M.J. "Jack" Burchett came up with one of the first “snowboards”. In 1929, he cut out a plank of plywood and tried to secure his feet with some clothesline and horse reins. Improvements for the snowboard had to wait over 30 years until 1965. M.J. "Jack" Burchett came up with one of the first “snowboards”. In 1929, he cut out a plank of plywood and tried to secure his feet with some clothesline and horse reins. Improvements for the snowboard had to wait over 30 years until 1965.
Sherman Poppen, a chemical gases engineer in Muskegon, invented "The Snurfer" (his wife came up with the name) as a toy for his daughter. He made the Snurfer by bounding two skis together and putting a rope at the nose, so the rider could hold it and keep it more stable. Many of his daughter’s friends wanted one of those new Snurfers, and soon Poppen licensed his new idea to a manufacturer. Over half a million Snurfers were sold in 1966, but was only seen as a toy for kids, even though Poppen organized competitions with this new board.
Jake Burton took part in those competitions and became really interested in the Snurfer. For him it was a cool thing to do, not having the opportunity to go surfing (his parents would not buy him a board). But Burton was really serious about skiing. After breaking his collarbone in a car accident, he was not able to take part in skiing competitions anymore. While Burton was into riding the Snurfer, Dimitrije Milovich started making snowboards in 1969. After sliding down some hills on a cafeteria plate in college, he came up with the idea. His boards were based on surfboards combined with the way skis work.
In 1972 Milovich started a new company called "Winterstick". He produced several boards, and even got articles in the "Newsweek", "Playboy" and "Powder" which helped to make snowboarding better known. Even though Milovich left the snowboarding business in 1980, he is still recognized as a very important pioneer of the sport. In 1977 Jake Burton, who now finished NYU, moved to Londonderry, Vermont to make some money by building different versions of the Snurfer, which he still remembered. His first boards were made of laminated hardwood. Burton shocked all the Snurfer riders by winning a Snurfer competition with his own board, which had the first binding. This first binding made a big difference fro handling the board, and thus made it easier for him to beat the other riders.
Parallel to Burton, Tom Sims produced his first snowboards in 1977. Being obsessed with skateboarding, Sims tried to go out in the snow and slide down the hill with a "snowboard" he built in a junior high shop-class. He just glued some carpet to the top of a piece of wood, and put aluminum sheeting on the bottom. After he focused on producing skateboards in his garage, with the help of his friend and employee Chuck Barfoot, he started making snowboards in 1977. Barfoot, who actually made the snowboards, came up with the "Flying Yellow Banana". It was just a skateboard deck on top of a plastic shell with skegs. Officially the first real ski technology for snowboards was introduced by Burton 1980 (it is said Winterstick already used a P-Tex base in 1974). The new prototype had a P-tex base and combined more of the ski technology into snowboards with that. In the same year Sims signed a skate- and snowboarding deal with a big mainstream company (Vision Sports), which helped him solving his financial problems. Barfoot was left out, and tried to build his own firm. He did not succeed against the big competitors Sims and Burton.