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a bit of history.

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throttle_ninja
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:05 am Reply with quote
Joined: 07 Nov 2008 Posts: 1075
History of Snowboarding

1963 - Tom Sims makes his first “skiboard” for an eighth grade project in New Jersey.

1965 - Sherman Poppen invents The Snurfer for his daughter Wendy by bolting two skis together.

1970 - Inspired by sliding on cafeteria trays in upstate New York, East Coast surfer Dimitrije Milovich starts developing snowboards based on surfboard design with a rudimentary idea of how skis work. The boards had metal edges.

1971 - According to Milovich, he is granted a patent for his snowboard design so he could sell the idea to ski companies. The patent didn't expire until 1988 and Milovich declines from enforcing the patent with other companies.

1969-1972 - Bob Webber spends several years trying to obtain a patent for his early "skiboard" design. This takes him until 1972 to get and he later sells the patent to Jake Burton Carpenter on August 17, 1990.

1975 - Dimitrije Milovich sets up Winterstick production in Utah. The metal edges from his early boards are removed because Milovich was riding powder over his head and didn't need them. Milovich also develops a swallow-tailboard based on the same design in surfboards, and, one year later a double-edged design that he got a patent on.

1975 - Milovich and Winterstick are written up in the March issue of Newsweek and have a two-page photo spread in Powder, giving snowboarding some early national exposure.

1976 - Sims Sports is formed.

1977 - Mike Olson builds his first snowboard in jr. high wood shop. He continued to modify boards in high school and beyond, until 1984, when he quits college to start Gnu.

1977 - Jake Burton Carpenter moves to Stratton Mountain, Vermont, working nights as a bartender and designing the prototypes for what will later be Burton Snowboards during the day. Like Sims, he also claims to have been modifying Snurfers since high school.

1977 - Milovich obtains a written confirmation from Petit-Morey and Kendall Insurance, the insurance brokers for America's ski resorts, that snowboards are in fact covered under regular ski liability. This proves that resort acceptance was based on the mountain manager's preference just as we suspected.

1977--Bob Webber designs the "yellow banana" polyethylene molded bottom and Tom Sims tacks on the Lonnie Toft skate deck making the first production "Skiboard" under the Sims name.

1978--Milovich says that by this year he sells Wintersticks in 11 different foreign countries.

1978--Chuck Barfoot develops a fiberglass prototype snowboard and he and Bob Webber take it out to Utah for a test run. Barfoot later goes on to design boards with Tom Sims.

1978—Tom Sims is first to ride Mammoth, Squaw, Mt. Waterman and Mt. High.

1979--At the annual Snurfer contest held in Michigan, sponsored Snurfer pro Paul Graves puts on a freestyle demo and wows the crowd by doing four sliding 360s, dropping down on one knee for part of the course, and dismounting off his board at the finish with a front flip. At the same event, Jake Burton Carpenter tries to enter on his own equipment. There are protests about his non-Snurfer snowboard design. Paul Graves and others stand up for Jake's right to race and an open division is created which only Jake enters and wins.

1979-- Paul Graves appears riding a Snurfer in the first TV snowboarding commercial for LaBatt's beer which runs four years in Canada and the northern U.S.

1979-- Mark Anolik discovers the Tahoe City Halfpipe while nosing around behind the Tahoe City dump. This becomes known as the world's first snowboard halfpipe and attracts the likes of Terry Kidwell, Keith Kimmel, and photographers from the skateboard magazines.

1979-1980--Skateboarder and Action Now magazines both print early features on the rising sport of snowboarding.

1980--Chris Sanders buys a Snurfer and when it disintegrated he built his own board, which would later lead him to founding Avalanche Snowboards.

1981--After working with early developments at Sims, Chuck Barfoot leaves to form his own self-named snowboard company.

1982--Paul Graves organizes the National Snowsurfing Championships held at Suicide Six Ski Area in Woodstock, Vermont, featuring a slalom and downhill. Racers in the downhill were allegedly clocked going speeds in excess of 60 m.p.h. This is the first time riders from all over the country compete against each other including rivals Tom Sims and Jake Burton Carpenter. Tom Sims was victorious in the downhill but fractured his thumb crashing into the hay bales at the finish line. Burton team rider Doug Bouton wins first overall. The contest also features the first amateur division. It's also the last time Snurfers and snowboards race together. The contest draws media coverage from the likes of Sports Illustrated, NBC Today, and Good Morning America.

