Snowboarding: the Past, the Present, and the Hereafter

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Cascading down frozen mountain, crystallized flakes of chilling water gracing my face with it’s presence; free falling sixty feet, only to be saved by a pillow of snow: this is why I snowboard. The pure rush of adrenaline from the sport has turned what started as a backyard hobby into an Olympic event. Though you may think snowboarding is just a board strapped to your feet; the engineering and history of it have a much richer back story.

Back in 1965 Sherman Poppen laid the basic foundation of the snowboard. “On Christmas morning, Sherman Poppen went into his garage, cross-braced two Kmart skis together, stood atop his backyard hill and started surfing the snow (MacArthur)” This was it, the be. People flocked around Poppen as he carelessly paraded up and down the local sled hill. The demand for this contraption became apparent to Sherman and he quickly began work on producing more under the name of the Snurfer.” (MacArthur 1). Poppen began rummaging the town for it’s precious supplies and made dozens of the Snurfer. This caught the local media’s attention which lead to the licensing and production of the Snurfer.

The Snurfer was good start, but never really gained traction as anything other than a small hill hobby. It wasn’t til Dimitrije Milovich entered the scene that people started seeing the potential of the snowboard. “Milovich was introduced to snowboarding in 1970 by Wayne Stoveken. Two years later, he dropped out of Cornell University, moved to Utah and started testing his prototype boards.” (MacArthur 1). It was Milovich’s sole desire. During the year of 1974 Dimitrije began making boards in his garage with a few of his close friends. By 1976 he founded the company Winterstick. Under this name Dimitrije ...

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...port. In the following year more ski resorts opened their slopes up to snowboarders than in any year previous since. Snowboards can now be seen an almost any slope t accommodates skiers.

Works Cited

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Top-Ten-Most-Important-Moments-in-Snowboarding-History.html

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2010-02-08-burton08_ST_N.htm

http://www.winterstick.com/info.php?info=history

http://www.lib-tech.com/snowboard-technology/

http://www.shaunwhite.com/bio/about/

http://www.olympic.org/sports

http://www.ttrworldtour.com/ranking/rider-report/rider/piiroinen-peetu.html

http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aadf_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-Burton_US-Site/Sites-Burton_US-Library/default/v1314821415999/pdfs/BackintheDay.pdf

http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-snowboarding.html

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