Snurfer

The Snurfer was the first marketed snowboard. The Snurfer 1965 created by the American Sherman Poppen. Poppen was outside with his daughters sledging, when his 11 -year-old standing on the carriage, drove down the slope. Poppen ran into his store, took two skis and tied them together at the tips.

His wife called the device " Snurfer ", a mix between Snow and surf. Soon after the first prototype, everyone wanted to have one on his street. Poppen licensed his concept at Brunswick Corporation to manufacture the Snurfer.

In the years 1966-1976 Poppen sold about one million Snurfer.

Snurfer is a portmanteau of surfers and Snow. It is sometimes seen as a typo, but to the constructive and sportive influencing the snowboard describe by surfing.

Although the first ancestor of today's snowboards were developed in 1900 and 1929: the mono skid by the Austrian Toni Lenhardt and glulam technology by the American Jack Burchett. The " snowboard Feeling" and the driving technique, however, go back to two surfers from the USA, namely Sherman Poppen and Tom Sims. They experimented in 1963 with old doors and foot-plates mounted on large wooden boards, so as to develop a feel for surfing on snow.

Until the 1980s, the unconventional " Snurfer " in most ski resorts were not welcome. On the one hand, the young people were rarely financially strong, on the other hand, the ski lifts and slopes suitable for the new little winter sports equipment and riding techniques. For both reasons, the snowboarders often the slopes on foot had to climb up, and some went first night on the groomed slopes. So it was that the Snurfer - their sports equipment now accounts for a good part of the ski industry - for example in 1985 in the United States in only 7 % of all ski resorts welcome guests were.

• Youth Culture
• Snowboard
• Winter sport