Snowboarding’s Evolutionary Events

Snowsport segregation meant only 39 of the roughly 600 ski resorts allowed snowboarders!

There are milestones in each individual’s life that provide evidence of development and positive evolution.  Much like your life and mine, snowboarding as a sport, industry, and passion holds many of these exciting points of progress.

1979 – Let’s start with the Snurfer events that Sherman Poppen started putting together, where Jake Burton Carpenter and Tom Sims developed their passion for boarding on the snow.  At the annual competition in Michigan, pro Paul Graves executed four sliding 360’s, dropping down on one knee for a segment of his freestyle demo, and dismounted with a front flip at the finish.  It was just a taste of the flavor which is freestyle snowboarding today, and Paul gave us that sample in 1979.  During the same competition, Jake Burton Carpenter tried to enter his own modified version of the Snurfer, but since his contraption wasn’t a “traditional” Snurfer, many protests to his candidacy were voiced.  As it turns out, Paul Graves and other contestants advocated for Jake, and a new division was created solely for his open design.  Jake was the only competitor in the open division that year… he won first place.  Along with this radical display of aerials and open minded design, 1979 holds the discovery of the first snowboard half-pipe.  Mark Anolik stumbled upon the pipe behind the Tahoe City dump.

1982 – The first National Snowboarding Championships was held at Suicide Six Ski Area in Pomfret, Vermont.  This event was also reported to have been the first time snowboarding was legitimately allowed on a ski resort!  The Championships were primarily focused on speed and “survival,” due to its course being a steep and icy kamikaze run called The Face.  Downhill racers were clocked at 60mph, and remember that these were the prehistoric boards.  Sports Illustrated, Good Morning America, and The Today Show all covered aspects of the competition, bringing boarders to mass media for the first time.  From this year forward Snurfers and snowboarders didn’t race together.

1983 – Burton held the first National Snowboarder Championships in Bondville, VT on the East Coast and Sims held the first World Snowboarding Championships in Lake Tahoe, CA on the West Coast.  Some competitors, including the Burton team, protested and/or boycotted the Sims competition because it involved a half-pipe event.  Disapproval was based on opinions that the pipe didn’t have anything to do with snowboarding.  This difference in perspective produced the two main disciplines of snowboarding styles: freestyle and race, with freeride as the combination of all.

1985 – Snowsport segregation meant only 39 of the roughly 600 ski resorts allowed snowboarders!  The first magazine strictly focused on snowboarding was published!  It was the originator of media dedicated to the sport and I loved the name Absolutely Radical, but sadly it was later retitled International Snowboarding Magazine.  The steel edge was revived in the Sims 1500FE and the Burton Performer models, while the National Snowboarding Championships was renamed the US Open Snowboarding Championships.  My favorite happening for this year was the premier of A View to Kill (for those of you unlearned in film, it’s a James Bond movie), in which Tom Sims was Bond’s stunt double.  During a scene where “Bond” cruises on a snowboard while chased down a snowy mountain by skiing villains, he skims across the top of a pond and the enemies in pursuit sink into the water with their skis.  This image of the suave hero riding a board triggered change in the stereotyping of snowboarders: rebellious bad boy to appropriately progressive.

1986 – Breckenridge in Colorado hosted the World Championships, which brought an excessive amount of people, press, and finances to the area.  The ski resorts took notice and some began to realize that snowboarders on their mountains would increase profits.  Although the progress from anti-snowboarder resorts to open runs stemmed from financial motivation, we should nonetheless accept this history as a gift of newly accessible trails.

1987 – TransWorld Snowboarding Magazine and Snowboarder Magazine launched their publications, utilizing marketing strategies targeting skateboarders, surfers, and cross-over skiers to enhance the existing fan base.

1988 – Chuck Allen incorporated the United States Amateur Snowboard Association (USASA) with a $500 donation from TransWorld Snowboarding zine.  The name was changed to the United States of America Snowboard Association, and they still hold the annual National Championships to this day.

1989 – The International Snowboarding Association (ISA) is created to govern the officiating of riders by riders.  Later renamed the International Snowboarding Federation (ISF), it would come to a difficult and disappointing end due to more interest in the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS).

1996 – Snowboarding was declared an Olympic Sport and would be featured in the ‘98 Olympics!

1997 – The Winter X Games debuted in Big Bear Lake, California.

1998 – For the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, snowboarding premiered for the whole world to see in two events: the half-pipe for freestyle boarders and the giant slalom for race boarders.  The International Snowboarding Federation (ISF) was stripped of its officiating duties by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a controversial decision where they recognized the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) as the sport’s governing council.  This choice instigated renowned snowboarder Terje Haakonsen to boycott the ‘98 Olympics in protest of skiers regulating snowboarders.  This began the ISF’s downfall, for those with traditional influence chose to give power to and invest money in the FIS.  The winner of the snowboarding giant slalom gold medal was Ross Rebagliati, a Canadian from Whistler, but after the fact he was robbed of his Olympic decorations due to testing positive for trace amounts of marijuana.  He appealed and won since marijuana is a controlled substance, not a banned one, and is not a performance enhancing drug.

- Get On The Scene –

Contrary to what skiers thought to be a short-lived craze, snowboarders proved their passion for riding wasn’t just a passing fad.  The fastest growing winter sport was born.  Youth and innovation have a new religion.

What are your thoughts on Terje Haakonsen’s Olympic boycott, my snowboarder amigo?

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