I thought it was Sherman Poppin and many incorrectly believe it was Jake Burton (due to some wicked good marketing done by Burton Snowboards), who invented the snowboard. No one may be completely sure who was first to stand up sideways and ride downhill on a sled over snow, but in the 1920′s Gunnar and Harvey Burgeson and Vern Wicklund rode downhill on a “bunker” (seen in video below) and in 1939 recieved a patent for it, originally called a “new and improved type of sled.”
In 1965, an American chemical engineer from Muskegon called Shermin Poppin combined the sports of skiing and surfing to invent ‘The Snurfer’. It was meant only as a gift for his daughter Wendy, but within a year an estimated 500,000 had been sold across the United States. Snowboarding as we know it today was on it’s way.
Here is a link to a more detailed history, starting after this point. Interesting to note Wiki misses this history…
Enjoy!
Help support StephenKoch.com and slide sideways downhill on a Rome Snowboard at Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…
Rome Design Snowboard
2 responses so far ↓
1 Stephanie (Burgeson) Dorn // Feb 19, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Thanks for highlighting my grandfather, Gunnar Burgeson. I’ve been trying to look into how I can suggest the wiki get updated to include the REAL history of snowboarding. Any ideas how I can get in touch with the owner of that page, please let me know.
Thanks!
[Reply]
Stephen Koch Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Hi Stephanie,
Not sure the process of dealing with the folks at Wiki, but you can try this page. Good luck!
Have you taken the Bunker out for a slide?
sk
[Reply]
Leave a Comment