-
In 1964 a surfer named Sherman Poppen thought up an idea for a "surfboard on snow". The first one he made was two skis bolted together.
-
A year later, in 1965, Sherman's invention was put into production. He named it the snurfer and sold it on shelves of toy stores for only $15.
-
Poppen started to make a competition board, but it failed. He sold over 1 million snurfers in the first ten years of sales. But, sales started to decline and about 15 years after he released the first snurfer, nobody had any interest in buying one. He went out of business.
-
In 1970, Milovitch started to develop a new version of the snurfer. He invented the first steel edge to put on a snowboard. His company "Winterstick" is considered to be the first real snowboard company ever.
-
When 1975 rolled around, Winterstick mentioned their new boards in American magazines.
-
Milovich and Winterstick are written up in the March issue of Newsweek and have a two-page photo spread in Powder, giving snowboarding some national exposure.
-
By 1976, the first Winterstick board was thrown onto the non existent snowboard market.
-
Mike Olson builds his first snowboard in jr. high wood shop class and he later quit college to start Gnu.
-
Jake Burton deiced to found is own company in Vermont. He wasn't trying to create a company, he was just making improvements to his snurfer toy, and people loved what he was doing.
-
Boards up until this were made from polyethylene. But, Chuck Barfoot invented the fiberglass snowboard
-
Most of the first Boards didn't have any bindings and were featuring a control-leash instead. Still not allowed on the public slopes in ski resorts, the first boarders had to come in at night, walk up the trails, and ride down secretly in order to avoid any penalty.
-
Jake Burton Carpenter moves to Stratton Mountain, Vt., working nights as a bartender and designing the prototypes for what will later be Burton Snowboards during the day.
-
Chuck Barfoot develops a fiberglass prototype snowboard, and he and Bob Webber take it out to Utah to test it.
-
Jake Burton entered the annual snurfur contest with his own board that he had been working on. He Won his division making a new name for his brand; Burton
-
Skateboarder and Action Now magazines print early features on the rising sport of snowboarding
-
Burton and Winterstick both utilize a P-Tex base on their prototype-boards, introducing ski technology to the new sport.
-
Winterstick closes shop having sold fewer than 1,000 boards in its six-year run.
-
The first National snowboarding race took place in 1982 in Vermont.
-
Avalanche Snowboards founded in South Lake Tahoe by Chris Sanders and Earl Zeller. They made three boards the first year and named them Huey, Dewey, Louie.
-
Paul Graves organizes the National Snowsurfing Championships held at Suicide Six Ski Area in Woodstock, Vermont. It featured slalom and downhill. Racers in the downhill were aparently clocked going speeds over 60 m.p.h.
-
Tom Sims who founder of Sims Snowboards, took it upon himself to organize the first World Championship half-pipe competition in 1983.
-
Jeff Grell designs a high back binding, allowing boards to be ridden effectively on snow that is very hardly packed.
-
Ski resorts finally let snowboarders ride in their resorts. Previously it was outlawed because everyone who snowboarded at the time were considered punks.
-
"Absolutely Radical" came out. The first official snowboard magazine featuring new equipment and the worlds best riders. The magazine still exists today as "International Snowboard Magazine".
-
The sport continued to gain popularity, and the first World Cup of snowboarding was held in Austria in 1985.
-
In January, Mt. Baker hosted the first Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom which becomes a competitive sport. Tom Sims won.
-
Metal edges are introduced on Sims 1500 FE and Burton Performer models. Metal edges launch the sport of snowboarding to a new level.
-
Gnu boards are the first to be made and sold as a carving board, where turns are made on edge instead of on the side.
-
Burton makes the first lace up snowboard boot with warm inner liners and it sets the bar for how snowboard boots will be made for years to come.
-
Stratton Mountain becomes the first mountain to offer organized snowboarding instructions.
-
By the end of the 80's snowboarding was so popular that colleges were offering it as a club sport.
-
Wrigley chewing gum uses snowboarding in one of their commercials. This was the first time snowboarding was used to advertise a big name product on television.
-
Making the pipes in the resorts was very difficult and were done by hand until Doug Waugh invented the Pipe Dragon to help shape and form the pipes on the slope.
-
The USASA holds their premiere national championships in February, at Snow Valley, California. The worst snow storm of the decade hits just before the event and closes all roads to Big Bear. Amateur snowboarders from all over the country are left stranded.
-
Breckenridge Colorado announces they are going to start a snowboarding hall of fame. This would become the first hall of fame for snowboarders in the United States.
-
The "park" becomes a part of the slopes for the first time. It features rails and boxes, then jumps and half pipes come later.
-
There were over 50 brands of snowboards producing and selling snowboards to the general public.
-
Snowboarder TV goes on the air of ESPN.
-
The first Amateur World Championships are held in Slovenia.
-
The first company to go public in advertising was Ride in 1994.
-
Shannon Dunn was the first big name woman in snowboarding and she paved the way for future generations of girls that liked the sport just as much as she did.
-
Ride snowboards become the first company to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
-
The first ever X-games including snowboarding was held and covered by ESPN. Over 30,000 people crowded around to watch the event
-
Snowboarding was officially made an Olympic sport in 1998 at the Nagano Olympics in Japan.
-
Snowboarding became a regular event in a new decade and watched new faces compete in events like the X-Games.
-
Shaun White paves the way for serious snowboard competition after winning a gold metal in the 2006 winter games. He "had a perfect season" that made him into a legend.
-
Torstein Horgmo completes the first triple cork in history, all while having a head injury.
-
Marcus Kleveland becomes the youngest snowboarded signed by a big name company at the age of 11. Volcom's Euro team gave him a career before he even reached high school.
-
Yuki Kadono performed the first backside triple 1440. It shot him to the top of the Air and Style competition he was competing in.
-
Billy Morgan landed the first backside 1800 quadruple cork. The trick required him to twist horizontally and vertically giving the affect of a corkscrew.
