over 22 different championships won within a span of a decade. Sims, Burton and Barfoot gave up their dreams to devote their time to create better snowboards which have attracted so many people all over the world and developed the sport to what it is today.

In 1979, the first ever Snurfing championship was held at Pando Ski Lodge, near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Burton enrolled for the championship with a snowboard of his own design. In spite of protests from the other competitors about Burton using a non-snurfer board, Paul Graves, top snurfer at the time along with a few others supported Burton and allowed him to participate in a separate category. Burton won the race as a sole entrant in that category.

That year, Paul Graves featured in a commercial, giving wide publicity to the sport. This increased the popularity of snowboarding. The same year, Mark Anolik discovered the Tahoe City Halfpipe which was the world’s first snowboard halfpipe.

The heyday

By the ‘80s things were picking up speed and the decade proved a crucial period in the snowboarding history...

In 1980, Burton built the most advanced snowboard of the time made with a p-tex base.

In 1982, the first National Snowboarding race was held at Suicide Six, the alpine resort in Vermont. People competed on snurfers, Burton boards and Sims boards. Burton and Sims also competed. Doug Bouton won the race on a Burton board.

In 1983, Jeff Grell designed the first snowboard with high back binding. In the same year, Burton and Sims held their own competitions. Burton held the National Snowboarding Championship in Vermont which later evolved into the U.S. Open. Later that spring, Sims conducted the First World Championship halfpipe competition at Soda Springs Ski Bowl, in the Lake Tahoe area. It was the first contest to include the halfpipe event. The first snowboarding park came up in Vermont.

It was also in the ‘80s that the European board riders started to discover this new sport. Jose Fernandes from Switzerland, Tommy Delago from Oberamergau and Petra “Milka” Mossig from Konstanz, Germany were all pioneers in the European scene.

In 1985, ‘Absolutely Radical’, the first snowboard magazine, later rechristened as ‘International Snowboard Magazine’ was published.

By this time, steel edges were new additions to the snowboard. Bindings with high backs were invented to have better control when snowboarding on hard snow. In 1985, Sims 1500 FE and Burton Performer were introduced with the steel edges.

In 1988, Chuck Allen, a surf coach, formed the United States Amateur Snowboarder Association (USASA). In 1989, the International Snowboarding Association was formed which became the International Snowboarding Federation in 1990.

Snowboarding goes mainstream

If the 80's were the hey day for the pioneers then the ‘90s saw mainstreaming of the sport.

With more and more people taking to snowboarding, most of the ski resorts which had shunned snurfers and snowboarders earlier, welcomed them and allowed them to use their slopes for snowboarding. They even constructed halfpipes for organizing contests. New patterns and new disciplines emerged.

Snowboarding was adopted by the International Olympic Committee as an Olympic sport in 1994, with an inaugural Olympic competition in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. There were two different types included – the Halfpipe events (freestyle snowboarding), and the Giant Slalom events (traditional ski snowboarding). In 2002 in Salt Lake City, the Alpine Snowboarding Giant Slalom event became the Parallel Giant Slalom. The halfpipe is still the same.

Professional Snowboarders

Craig Kelly (1966-2003) was a professional snowboarder and known as the ‘Godfather of Freeriding’. Terje Haakonsen called him the best snowboarder of all time. In his professional career of 15 years, Kelly won 4 world championships, 3 U.S. championships, Mt.Baker Banked Slalom three times. In his early days, he rode Sims Boards but he spent most of his later years riding Burton boards. He designed and developed the Burton Signature models, the Mystery Air and the Craig Kelly Air, to name a few. He died in an avalanche in Canada when he was undergoing a Canadian Mountain Guide course.

Shaun Palmer is a professional snowboarder, mountain biker and skier. Born in 1968, in the U.S., he has many achievements to his credit in his professional career. He owns the Palmer Snowboard brand founded in 1990. In 2000, he was awarded the ‘Alternative Sportsperson of the Year’ at the Laureus World Sports Awards. His contribution towards the equipment development and compensation for the athletes of snowboarding, skiing and mountain biking has been enormous.

Ross Rebagliati of Vancouver, Canada, was the first professional snowboarder to create history in the Japanese Nagano Olympics by winning the first ever gold medal for snowboarding. Famously Ross had his medal taken away when he tested positive for Marijauna in his system. After some debate he was given his medal back because it was accepted that Marijuana was not actually performance enhancing.

