46 Fun Facts About Snowboarding

Sherm Poppen's 1965 invention, the ancestor of the snowboard, was called what?

The Snurfer got its name when Poppen's wife Nancy fused 'snow' and 'surfer'; about a million were sold over the next decade, and some of its young riders went on to build the first true snowboards.

In which US state did Sherm Poppen build his 1965 forerunner of the snowboard?

Poppen built it in Muskegon, Michigan, where he worked as an industrial-gas engineer; Muskegon later hosted the toy's national championships.

On which holiday did Sherm Poppen build his daughters the snow toy that led to the snowboard?

On Christmas Day 1965 Poppen fastened two skis together so his daughters could stand up and surf down the snowy dunes outside their home.

Jake Burton Carpenter founded Burton Snowboards in 1977 in which state?

Vermont: Burton set up in a barn in Londonderry, and in 1979 a national contest for the older toy boards had to create an open class for his design, which he won as its only entrant.

Snowboard bases are typically made from which material?

Polyethylene, usually sold under the P-Tex brand name, forms the base of nearly all snowboards because it slides well and absorbs wax.

Which pioneer, founder of a West Coast rival to Burton, built his first 'skiboard' in a school shop class in 1963?

Tom Sims built it as a schoolboy in New Jersey, went on to found Sims Snowboards, and doubled for Roger Moore in the snowboard scenes of the Bond film A View to a Kill.

In 1983 a skateboarder turned snowboard maker staged the first World Championship halfpipe contest in which US state?

California: the organiser talked the Soda Springs ski area into shaping a halfpipe for the 1983 contest, the first one a resort had built for snowboarders.

Which long-running contest began as the 1982 national snowboarding championships on the Suicide Six ski hill?

The US Open: Jake Burton's company took over the race, moved it to Stratton Mountain in 1985 and gave it the new name, and it helped put snowboarding on the map as a sport.

In the 1980s, what did the few US ski resorts that admitted snowboarders often make them do first?

Pass a riding test: boarders had to show they could control a board before using the lifts. In 1985 only about 7% of US ski areas admitted them at all, yet by the 1990s almost every resort did.

Snowboarders sued which US resort in federal court over its ban on their sport?

Alta was sued in 2014 by four snowboarders and the group Wasatch Equality in federal court in Utah; the resort won and, as of 2026, still opens its lifts to skiers only.

Snowboarding made its Winter Olympic debut at which Games?

Nagano 1998 staged giant slalom and halfpipe contests little more than a decade after most American ski resorts were still turning snowboarders away.

Who won the first ever Olympic snowboarding gold medal?

Ross Rebagliati of Canada was only eighth after the first giant slalom run, then won the sport's first Olympic final by two hundredths of a second.

Why was the first Olympic snowboarding champion briefly stripped of his gold?

He tested positive for cannabis, but the drug was not on the IOC's banned list, so an appeals court handed the medal back within days.

Which French rider won the first women's Olympic snowboarding gold?

Karine Ruby won the women's giant slalom, the first women's snowboard event; she died in 2009 in a crevasse fall on Mont Blanc while training as a guide.

Why did Norwegian star Terje Håkonsen boycott the 1998 Olympic halfpipe?

The IOC put skiing's federation in charge of Olympic snowboarding rather than the riders' own body; Håkonsen, then the world's top halfpipe rider, stayed home and left the contest wide open.

In 2007 Håkonsen set a world record of 9.8 metres for what?

Highest air off a quarterpipe: Håkonsen flew 9.8 m above the lip at the Arctic Challenge in Oslo, the riders' contest he had co-founded, beating a 9.3 m record that had stood since 2001.

Shaun White won his third Olympic halfpipe gold in 2018 with the contest's final run, overtaking a rider from which country?

Japan: Ayumu Hirano led until White, the last rider to drop in, scored 97.75 with back-to-back 1440s he had never before landed in one run; it was his third gold after 2006 and 2010.

What did Shaun White name his signature Double McTwist 1260?

White dubbed the Double McTwist 1260 'The Tomahawk' and landed it on a victory lap, his gold already secure, for a score of 48.4 out of 50.

Shaun White's long-standing nickname 'The Flying Tomato' refers to what?

His red hair, worn long, earned him the name; he embraced it at first, even wearing headbands with a flying-tomato logo, but had tired of it by 2006.

Which condition, present from birth, meant Shaun White had two operations before his first birthday?

Tetralogy of Fallot, a four-part heart defect sometimes called blue-baby syndrome, needed two open-heart operations before White turned one; he went on to win three Olympic golds.

Why did Chloe Kim, already a top halfpipe rider, not compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics?

She was too young: Kim was only 13 during the Sochi Games, so she waited four years and won halfpipe gold at 17, then the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding title.

Chloe Kim deferred admission to which university after her 2018 gold?

Kim enrolled at Princeton in 2019 after a year's deferral, then took leave to train for Beijing 2022, where she won again.

Who won the first women's Olympic halfpipe gold for the USA, at Salt Lake City 2002?

Kelly Clark, at 18 the youngest rider in the field, trailed France's Doriane Vidal after the first run of the final, then scored 47.9 on her second to win.

