Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a winter sport in which an athlete glides down a snowy surface while standing sideways on a single, mostly flat board. The development of snowboarding was heavily influenced by pre-existing activities such as skiing, surfing, sledding, and skateboarding. Although the basic practice of snowboarding may be traced back for centuries, it first appeared in modern form in the 1960s. Snowboarding pioneers, mainly American surfers such as Sherman Poppen and Dimitrije Milovich, invented commercially viable snowboards in the 1960s and 1970s. The sport grew rapidly from that time, despite some conflicts with skiers in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1998, snowboarding became a regular event at the Winter Olympic Games. It remains a popular winter activity in many countries in the twenty-first century.

Background

The development of snowboarding is a complex matter due to the sport’s multifaceted origins. Snowboarding borrowed concepts from previously established sports such as skiing, surfing, sledding, and skateboarding. It is also rooted in countless informal modes of transportation and recreation invented and used in many parts of the world over many centuries.

Skiing is perhaps the activity that most closely parallels snowboarding, as it involves people using flat boards strapped to their feet to travel down snowy hills. Historians posit that skiing has taken place since ancient times, and skis actually predate the invention of the wheel. Depictions in cave drawings dating as far back as twenty-two thousand years ago seem to show people using ski-like implements to travel over snowy lands. Archaeologists in northern Russia found the remains of ski-like artifacts dating back to about eight thousand years.

This evidence supports the conclusion that even people in deep prehistory invented ways of traversing snowy or frozen lands. Ski-like devices were common in Europe and Central Asia, while people in other often cold environments, such as North America, favored snowshoes. Early skiers used the device for ease of travel as they migrated, crossed frozen waterways, and hunted for food.

The practice of skiing never truly ended but was embraced more formally in the 1700s. At that time, military leaders in Norway added ski training and contests to troop maneuvers. This practice captured widespread attention and interest in snowy Norway, eventually leading to the adoption of skiing as a national pastime in the mid-1800s and an Olympic competition in the early 1900s.

Surfing provided another major inspiration for snowboarding. Surfing contributed the idea of using a single board—rather than the two boards used in skiing—and having the rider stand sideways. Of course, it differed markedly in that it occurred on ocean waves rather than snowy hills, but it still shared some of the same physics principles and techniques.

As with skiing, surfing most likely developed in ancient times as a form of transportation and, in some cases, to aid in food gathering or social customs. Surfing likely originated with ancient Polynesians, who later brought the activity to Hawaii, where it would become famous. Europeans first observed surfing in the South Pacific in the late 1700s, and over time people around the world became fascinated with this means of riding the waves. In the 1900s, surfing became a popular activity for tourists in Hawaii as well as in other warm coastal areas such as California.

Skateboarding shares the single-plank, side-facing setup of surfing, as well as the use of gravity and the solid surfaces of skiing. This combination of features makes it quite similar to snowboarding, although it requires wheels and generally occurs on pavement or wooden ramps rather than snow. Modern skateboarding developed in the mid-twentieth century around California, making it just slightly older than snowboarding. However, the roots of skateboarding likely date back to the 1800s, when people attached roller-skate wheels to wooden pallets. Unlike skiing and surfing, this newer activity was mainly recreational.

Even before the formal invention of the modern snowboard around the 1960s, many similar inventions likely existed. Anecdotal evidence exists of Austrian miners riding snowboard-like planks down snowy hills as long ago as the 1500s. These boards, called knappenross, differed slightly from snowboards in that they generally included a handlebar or a rope with which the rider could balance. At about the same time, residents of the Swiss Alps created a similar device called the rittpritt.

Around 1900, an invention called the monogleider brought many of these concepts into the modern realm. Early monogleider performances by Austria’s Toni Lenhardt in the early twentieth century helped to draw attention to this interesting form of transport and competition. Many other little-documented stories suggest that mountaineers, soldiers, hobbyists, and athletes used snowboard-like devices, including broken barrels, to slide along the snow through the early and mid-1900s.