1983--Jake Burton Carpenter puts on the National Snowboarding Championships in the spring at Snow Valley, Vermont. Tom Sims then goes home and holds the inaugural World Snowboarding Championships at Soda Springs Ski Bowl in the Lake Tahoe area. This is the first contest to have a halfpipe event. Jake Burton, Andy Coghlan, and the Burton team members threatened to boycott the event because they felt halfpipe had nothing to do with snowboarding and should not be considered in the overall.

1983--Jeff Grell designs a highback binding, enabling boards to be ridden effectively on hardpack. The bindings were first used on Flite snowboards, but later developed for Sims. Other's claim a highback was built earlier by Louis Fornier so Jeff's claim to the highback is up for discussion.

1985--In January, Mt. Baker hosts the first Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom, which becomes a competitive mainstay. Tom Sims wins.

1985--Thrasher covers the World Championships at Soda Springs, and give some of the first magazine exposure for a snowboarding contest.

1985--Absolutely Radical, the first magazine exclusively about snowboarding, appears in March. Six months later the name is changed to International Snowboard Magazine.

1985--Metal edges are introduced on Sims 1500 FE and Burton Performer models, their winter production models. This ends the era of surfing-influenced fin design once and for all as snowboards become more compatible with ski technology.

1985--Sims introduces the first signature model snowboard in their winter line, bearing Terry Kidwell's name. The Kidwell is also the first freestyle board with a rounded tail.

1985--Mike Olson Gnu boards are the first to be marketed as a carving board, where turns are
made on edge rather than sliding.

1986--The World Snowboarding Championships, or The World's, as it has became known, relocates from Soda Springs to Breckenridge, Colorado. The March event draws big money from Swatch and gets some of the most national recognition to date. Probably the most ground breaking is done when Fran Richards, Paul Alden and Dave Alden convince the Breckenridge
management that the halfpipe is not a high-speed event.

1986--During this winter, Stratton Mountain in Vermont becomes the first resort to offer organized snowboarding instruction.

1986-'87 Season--With a lace-up, ski-boot inner bladder, Burton produces what will become the standard design for soft-boot snowboarding.

1987--Chuck Barfoot and his company introduce the first twin-tip freestyle shape with an identical nose and tail. Canadians Neil Daffern, Ken and Dave Achenbach design the board.

1987--Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine publishes first issue in the fall.

1987--In September, Wrigley's chewing gum utilizes snowboarding in a national commercial. Craig Kelly, Bert LaMar, Tom Burt, and Jim Zellers appear in an aerial romp filmed by Greg Stump.

1988--Veteran surf company Ocean Pacific warms up to snowboarding by developing their own line of winter clothing. Other surf companies soon follow and capitalize on the crossover between the two sports.

1988--Further action sport involvement comes when surf and skate manufacturer G&S enters the market. By 1990, G&S had exited the snowboard market.

1988--While the two major snowboard manufacturers, Burton and Sims, battle over Craig Kelly in court, he is ordered by a federal judge not to ride any products bearing any logo other than Sims. Kelly then starts riding blackboards with no logo. The restraining order is later reversed in court and Kelly signs a long-term deal with Burton.

1988-- Former amateur surf promoter Chuck Allen incorporates the United States Amateur Snowboarding Association (USASA) in July with a $500 donation from Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine. USASA is the first governing body exclusively for competitive amateur snowboarding.

1989--Earl A. Miller, an engineer and inventor from Utah, produces a releasable snowboard binding, but the technology has yet to hit the mainstream.

1989--Just in time for the coming winter, most of the major ski resorts that had previously resisted snowboarding succumb, such as Squaw Valley, California; Mammoth Mountain, California; Vail, Colorado; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Snowbird, Utah.

1989--OP continues to delve into the snowboarding market by expanding their popular OP Pro of Surfing to include the OP Pro of Snowboarding. The contest is held at June Mountain, California.

1989--October. Rob Morrow leaves his Sims sponsorship and with business help from his uncle starts Morrow Snowboards in Salem, Oregon.

1989--The first National Collegiate Championships are held in December at Stratton Mountain, Vermont. Soon, college teams and clubs sprout like weeds throughout the country.

