In 1964 a young surf freak called Sherman Poppen was dreaming about surfing not only the water but also the snow. As a consequence, he was the first to build a board for the snow. His first prototype was about 120 cm long, significantly shorter than today's boards, and was basically just two kids' skis bolted together. One year later, in 1965, his idea was put into production. It was called "snurfer" (=snow surfer). For the unbeatable price of $15, one million snurfers were sold in the 10 following years. Soon after that Poppen established a competition series.

But the "snurfer" disappeared as quickly as it came. Nothing else but the vague memory of an uncontrollable toy stayed in most people's minds. It was close to be the end of a fantastic idea, if there wouldn't have been people like Dimitrije Milovich or Jake Burton Carpenter.

While Milovich tried to establish another, not as successful, form of the snowboard, the young student Jake Burton held on to the idea of snurfing and continued to improve the toy. After years and years of improving the "snurfer" Jake Burton finally founded his own company. He participated in several races with his own equipment and helped revolutionizing snowboarding as a sport.

Snowboarding was born. It was newer, fresher, younger than anything else on the slope. The evolution became faster and faster: rounded tails, hard boots, plate bindings, powder boards, race boards and free style boards were invented, as well as new disciplines like half pipes, modules and downhill. By 1990 there were more and more boarders on the slopes, and ski-resorts started to permit snowboarders on their slopes.

Nowadays snowboarding is almost more popular than skiing and it's still growing. More and more resorts are organizing events and it developed into an Olympic sport. Today's top snowboarders like Shaun White are already considered Superstars and the white revolution is still going on.

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