Who Invented Snowboarding?

Who Invented Snowboarding? Not Jake Burton

By Michael Frank, Adventure Journal on June 7th, 2012

On Christmas Day, 1965, Muskegon, Michigan’s Sherman Poppen’s pregnant wife, Nancy, wanted their two daughters, Wendy and Laurie, to play outside so she could get some rest. When the girls were disappointed they couldn’t safely stand up in their sled to go down the snow-covered dunes in their backyard, Poppen fastened together a pair of kid’s skis and after some tweaking invented Muskegon’s most famous toy, the Snurfer. The rest, as they say, is history. By 1968 Muskegon was hosting the World Snurfing Classic, and Poppen licensed the Snurfer name to Brunswick, which sold over a million of the proto-snowboards by the early 1980s. And even though Poppen didn’t actually bother to take up snowboarding until he was in his late 60s, he’s still considered the father of the sport, honored by the Olympic Committee when snowboarding was inducted into the Games. Poppen is being honored by the Muskegon Chamber of Commerce at a ceremony this week. Via Transworld.
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