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'; Brunswick licensed it and sold over a million in the following decade.

In which US state did Sherm Poppen build the first snowboard prototype?

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

On what day did Poppen originally build the toy for his children?

On Christmas Day 1965 Poppen fastened two children's skis together so his daughters could stand and surf down a snowy hill.

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

Burton started out in a barn in Londonderry, Vermont, in 1977 and sold only around 300 hand-built boards in his first season.

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 snowboard pioneer built his first board in an eighth-grade shop class by gluing carpet to wood?

Tom Sims built that 'skiboard' in 1963 in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and went on to found Sims Snowboards.

Where was the first World Championship halfpipe competition held in 1983?

The 1983 contest ran at Soda Springs Ski Bowl near Lake Tahoe, California, organised with local instructor Mike Chantry.

The first snowboarding World Cup, in 1985, took place in which country?

Zürs am Arlberg, Austria, hosted the inaugural snowboarding World Cup in 1985, helping establish the sport as an international competition.

In 1985, roughly what percentage of US ski areas allowed snowboarding?

Only about 7% of US ski areas admitted snowboards in 1985, with a similar share in Europe; resorts opened up over the following decade.

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

Alta, a ski-only resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon, was sued by the group Wasatch Equality; a federal judge dismissed the constitutional claim and the Tenth Circuit upheld him.

Snowboarding made its Winter Olympic debut at which Games?

Nagano 1998 staged the sport's first Olympic events: giant slalom and halfpipe, each for men and women.

Who won the first ever Olympic snowboarding gold medal?

Ross Rebagliati of Canada won the men's giant slalom, the first snowboarding medal event ever held at the Games, a day before the women's race.

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

He tested positive for cannabis, which the IOC had not listed as banned for snowboarding; the Court of Arbitration for Sport restored the medal 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 legend Terje Håkonsen boycott the 1998 Olympic halfpipe?

He called it a theft of the sport and later founded his own event, The Arctic Challenge.

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

Håkonsen's 9.8 m air off the quarterpipe, a backside 360 during qualifying at The Arctic Challenge in Oslo, was the highest ever recorded.

Shaun White won Olympic halfpipe gold at which three Games?

Shaun White won Olympic halfpipe gold in 2006, 2010 and 2018, missing the podium at the Games in between and arriving at the third with 62 stitches from a training crash.

What did Shaun White name his signature Double McTwist 1260?

White dubbed the Double McTwist 1260 'The Tomahawk' and landed it on his Olympic victory lap, a run scored 48.4 out of 50.

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

He grew tired of it by 2006, and has also been called 'Animal' after the Muppet.

Shaun White was born with which condition, requiring two open-heart surgeries before age one?

Tetralogy of Fallot, a four-part congenital heart defect, was corrected with two open-heart operations before White turned one; he was snowboarding by age six.

Chloe Kim was how old when she won halfpipe gold in Pyeongchang?

Chloe Kim was 17, the youngest woman to win Olympic snowboarding gold, and landed back-to-back 1080s in the final.

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 took the 2002 title at 18 and rode in five Olympics before retiring at the 2019 Winter X Games in Aspen.

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

Torah Bright won the Vancouver 2010 halfpipe after carrying Australia's flag at the opening ceremony, despite two concussions in training days earlier.

In 2014 Torah Bright became the first Olympian to qualify in all three of which snowboard disciplines?

Torah Bright rode halfpipe, slopestyle and boardercross at those Games, reaching the slopestyle final and taking halfpipe silver, Australia's first medal there.

Japan's Ayumu Hirano won Olympic halfpipe gold in 2022 after silvers in which two previous Games?

Hirano took halfpipe silver in 2014 and 2018, behind Iouri Podladtchikov and then Shaun White, and skateboarded at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games before his 2022 gold.

How old was Ayumu Hirano when he won his first X Games medal?

Hirano was 14 when he took superpipe silver at Winter X Games XVII in 2013, then the youngest rider to medal at a Winter X Games.

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 riders use hard plastic boots and narrow, stiff boards built for carving linked turns, the style seen in parallel giant slalom racing.

'Jibbing' means riding on what?

Jibbing means sliding rails, boxes, logs and other non-snow surfaces, a technique lifted straight from skateboard grinding.

Freeriding is best described as what?

Freeriding means riding natural, ungroomed terrain with no set course or features, shading into backcountry snowboarding once the lifts run out.

Slopestyle courses feature which of these obstacles?

Slopestyle courses string together rails, boxes and jumps; judges score difficulty, execution, amplitude and variety across the whole run.

Riding backwards on a snowboard is known as riding what?

Riding switch means leading with your non-dominant foot; that is why most freestyle boards have a tail upturned like the nose.

Most snowboards are built around a core of what material?

Laminated hardwood such as poplar, aspen or beech forms the core of most boards, sandwiched between fibreglass layers; carbon and aluminium appear only in exotic builds.

Which body part is injured most often in snowboarding?

The wrist is the most common snowboarding injury site; wrist guards cut the risk roughly in half, which is why many beginner classes require them.

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.

Para-snowboarding debuted at which Winter Paralympics?

Sochi 2014 staged the first Paralympic snowboard event, a snowboard cross run as part of the skiing programme for standing men and women.

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

Gian Simmen, from Arosa, won the inaugural men's halfpipe in heavy snowfall, ahead of Norway's Daniel Franck and American Ross Powers.

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

The deck is the flat platform on top of each halfpipe wall where riders stand before dropping in; below it come the lip, the vert and the transition.

Roughly how many of Sherm Poppen's stand-up sledding boards were sold in 1966 alone?

Over half a million sold in 1966 at around $15 each after Brunswick licensed the design; Poppen staged the first contest for them in February 1968.

Winterstick, an early snowboard maker founded by Dimitrije Milovich, was based where?

Winterstick was based in Salt Lake City, Utah, where Milovich started it in 1972 to build swallowtail boards for deep Wasatch powder.

Mike Olson founded which snowboard company?

Mike Olson started Gnu in Washington State in the late 1970s and later co-founded Mervin Manufacturing, which builds Gnu and Lib Tech boards.

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

Goofy riders lead with the right foot; the term came from skateboarding, where leading with the left foot is called regular.

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

Ski Cooper, near Leadville, Colorado, hosted the April 1981 event, one of the first organised snowboard contests; one entrant arrived on a homemade board.