1990--Jake Carpenter buys the patent for the "skiboard" from its designer Bob Webber. Burton's lawyers send out a letter asking for three percent of everyone's total sales, Jake makes it look like he is being squeezed by some outside force into paying the royalties as well. The industry eventually finds out that Burton is behind both letters and dares Jake to enforce the patent. Jake doesn't and claims he bought the patent to keep Brunswick from buying and ruining the industry. Nothing happens.

1990--Santa Cruz Skateboards owner Rich Novak starts producing a line of snowboards. Other skate companies like H-Street decide to test the waters with their own board and clothing designs.

1990--Vail Ski Resort tries a new approach by developing an in-bounds obstacle area called a "snowboard park." The area is intended to cater to a growing snowboard market and other resorts quickly follow suit.

1991--By now, the pro surfer/pro skater crossover to snowboarding is prevalent. Skaters Steve Caballero and Lance Mountain have been riding since the early 80s at least, Tony Hawk, Kevin Staab, and Joe Johnson have been riding for years. Surf standouts like Gary Elkerton, Mike Parsons, and Noah Budroe bite the snowboarding bait, and most other pro surfers ride regularly, have tried it, or at least have developed an opinion or two about it.

1991--After a lengthy court dispute over the Sims name, Tom Sims wins back the licensing rights from Vision in February. Vision begins production under its own name and Tom resumes making a new Sims line.

1991--The Op Wintersurf contest held in February pits pro surfers and snowboarders against each other in a surf contest at Huntington Beach and a snowboard obstacle course/race at Bear Mountain. Top international pro surfer Gary Elkerton scores the win, proving it's a lot harder to learn how to surf than snowboard.

1991—Tom designs first permanent half-pipe at Snow Summit.

1992-- The United States Ski Association decides to finally become involved with snowboarding. With back room political help from Paul Alden the USSA tries to merge with the USASA. Negotiations fail between the two groups.

1992-- Ken Achenbach and some friends produce a baseless soft binding called "Simply Filth." Most in the industry shrug it off as another of Ken Achenbach's wild ideas.

1993-- Snowboarding's third wave of snowboard manufacturers spring up and in the fall of 1993 there are over 50 different companies marketing snowboards to the consuming public.

1993-- One of the companies is Type A run by Plan B owner Mike Ternasky. It is seen as the first of the third wave/hardcore skateboard companies to enter the snowboard market.

1993-- Closely on Type A's heels comes Blunt, a snowboard magazine created in Vista, California by Ken Block of Droors clothing and Circus Distribution. The magazine is slick, nasty, and quickly gains the attention of the snowboarding industry for its use of video grabs and full color graphics. Some disparagingly refer to it as "Big Brother's little bro."

1993-- The Federation Ski International (FIS), the international organizational body for skiing and Olympic skiing votes to recognize snowboarding at their June meeting. Plans for several events in 1994 and a full-fledged World Cup Tour in 1995. The snowboard industry is wary of this bureaucratic giant. Many feel this kind of organization will be bad for the sport.

1993-- Snowboarder TV goes on the air of ESPN with host G.T. (Greg Tomlinson). The show features great riding, music and very little talking. It is well received.

1993-- Following on the success of 411 a skateboard video magazine produced by Paul Schmitt, TransWorld Publications creates Transworld Snowboarding Video Magazine by Mike McIntire (Mack Dawg).

1994--At the Lillihammer, Norway Olympics it is hoped that snowboarding would be performed as a "cultural exhibition" by the host country Norway. The FIS gets wind of the performance and forces its cancellation. Many believe it will not be until 1998 that the Olympics give medals for snowboarding.

1994-- The first Amateur World Championships are held in Slovenia.

1994-- At the SIA Trade Show in Las Vegas, Nevada every one of the big snowboard companies introduces a baseless binding and touts it as the newest thing to hit snowboarding. At the same show Burton and Snow Pro display step in hardboot bindings to slightly less fanfare.

1994-- Ride Snowboards becomes the first snowboard company to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. They sell out the original 500,000 units in the first two weeks and another 75,000 units are released. In the sale Ride offers one unit (two shares and one warrant) for US$10. By the middle of June 1995 the share price reached $28, or six times it's original worth.

1994—Sims releases first women’s pro model board.

1994-- Burton Snowboards releases the first CD-ROM interactive catalog. Taking snowboarding into the computer age.

1994-- Avalanche Snowboards sells 80 percent of it's 15 year old company to businessman Robert Edwards for an undisclosed amount. Edwards worked previously with Anthony Industries, the Parent Corporation of K2 Skis.

