A Short History of Snowboarding: From the Snurfer to the Olympics

Every snowboard trip stands on a surprisingly short history. Within living memory, the sport went from a backyard toy for children to an Olympic event on the world’s biggest winter stage. Lifts that once turned riders away now sell snowboard lessons.

This is a brief, source-based tour of how that happened: the Snurfer of 1965, the 1970s tinkerers, the fight for lift access, the holdout resorts, and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Snowboarding’s origin story has several authors, and accounts sometimes disagree on dates. Where they do, we say so.

Timeline at a glance

1965: a toy called the Snurfer

The story most historians start with takes place in Muskegon, Michigan. On Christmas Day 1965, Sherman Poppen, a lifelong skier who ran a welding-supply business in Muskegon, bolted together a pair of children’s skis for his daughters to ride down a dune near their home. His wife Nancy named the result the Snurfer, a blend of “snow” and “surfer.”

Poppen applied for a patent in March 1966 and licensed the toy to Brunswick Corporation, which made bowling equipment in Muskegon. According to the International Skiing History Association, about 750,000 Snurfers were sold by Brunswick and JEM Corporation over two decades. Brunswick sponsored a Snurfer racing championship from 1968. The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum says JEM, formed by former Brunswick executives, took over production in 1973.

The Snurfer had no bindings. Riders held a rope attached to the nose and stood with their feet on the board. It was a fun toy rather than a sport, but it put a sideways-standing board under many people, including a young rider named Jake Burton Carpenter, who later said the Snurfer inspired him.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History holds Poppen’s papers and a prototype of the board. Poppen died on July 31, 2019, at the age of 89.

The 1970s: tinkerers, skateboarders and a Vermont startup

While the Snurfer sold as a toy, other people were exploring serious versions of the idea.

• Dimitrije Milovich, Utah. A Utah history site describes Milovich working with surfboard shaper Wayne Stoveken on a board without a rope that had a plastic base and metal edges. By the early 1970s he was selling “Winterstick Swallowtails” from a shop in Salt Lake City and testing prototypes at Snowbird and Alta, according to the site.
• Tom Sims, California. A skateboarder, Sims built what he called a “skateboard for the snow” in junior high woodshop in 1963, according to his obituary in the Santa Barbara Independent. He later started a snowboard company bearing his name.
• Jake Burton Carpenter, Vermont. Burton founded Burton Snowboards in Londonderry, Vermont, in 1977. Vermont dedicated a historic marker nearby in October 2023, titled “The Birthplace of Burton Snowboards.” The original workshop later burned down.

In 1979 Burton arrived at the Snurfer Nationals with a modified board that had boot bindings. Organizers created a special open category so he could compete, which led to an open division for non-Snurfer boards.

The fight for the chairlift

Building boards was one challenge. Finding a mountain that would let you ride them was another.

The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum records several milestones in Vermont. In 1980, Paul Graves opened Snowboard East in Woodstock, which the museum describes as the first shop selling only Snurfers and snowboards. In 1982, Graves held the first National Snow Surfing Championships at Suicide Six near Woodstock, the first time, the museum says, that the ski industry let snowboarders use its slopes for an event. In 1983, after a demonstration by Burton and his team riders, Stratton Mountain’s general manager opened the mountain’s lower slopes to snowboards, against his board’s wishes.

In 1985, Burton hosted the first U.S. Open of Snowboarding at Stratton. The event stayed there until 2012, moved to Vail in 2013, and was last held in 2020.

Elsewhere, resorts set conditions. A Utah history site notes that many resorts there required a certification card showing a rider could turn and stop without endangering skiers. Other contests were helping to build an identity: according to Wikipedia, the first world championship halfpipe event was held at Soda Springs, California, in 1983, organized by Tom Sims with Mike Chantry.

The holdouts

Eventually the vast majority of resorts opened to snowboarders, but not all. Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico lifted its ban on March 19, 2008. At that point three U.S. resorts still banned snowboarding, and as far as published reports show, they still do:

• Alta Ski Area, Utah. In 2016, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a snowboarders’ discrimination lawsuit, finding that Alta’s policy was a private business decision.
• Deer Valley, Utah. The resort has described itself as a skier-only mountain since it opened in 1981, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
• Mad River Glen, Vermont. A co-operative resort that has kept its skier-only rule.

