Many people believe that snowboarding is a relatively new sport , created in recent decades . However , the first traces of the sport date back to 1920 !
At that time there was common people who lived in places with snowy mountains descend their sides in a kind of surfboard . There are reports of people using pieces of old barrels to slide on snow . Some even wore belts to tie the horses feet on upgraded boards .
But snowboarding gained its modern air in the mid-1960s , when the American engineer Sherman Poppen invented a new toy for his daughter by bringing together two slide on snow skis and old , thus forming a board .
The game began to be called " Snurfer " , a portmanteau of the words " snow" and " surf " . Soon the game became a mania in the neighborhood , and Poppen built several boards for children to play in the snow . This caught the attention of the Brunswick company that bought the rights of the engineer and started marketing the product . The first competition was held in Snurfer Michigan ( USA ) in 1968 , and consisted of only a descent straight.
In 1969 , the surfer and skier Dimitrije Milovich gave new momentum to the sport . The athlete liked to combine their two skills and surfing in the snow using trays kitchen. Until Milovich joined the manufacturer of surfboards , Wayne Stovekin , and the duo has created a special surfboard for snow . The sport was called " Winterstick " ( something like " Bat winter " in a free translation ) . In the same period , another American , Bob Webber , made plain his board adapted to the snow , called " skiboard " .
diffusion
But it was only in 1977 that the sport began to really draw the attention of the sports industry . This year , the American skateboarder Tom Sims built a snowboard on a school project . Sims dreamed of creating a skateboard ( without wheels , of course) for snow . With this idea in mind , the athlete , along with his friend Chuck Barfoot , started making boards for snow in the driveway of his home. Barfoot also worked with Bob Webber , and helped develop snowboards as they are known today.
In the same year , Jake Burton Carpenter, who as a child was one of the first practitioners of Snurfer also began developing boards for snow in the driveway of his home. Today , Carpenter owns Burton Boards , one of the known manufacturers of snowboards .
Special boards for the snow began to hit and soon the companies become great companies garage and the sport became so called snowboarding . In the 1980s , the sport gained more strength when it began to appear in advertisements and in films (such as the classic James Bond ) .
The number of fans of snowboarding has increased and in 1982 was organized the first National Snowboard Championships in Vermont ( USA ) . The competition brought together competitors from Snurfer boards , Burton and Sims were the only time the three rivals met in a competition . The following year , Burton and Sims decided to create their own competitions , using their own boards , and Poppen stopped the manufacturing of planks Snurfer .
In 1989 was created the International Snowboard Association , which became the International Snowboard Federation ( FIS ) the following year . Eight years later, the snowboard has finally reached its peak , when it began to be considered an Olympic sport . In Nagano , Japan , snowboarding had its first Olympic competition .
In Brazil , the snowboard is present since the 1980s . The sport is regulated by the Brazilian Confederation of Snow Sports ( CBDN ) , recognized by the International Ski Federation ( FIS ) and the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) . Brazil has participated in all World Snowboard Championships today , and now has its own national championship in 1995 . Since the competition is held annually , always in July in localities of Chile or Argentina .