Australia's Torah Bright won halfpipe gold at which Olympics?

Vancouver 2010: Torah Bright, Australia's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, crashed on her first run of the final, then scored 45.0 on her second to take gold.

At the 2014 Olympics, Torah Bright competed in which three snowboard events?

Halfpipe, slopestyle and boardercross: the triple workload paid off only in the pipe, where Bright took silver; she was seventh in slopestyle and eighteenth in the cross.

Ayumu Hirano, the 2022 Olympic halfpipe champion, competed in which sport at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games?

Skateboarding: Hirano rode the park event in Tokyo and finished 14th, then won halfpipe gold in Beijing six months later, after silvers at the two previous Winter Games.

Ayumu Hirano won 2022 Olympic halfpipe gold with which trick, never before landed in an Olympic halfpipe?

A triple cork: Hirano landed it on his second run but still trailed on the judges' cards, so he landed it again on his last run and scored 96.00 to take gold.

Red Gerard famously overslept before winning 2018 slopestyle gold after binge-watching which sitcom?

Gerard stayed up watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine with his roommate, overslept, then misplaced his jacket and borrowed Kyle Mack's before winning.

Snowboard cross made its Olympic debut at which Games?

Turin 2006 hosted the first Olympic snowboard cross; American Seth Wescott won the men's race, and Tanja Frieden won the women's after Lindsey Jacobellis fell showboating near the finish.

Which snowboarding style is sometimes called 'hardbooting' because of its ski-like boots?

Alpine riding, in hard plastic boots on narrow carving boards, made up half the events at snowboarding's Olympic debut, yet the great majority of riders today wear soft boots.

'Jibbing' means riding on what?

Rails, boxes and other non-snow surfaces are the jibber's terrain, and the sliding technique was lifted straight from skateboard grinding.

Freeriding is best described as what?

Riding natural, ungroomed terrain with no set course is the freerider's game, so freeride boards are built longer, stiffer and directional, unlike the twin-tipped boards made for park tricks.

What weather sent most riders crashing in the women's slopestyle final at the 2018 Winter Olympics?

Strong winds: qualifying had already been cancelled, and in the gusty final every rider fell at least once; defending champion Jamie Anderson stayed up long enough to keep her title.

Riding backwards on a snowboard is known as riding what?

Switch riding means leading with your non-dominant foot, which is why most freestyle boards have a tail upturned like the nose.

Most snowboards are built around a core of what material?

Hardwood such as poplar or beech forms the core of most boards because laminated wood gives rebound and damping at low weight; fibreglass layers around it add the stiffness.

Which body part is injured most often in snowboarding?

The wrist takes the fall when riders put a hand down: in an 18-season study at one US resort it made up over a quarter of snowboard injuries, against under 3% for skiers.

Compared with skiers, snowboarders are less likely to injure which joint?

The knee is injured far less in snowboarding because both feet stay fixed to one board, so the twisting falls that tear skiers' ligaments are rare.

'Snowboarder's ankle' is a nickname for a fracture of which bone?

The talus, the ankle bone between shin and heel, breaks at its lateral process in snowboarders; the injury is hard to see on X-ray and often mistaken for a sprain.

Snowboarding's first Paralympic medal events were held at which Winter Games?

Sochi 2014 staged the first Paralympic snowboard cross as part of the Para skiing programme, and unlike the Olympic version each rider raced the course alone against the clock.

Who won the first Olympic men's halfpipe gold in snowboarding?

Gian Simmen, a 20-year-old Swiss outsider, failed to qualify at the first attempt, squeezed through the second round, then led the final from his opening run.

What is the flat platform on top of each halfpipe wall called?

The deck is the flat top of each wall. At the first Olympic halfpipe contest the walls stood 3.5 m high; a dozen years later they were 6.7 m (22 feet), almost doubling the drop from deck to floor.

Which bowling-equipment maker licensed Sherm Poppen's snow toy in 1966 and sold it across America?

Brunswick put the toy in stores nationwide; about a million were sold by the end of the 1970s, and one young fan, Jake Burton Carpenter, went on to found Burton Snowboards.

Winterstick's 1970s swallowtail boards, built in Utah by Dimitrije Milovich, were shaped for riding what?

Deep powder: Milovich, a surfer, moved from New Jersey to Utah to test his prototypes in its famous snow, and by 1975 the Salt Lake City company's boards had made the pages of Newsweek.

Mike Olson founded which snowboard brand, later a sister label to Lib Tech?

Gnu grew out of the boards Mike Olson began building in Washington State in 1977; with partner Pete Saari he later launched Lib Tech from the same factory.

A snowboarder who normally rides with the right foot forward is said to have which stance?

Goofy riders lead with the right foot; the word reached snow from surfing, where dictionaries define a 'goofy-footer' as a surfer who stands right foot forward.

The 1981 'King of the Mountain' snowboard contest was held at Ski Cooper in which state?

Colorado: Ski Cooper hosted the 1981 contest, which drew rival board makers including Jake Burton and then moved to Berthoud Pass for the next three years.