• In 1964, a young surfer named Sherman Poppen built the first surfboard for snow out of two kid’s skis bolted together.

• One year later, Sherman’s idea was put into production and was called the “Snurfer”.

• A man named Jake Burton Carpenter from Vermont started making snowboards out of his garage after using the snurfer as a kid.

• In 1977, Jake founded the company “Burton” which is still today one of the most successful snowboard companies.

• He made several improvement to the snurfer by adding fins on the bottom and bindings to hold the feet down.

• Snowboards today are separated into three main categories according to the different kinds of riding.

• These categories are Freeride/All Mountain, Freestyle, and Alpine.

Freestyle Freeride Alpine

• Freeride snowboards are the most popular and most versatile boards.

• They are very good all around boards, but they are used for powder snowboarding a lot of the time.

• The tail of the board is generally more narrow, shorter, and flatter than the nose of the board.

• Freeride boards have to be in the middle of stiff and flexible so they can be stable and manueverable.

• A freestyle snowboard is wider, more stable, and more flexible while being shorter and lighter.

• These boards are usually twin tips which means that it is symmetrical so you can ride backwards or “switch”.

• These boards are made for doing tricks such as jumps, spins, grabs, and rails.

• Alpine snowboards are longer, narrower, and stiffer than freestyle and freeride boards so that they can stay stable at high speeds.

• They are made for sharp turns, high speeds and racing.• The bindings are pointed more towards the nose than

freeride and freestyle boards so they can turn easier.