All Aboard
By Kathleen O'Toole

Had Snowboarding become an Olympic event 37 years earlier, the U.S. might have swept the gold in snurfing. That's the name Sherman Poppen gave to the sport he invented in 1965 when he bolted two skis together.

Poppen's idea wasn't new. Since the dawn of sled riding, adventurous kids have stood up to the challenge of going downhill on their feet. Poppen wanted his own daughter to have the experience of riding down a snowy hillside the way surfers rode the ocean waves. His Snow surfer or "snurfer" consisted of two connected skis and a rope tied to the front of the board that a rider could hold for balance.

It didn't take long for others to improve on Poppen's idea. In the 1970's, a snurfer named Jake Burton won the nickname "Godfather of Snowboarding" for his contributions to the development of the sport. Burton enjoyed both surfing and skiing, and he relished the challenge of combining his two favorite sports. His innovation was to attach a rubber binding to the snurfer that allowed him to strap in his feet.

Forbidden to ride the chair lifts at his local ski resorts in Vermont, Burton would wait until the end of the skiing day before hiking on foot to the top of a mountain. In one experimental run after another, he flew down the ski slopes, each time noting the ways in which he believed he could make his snurfer faster, more maneuverable, and safer.

Meanwhile, another snurfer named Tom Sims had begun similar research for a high school shop class project. Both Sims and Burton designed new boards (Burton Air, Safari, Performer - Sims Kidwell, Switch Blade) that were fast, flexible, and dependable. The new snurfers became known as snowboards. Both Sims and Burton started their own companies to meet the rising demand for the boards.

Snowboarding spread quickly in Europe. In the United States, however, many ski resorts continued to ban snowboarders in the belief that they were wild and reckless. Sims and Burton were convinced that some resorts would not only allow snowboarding, but host competitions. In 1982, Sims organized the first National Snowboarding Championship. A year later, Burton launched the U.S. Open for snowboarders.

Jake Burton Carpenter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1977, a company was born that revolutionized an industry and opened the eyes of millions to a new sport. Jake Burton Carpenter does not claim to have invented the snowboard, but his company, Burton Snowboards has become the best selling snowboard company in the world to, in over 3,000 stores, and with factories in Vermont, Austria, and Japan, Burton Snowboards is able to observe world trends, find out what the people want, and sell their goods on a global scale.

Born on April 29th, 1954 in New York City, and then moving to Cedarhurst, New York shortly after, Jake Burton grew up skiing and when he went to college at the University of Colorado in Boulder, he had aspirations to join the NCAA Champion Ski Team. But, perhaps by fate, Jake got in a car accident and broke his collarbone. After the accident, Jake moved to Virginia, worked on a horse farm for a few years, then enrolled in New York University (NYU). Graduating with a degree in economics, Jake moved to Londonderry, Vermont to pursue a childhood dream of his and modify the Snurfer- “a single ski sledding toy”- and Burton Snowboards was born. His base of operations was his home and barn, where he did all of his work and manufacturing. Though he struggled for over 2 years, Jake managed to get snowboarders into ski resorts, and the sport exploded overnight.

Jake Burton’s dream of making snowboarding a phenomena probably would not have happened without his family; not for their support, but because they thought that it was folly to play with snowboards and not get a real job. This motivated Jake to succeed in his dream and basically rub it in their faces when he became a millionaire. Though it has greatly changed over the years, not only in the design of the snowboards, but the size of the company and the acceptance worldwide. Burton has created daughter companies for specific aspects and to better cover the whole genre of snowboarding; R.E.D. makes helmets and body protection equipment, Gravis makes footwear, bags and apparel, Anon makes goggles and optics for riders, and finally Analog makes clothing such as snow jackets and pants, as well as street wear.

Throughout the years though, Jake has not forgotten his roots, and how he had trouble starting out. In 2004, Burton started the Chill Program which helps out inner-city kids by taking them snowboarding, supplying gear, transportation, lessons, and lift tickets to local mountains. With the help of over a half dozen sponsors, and located in 9 cities nationwide, as well as other nations, Chill has been able to reach out to 170 kids per city per year, and since its beginning has been able to bring the sport of snowboarding to over 6600 kids who otherwise never would have known the sport of snowboarding. Burton also has the Learn to Ride (LTR) Program and the Method Centers, which were started in 1998, and has spread to over 9 countries, they are the only programs that solely focus on the advancement and teaching of young and new riders.

Jake Burton Carpenter succeeded because he knew what he wanted and went for it. Even though he encountered hard times and a lack of faith from his family, Jake managed to make his dream into a multi million dollar business. But to him its not all about making a profit, its about having fun and bringing a sport to millions of people throughout this world. Every day, he comes to the international Burton headquarters in Burlington, Vermont and mingles with his employees. He gives his employees the day off when it snows more than two feet and regularly rides at least 100 days per season and recently took a 10 month trip around the world with his family to “chase winter” and snowboarded on 6 continents. To Jake Burton, snowboarding is not a business, it is a way of life.

Tom Sims…
California State University, Fresno (ITS)

During the winter of 1963, Tom Sims had returned from California to his home in New Jersey with a passion for skateboarding. Weird looks and pointing from his neighbors followed, as no one east of California had seen, let alone heard, of skateboarding. As the snow fell that December, Tom's skateboard was left to sit in his room, and Tom was left with the prospect of couch surfing for the next few months. Scared by the thought of inactivity, Tom transferred his "sidewalk surfing" to an idea to make a "ski board" in his 8th grade woodshop class. After convincing his teacher of his intentions, Tom left class with a glued 1 x 8 piece of pine with a nose kick in the front. Carpet and strips of wood were added to the top for traction, and candle wax and aluminum sheeting were added to the base. Soon after, Tom became a local legend hanging five and catching small air at the local sled hill. From there, the seed for Sims Snowboards was planted. Fourteen years later, in 1977, Tom's idea became reality, as Sims Snowboards opened for business. Today, Sims is one of the largest snowboard companies in the world, with a team and product that continues to define a sport that Tom helped create.

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