1994-- Molson, the Canadian beer, uses stock snowboarding footage shot by FLF in it's beer ad which premiers during Monday Night Football. Riders Damian Sanders, Dave Seoane, and other get small fee.

1995-- Five different manufacturers including Burton and Airwalk show step-in soft bindings. With product from Switch, Device, and T-Bone, many in the industry rush to call step-in soft bindings snowboarding's next big thing.

1995--December. Morrow Snowboards becomes second snowboard company when Smith-Barney takes them public. Shares open at a price of US$11.

1996-- April 26. Ride Inc. announces that its Preston Binding Company subsidiary, together with Mark A. Raines and Gregory A. Deeney, has sued Switch Manufacturing Company for patent infringement claiming that Switches Autolock binding is too similar to the Raines binding because it attaches side to side.

1996-- Tom Sims ends relationship with DNR/Sportsystem and files a suit in the Santa Barbara County Court for a restraining order to stop DNR from using the Sims brand name.

1997—Jake Burton Carpenter appears in an American Express Cardholder television commercial. Snowboarding has hit the mainstream.

1997—Surfing mogul Quicksilver buys Mervin Manufacturing, company for Lib-Tech, Gnu, and Bent Metal Bindings.

1997—European giant Adidas buys Salomon, showcasing that enough money can buy industry entrance.

1997—Sims introduces first toe-ramp binding, the Posi-Link. Copycats follow.

1997—In preparation for the 1998 Winter Olympics, Terje Haakonsen makes it known that he will boycott the Olympics because of the governing body’s regulations and judging.

1998—Shukoski vs. Indianhead Mountain- judge decides that snowboarders are responsible for themselves in snowboard parks. The term “Super Park” has only begun to flourish.

1998-Sims makes first Full-Carbon Snowboard.

1999- K2 buys Morrow Snowboards and all subsidiaries.

2000- K2 buys Ride Snowboards. A Mega-Monster is born.

2000—Sims resurrects the World Snowboarding Championship in Whistler, BC.

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auragreg
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:05 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 2382 Location: Highland, Michigan, USA, Earth
great history ... but where's the rest?

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yoyo
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:02 am Reply with quote
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 2228 Location: Germany
Yeah thanks!

I am big fan of old Sims boards and have been riding Lib Techs since 1991.

Check this auction for an old almost NOS Terry Kidwell roundtail which ended at $ 8000, yes 8k!
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...ame=STRK:MEWAX:IT
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auragreg
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 7:17 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 2382 Location: Highland, Michigan, USA, Earth
I have an old Kidwell at home ... The black one like the "halfpipe" with the flouresent green bindings.

Also a first year burton air. and a burton elite 140 complete with metal fin on the bottom.

I don't activley collect. These were all riders except the Elite.

It's a shame what happend to Sims. For being one of the first, the brand took a dive.

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throttle_ninja
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 1:22 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 07 Nov 2008 Posts: 1075
if you like sims history add Tom Sims on facebook he posts alot of very interesting stuff

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yoyo
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:36 pm Reply with quote
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 2228 Location: Germany
throttle_ninja wrote:
if you like sims history add Tom Sims on facebook he posts alot of very interesting stuff


That's right.
I already did when he joined fb like a month ago.
Tom deserves a lot more recognition for what he has contributed to skate and snowboarding.
He was never able to cash in a lot.
The foldable hiback for example; he should have gotten a patent on it, but had no money to do so.
Sims and Lib Tech are my favourite for decades.

Cool to get in touch with lots of legends there like Henry Hester.
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mettuchi
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:20 pm Reply with quote
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Joined: 25 Dec 2008 Posts: 4841 Location: Turkey
i used to have a blue Crazy banana, does anyone have a picture of it?
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flynnnaryd
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:29 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 Aug 2008 Posts: 195 Location: Kelownafornia
I collect a lot of old snowboards and used to ride for Crazy Banana back in the day LOL. If any one is interested in buying or selling Let me know. I have a pretty big chunk of snowboard history ..It makes collecting skateboards seem pretty resonable. Kind of any way hahaha.. I got tons of pictures so hit me up

cheers here just the tip of the ice burgh. any one got a line on old barfoots??? 1980 - 83?????




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flynnnaryd
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:32 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 Aug 2008 Posts: 195 Location: Kelownafornia
A few more !!!



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flynnnaryd
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:34 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 Aug 2008 Posts: 195 Location: Kelownafornia
couple more



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