Snowboarders - we've always stood out.
And in the beginning we stuck out like a sore thumb.
We had one board, we didn't have ski boots on,
we didn't have poles... We were just, I think,
anti-establishment.
You are a rebel. What you're doing is irreverent. When you're in powder,
when you do a turn and then there's so much snow that it flies into your face
and you can't see a damn thing....
It's just....
My name is Jake Burton Carpenter. I am referred to as a father snowboarding
and I'm proud immensely proud of that.
As a kid, I just always loved snow it was something that just grabbed me.
That whole winter mood and vibe was something that I loved right as a very young child.
I was 13 or 14 when I got my first Snurfer,
which was simply like a skateboard for snow and it was nothing more than a
piece of wood that was curved on the end it had a rope on the front - that's
how you would sort of maintain your balance and not lose it.
I bought a Snurfer and I just fell in love with this sensation of surfing in snow.
And I saw a sport there from a very young age.
I always thought that they would do it then it sort of was a fad that came
and went, but it never left for me.
But I knew that you needed to have your feet better attached to the binding.
I had to make over 100 prototypes before
I decided on a production board. I mean I was clueless. When I started, I knew
nothing about manufacturing. I bought this fancy pin router and twice
the thing shot the snowboard into the walls. Like throwing a knife into
a wall or something. I mean it would have gone right through me.
I can remember one moment
when I was working with this company that was a manufacturer of
furniture and we took some wood and and we bent the tip and then I just put
bindings on right there on my drive home. I jumped out of the car and I just rode
it on the side of the road, and thought - yes huge step.
In 1982, we had our first competition. We were not even allowed on ski resorts at
the time but 1983 Stratton, which was the first major resort - Stratton Mountain in
Vermont, it sort of caters to the New York crowd - they gave us an opportunity and we
performed and it was a big date and a big milestone for the sport.
Every day we'd find out about a new resort that was "allowing us", we'd say -
they would allow us to go there. And then 1998 was when it first went to the Olympics.
It's very hard to get a sport off the ground and for it to ultimately
get to the Olympics and I didn't do it alone. I mean I started and
pioneered for sure but so many people got involved.