If you are planning a U.S. trip, check each resort’s current policy. Our guide to snowboarding in the USA notes which areas welcome boards.

1998: Nagano and the Olympic debut

Snowboarding made its Olympic debut at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. The competition ran from February 8 to 12, with giant slalom at Mount Yakebitai and halfpipe at Kanbayashi Snowboard Park. Four events were contested, men’s and women’s in each of the two disciplines.

The first champions were:

• Ross Rebagliati of Canada, men’s giant slalom, on February 8.
• Karine Ruby of France, women’s giant slalom, the sport’s first women’s Olympic champion.
• Gian Simmen of Switzerland, men’s halfpipe.
• Nicola Thost of Germany, women’s halfpipe.

Rebagliati’s win became part of Olympic folklore. The IOC stripped him of the medal after a drug test found marijuana, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport reinstated it a few days later, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia; Olympics.com says the medal was returned after a protest was upheld, since the substance is not performance-enhancing. Ruby later died in a mountaineering accident in 2009.

The Olympic connection makes Japan a natural stop for snowboarders curious about the sport’s history. Hakuba Valley hosted alpine, ski jumping and cross-country events in 1998, and our Japan guide and Hakuba guide cover the area today.

After Nagano: the Olympic program grows

The Olympic program has expanded steadily since 1998:

• 2002: Parallel giant slalom replaced the original giant slalom format.
• 2006: Snowboard cross joined the program.
• 2014: Slopestyle was added, and parallel slalom was held for one Games. Para-snowboard also debuted at the Sochi Paralympics.
• 2018: Big air arrived.
• 2022: Mixed team snowboard cross was added.
• 2026: At Milano Cortina, the snowboard program included 11 events: parallel giant slalom, halfpipe, snowboard cross, slopestyle and big air, plus mixed team snowboard cross.

From a toy in a Michigan backyard to eleven Olympic events in about sixty years, snowboarding’s rise is unusually well documented, and it still shapes where we go. If the history makes you want to ride the places where it happened or where today’s Olympians train, start with our guide to the best snowboarding destinations in the world.

Frequently asked questions

Who invented the snowboard?

There is no single inventor. Sherman Poppen’s Snurfer (1965) is widely cited as the forerunner, and Milovich, Sims and Burton Carpenter each developed boards that moved the idea toward modern snowboarding. Different histories give credit in different ways.

When did snowboarding become an Olympic sport?

Snowboarding debuted at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, with giant slalom and halfpipe events.

Who won the first Olympic snowboarding gold medal?

Ross Rebagliati of Canada won the men’s giant slalom on February 8, 1998. Karine Ruby of France won the women’s giant slalom at the same Games.

Why were snowboarders banned from ski resorts?

Sources describe ski areas adopting snowboarding more slowly than the public and note friction between skiers and snowboarders. Some resorts required riders to prove they could turn and stop before using the lifts.

Do any resorts still ban snowboarding?

Alta and Deer Valley in Utah and Mad River Glen in Vermont have been reported as ski-only. Policies can change, so check the resort’s website.

Sources and further reading

• Sherman Poppen — International Skiing History Association
• A Brief History of Snowboarding — Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum
• Snurfer — Wikipedia
• Snowboarding — Wikipedia
• Inventor Sherman Poppen, snurfing his way into history — Smithsonian National Museum of American History
• The Origins of Snowboarding in Utah — Utah Community History
• Thomas “Tom” Paul Sims — Santa Barbara Independent
• The birthplace of Burton Snowboards, Londonderry, recognized with historic marker — Vermont Public
• Snowboarding at the 1998 Winter Olympics — Wikipedia
• Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics — Wikipedia
• Snowboarding — The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Rebagliati wins landmark snowboarding gold — Olympics.com
• Karine Ruby became the first Olympic snowboard champion — Olympics.com
• Ban on snowboarders at Utah ski resort backed by appeals court — KSHB / Associated Press
• Why is Deer Valley ski-only? — The Salt Lake Tribune
• Spring fling: Taos ramps up for riders — NBC News