Part 3

I interviewed one of my old teachers because he used to bride for Burton back in his day and to see what he thought about how much snowboarding has changed and how all the equipment has changed since he was snowboarding. And here is what he had to say.

Question one. How do you think snowboarding has evolved from the time it started? In the beginning snowboarders were not allowed on ski slopes, we were limited to hills in the area we lived in. it was very rare to see another snowboarder out riding the hills. They really evolved from a sport called snurfing. Snurfing was riding a single a single water ski looking board that had a rope attached to the nose of the board. Your feet were held in place by gritty tape (skateboarding tape)
Question two. How have the boards changed from the start of the sport? The boards started out as just laminated wood with no metal edges or bindings. Your feet were held in place with simple plastic like straps. Than there was a push to use epoxy based materials but they would crack and split from simple jumps. The shapes were also very limited; there were no asymmetrical boards all were essentially shaped like over weight water skis.
Question three. In what ways have the rules of safety changed over time? Safety, I think the biggest safety feature is the bindings that you strap into and the metal edges that are on most boards these days. In the beginning there were several ankle injuries because of the straps. Your ankle would twist while your foot stayed in one place. With bindings your foot was more secure and the binding itself went higher up your leg to give you more support. I also see a lot of boarders wearing helmets which wasn’t thought of back in the day.
Question four When did snowboarding become a legitimate sport and how long did it take? I would say sometime in the mid eighty’s, I got into it in eighty three
Question five. What is the future of snowboarding going to hold? Don’t know I had to stop because of seven dislocated shoulders and old age (Personal interview)

Snowboarding appealed initially to small group of surfers, skateboarders, and back-country enthusiasts. Three factors helped popularize the sport during the 1980s. First, materials and technology borrowed from ski manufacturing made riding on snow easier. For example, manufacturers added metal edges and made snowboards narrower at the centers to improve turning. Second, a skateboard revival in the 1980s helped popularize snowboarding when skateboarders took it up as a winter alternative (snowboardingtoday.com)

The first competitive snowboarding event was a small contest in Leadville, Colorado, in 1981. The following year the first national snowboarding championships were held in Vermont. In 1985 the world snowboarding championships were launched in Lake Tahoe in California. And in 1986 Europeans began organizing regional events and by 1993 the International Snowboard Federation held its first world championship. The FIS now holds world championships annually, and the ISF holds a separate event, also called the world championships, biannually (Snowboarding)