Overview

Despite the ongoing evolution of related technologies, the first modern, commercially viable snowboard did not appear until the mid-1960s. This creation was called the Snurfer and was introduced by Sherman Poppen, who had invented it as a toy for his daughters. The name of the device combined “snow” with “surfer,” leaving no doubt as to its theoretical origins. Poppen, an avid surfer, bolted together child-sized skis to create a new vehicle for his children to ride on snowy days. When children across the neighborhood turned out to watch and then ask for their own, Poppen patented the idea and had it manufactured in a practical, easily produced form.

About one million Snurfers were sold in the coming years. However, the Snurfer remained in the realm of children’s amusement, and few adults considered it the potential basis for serious sporting. Further innovations on the general design, such as those by fellow surfer Dimitrije Milovich in the 1970s, added laminated fiberglass, metal edges, and aerodynamic designs suitable for children at play and adult athletes alike. Milovich called his design the Winterstick.

Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, enthusiasts modified their Snurfers and Wintersticks or created their own inventions. Some of the most influential innovators during this period were Jake Burton Carpenter and Tom Sims. New creations added slight innovations that would catch on and improve the next generations of snowboards. In the late 1970s, snurfing competitions began to pop up around the country.

By the 1980s, the sport, now widely known as snowboarding, took off at a rapid pace. In the early 1980s, snowboarding competitions escalated to a national level. These events were humbly equipped—with improvised starting gates and hay bales for safety barriers—but they brought attention to the rising new sport. In 1985, the most popular of these events, the US Snow Surfing Championships, was renamed the US Open Snowboarding Championship and remained popular in the twenty-first century as the Burton US Open.

The fast spread of snowboarding did not come without obstacles, however. Shortly after the activity became popular, a conflict arose between skiers and snowboarders. Skiing was already an old and well-recognized activity, with established ski resorts catering to its practitioners. Many ski resorts turned away snowboarders who hoped to practice on their slopes. Resort operators feared that snowboarding was too dangerous, which could lead to liability risks, or believed that snowboarders were reckless youths who might disrupt regular skiers.

Over time, though, this gap was bridged. Positive publicity campaigns and the application of safety rules helped open ski resorts to snowboarders. Soon, snowboarders were bringing in valuable patronage. By 2024, only three major ski resorts in North America maintained their ban on snowboards.

The 1990s saw the sport continue to grow and evolve. New technological innovations and board types paralleled updated attitudes, styles, techniques, and challenges. Another innovation came in the means of creating halfpipes, or rounded trenches scooped out of snow in which snowboarders could travel. New machines that cut and maintained halfpipes made more and better tracks for snowboarding, continuing the sport’s growth and accessibility worldwide.

Perhaps the biggest moment for snowboarding arrived in 1998, when the sport debuted at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. This event was as ill-fated as it was important for snowboarding, however. The top Norwegian snowboarder, Terje Haakonsen, declined to attend the games. The gold medal winner, Ross Rebagliati, was temporarily stripped of his award due to a controversial drug test. Other missteps and miscommunications further tarnished the prestige of the debut.

Ultimately, the sport was retained as a Winter Olympic event and went on to assume its place among the most popular and dramatic events. Olympic snowboarding returned in Salt Lake City in 2002, where it featured halfpipe competitions as well as parallel giant slalom courses. During the Turin Olympics in 2006, organizers debuted the snowboard cross challenge, in which snowboarders race across an obstacle course, traversing repeated turns and jumps. Subsequent events in Vancouver in 2010, Sochi in 2014, Pyeongchang in 2018, and Beijing in 2022 further cemented the status of snowboarding as a serious competitive sport.

The 2006 Winter Olympics also won snowboarding one of its greatest moments with the gold-medal performance of American Shaun White. White’s preeminent performance capped an entire season of competition wins, making him the most famous snowboarder in the world and, by many estimates, the greatest snowboarder of all time. White would further popularize the sport and continue bringing it into the winter sports mainstream. The popularity and level of participation in snowboarding continued to grow each year throughout the twenty-first century. In 2023, over eight million people participated in snowboarding, and over 800,000 snowboards were sold between 2021 and 2022. However, possibly due to climate change, an aging population, and rising prices, the global share of snowboarding activities has experienced a decline during the 2020s. 

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