Terje Haakonsen is a professional skier, mountain biker and a snowboarder from Norway. He has been riding since 1988 and started competing in 2000. Master of amplitude and style in the half and quarter pipes, Haakonsen is one of the fastest riders in the world. In 2004, he created a record in the 6th Mt. Baker Banked Slalom. With a trick named after him (Haakon Flip) and his hand in the design of Burton Boards, he is a true legend in snowboarding.

Terry Kidwell called the ‘father of freestyle’ started riding in 1977. To him, snowboarding is not a sport, it is a lifestyle. He was snowboarding’s first superstar to improve the sport with a skateboarding style instead of a surf style. In his professional career he won 4 halfpipe world championships and getting snowboarding’s first Pro Model in 1985. According to him, high back bindings changed the way snowboarders rode their boards in all snow conditions. He designed snowboarding’s first kick tail to allow switch tricks. He always strived hard to promote the sport to a very high level. He has been an influential trend-setter in the development of this great sport.

Victoria Jealouse turned the skills she had learned on the Canadian Ski team into racing success in snowboarding in the ‘90s. Breaking the gender barrier in the otherwise male-dominated sport, she has proved her mettle and is a role model for many teens. She has to her credit, 4 U.S. open Podium appearances (including a super-G win in 1995) and several Mt.Baker Banked Slalom titles. She has a great style and freeriding capacity better than most of the snowboarders around.

Tara Dakides, born in 1975 in California, is an amazing snowboarder and co-owner of O-matic Snowboards. As a kid she used to take part in gymnastics and skateboarding. As a teenager she ventured into surfing, mountain sports and snow sports. Such an experience gave her an advantage in the X Games competitions. A woman snowboarder to defy the gender norms and making it big in a supposedly man’s sport, Tara has several successes to her credit. Since 1999, she has been winning accolades at the Winter X Games. She was named “Female Snowboarder of the Year, 2000 and 2001” by the Snowboarder magazine. A brilliant snowboarder, Tara has inspired many female snowboarders to take to the sport.

Barrett Christy, yet another female snowboarder from the U.S. is a very familiar name in snowboarding.

She started learning the sport in 1991 and began to compete in the mid ‘90s.She has won more medals than any other female snowboarder in Winter X Games. Her sports career aside, Barrett supervises the design of women’s snowboards for the Gnu brand including the Gnu Barrett Christy Pro Model. She was a member of the first U.S. Snowboarding team for the ’98 Winter Olympics. She was awarded the ‘Female Snowboarder of the year 2001’ by ESPN Action Sports Awards.

Kelly Clark started snowboarding when she was eight years old. She became an expert very soon. She won numerous gold medals in Winter X Games. She trained with the U.S. Snowboard team in 2000. She was the first American to win gold in the 2002 Olympics. She also won the U.S., Australian and the European Open championships and the list goes on and on. This quiet, reserved girl from Vermont remains a great snowboarder.

Shaun White from California, all of 23 years old, is one of the hottest names in snowboarding. The amazing feature about this hot favorite of many is that he was born with a congenital heart defect and had to undergo two cardiac surgeries before he was five years old. At 6, he started snowboarding and at 14, he had become competent enough to partake in competitions along with professional snowboarders of the time. His huge red hair gave him the special nickname ‘The Flying Tomato’. He bagged many medals in Winter X Games competitions. He was named the ‘Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year’ in 2008. He also happens to be a very accomplished pro skater which basically makes him the coolest ever.

Seth Wescott is an American snowboarder born in 1976. He has won a great deal of recognition for his huge success in snowboarding competitions. The son of a track and field coach and a college professor of modern dance, he was not a newbie in the sports field. He grew up in Maine and started skiing at the age of three. When he was eight, he shifted to snowboarding. Apart from these two sports, he also played soccer and track and field events. He started competing in 1991 and has no count of the innumerable wins and medals he has got ever since.

There are lots of other professional snowboarders like Temple Cummins, Steve Pelc, Andy Finch, Travis Robinson, Keith Kimmel, Mark Frank Montoya, Kevin Jones, Nick Visconti, Mason Aguirre, Kevin Pearce, J.P.Walker, Peter Line, Travis Rice, Ross Powers, Chris Klug and Daniel Kass, who serve as an inspiration for millions of people around the world who dream of making it big in this sport.

Lindsay Jacobellis, Gretchen Bleiler, Torah Bright and Molly Aguirre are a few of the female snowboarders who are role models for the other women snowboard enthusiasts across the globe.