The Origins of Snowboarding

It's a question that sparks a great debate: where did snowboarding originate?

Some may say snowboarding dates back to 1964 when a young surfer named Sherman Poppen dreamed about surfing the Rockies in winter. His first prototype for his daughter, Wendy, was a 1.20 metre long plastic plank made from two kids' skis bolted together. Dubbed the "snurfer" by his wife Nancy, the toy became a hit with one million sold in the following 10 years. While the snurfer had mass appeal, the phenomenon eventually vanished, making way for other snowboard pioneers to come, like Dimitrije Milovich, Jake Burton Carpenter and Tom Sims, who created their own versions of the snowboard throughout the 1970s.

Rewind nearly 300 years before the original snurfer was created, and the origins of snowboarding could perhaps be found in a place far from the Rockies. Turkey, a country many people don't associate with snow or even cold temperatures, may very well be the birthplace of snowboarding. It’s not snowboarding as we know it, but there's a parallel, and it looks like some of the best fun you can have on a board.

While the lineage between the Petran boards ridden in the mountains of the Middle East and the primitive snowboards from the US remains a question in itself, it does make us wonder about the true tale of snowboarding; where it's come from, and where it's going.

Credits:

Featuring: Alex Yoder and Nick Russell

Film by: WRKSHRT and Patagonia