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Snowboarding's early days - at Ski Cooper |
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Monday, January 30, 2012 19:23 |
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Tom Sims shows his concave board design at the first snowboard competition at Ski Cooper. Special to the Summit Daily News
By Lauren Moran, Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum
Ski Cooper hosted the first snowboarding contest in April 1981, attracting early riders and board makers like Tom Sims, Jake Burton and Mark Christensen.
Organized by Richard Christiansen, a surf shop owner in Boulder, the contest came about after a customer brought a board into Christiansen's shop, saying he was using it on the snow and calling it a snowboard. “We called several different ski areas around the Colorado area, and none of them actually wanted to have anything to do with snowboarding," he said.
This contest featured three events: freestyle, slalom and downhill.
Jake Burton showed up with a Burton Backhill board with aluminum fins and adjustable front and back bindings.
Third place went to Jake Burton, Tom Sims came in second, and first place overall was awarded to Scott Jacobson, who also won the freestyle event.
Jacobson said, “This contest was really good, considering it was the first contest ever … but this contest will open up a whole new thing for next year. Next year, we're going to be able to do something where it's going to blow minds on ABC ‘Wide World of Sports.'”
Read more about the competition at the Summit Daily News.
This information and more is highlighted at the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum on the third level of the Vail Village Parking Structure. Winter hours are 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
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