Snowboarding was developed in American in the 1960's and 70's as a combination of skateboarding, surfing and skiing. It started out as a simple toy invented by Sherman Poppen, a Michigan engineer in 1965. He fastened two skis together and attached a rope to one end for controlling direction and gave the toy to his daughter. The idea was so popular amongst all his daughter's friends that he licensed the idea as the 'snurfer' and sold over a million of them in 10 years. In the early 1970's Poppen organised a 'snurfing' competition which was attended by Tom Sims, a keen skateboarder. He went on to make commercial snowboards in the 1970's. At the same time an American surfer constructed a snowboard on the basis of a surf board and got much publicity in mainstream magazines, helping to launch the sport of snowboarding. In 1977 a young guy called Jake Burton Carpenter entered a snurfing competition but had modified his 'board' to include bindings to secure his feet to the board. In the same year he founded Burton Snowboards. In 1979 Jake entered the first ever World Snurfing Championships but there was opposition to his use of a modified board so a new category was invented just for him and snowboarding was born. During the 1970's and 1980's snowboarding as a sport became more popular with new board and binding designs.
The first world cup for snowboarding was held in Austria in 1985 and in 1994 the International Snowboard Association was founded. However, ski resorts were less than happy to adopt snowboarding and allow snowboarders on the slopes. There was a misguided idea that snowboarders would wipe the snow off the runs. In 1985 only 7% of American ski resorts allowed snowboarding and the situation was similar in Europe. As equipment and skills improved snowboarding gradually became more accepted and by 1990 most ski resorts has separate slopes for snowboarders. Now around 97% of ski resorts allow snowboarding and there is no or little division between slopes for skiers or boarders.
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