Bonehead X

1929: The first known account of someone making a board is tied to M.J. “Jack” Burchett, who in 1929 secured his feet to a piece of wood with clothesline and horse reins.

1964: Muskegon engineer Sherman Poppen develops a “Snurfer” for his daughter Wendy. Sporting a rope at its nose and crude metal prongs for foot grips, it catches on with neighborhood kids, and Poppen eventually has the Brunswick Corp. produce them. In 10 years, more than a million sell nationwide at $10-$15 apiece. Poppen lives these days in Colorado, where he’s known as the “Grandfather of Snowboarding.”

1972: After sliding down hills on college cafeteria trays, East Coast surfer Dimitrije Milovich makes snowboards he calls “Wintersticks.” His versions get a mention in magazines like “Newsweek,” “Playboy” and “Powder.”

1977: Jake Burton Carpenter of Vermont, initially a big fan of the Snurfer, is among the first to experiment with bindings. His first boards are of laminated hardwood and sell for $40 and $80. In the same year, Tom Sims and Chuck Barfoot experiment with their own versions, including the “Flying Yellow Banana.”

1979: Pando Ski Center near Rockford, Mich. holds the first-ever “World Snurfing Championship,” won by Paul Graves. However, Carpenter shows up with his board-and-bindings version and is relegated to an “open division,” in which he competes alone and, of course, wins.

1982: So-called First National Snowboard race held in Suicide Six, Vermont.

1984: Bonehead is born with its first snowboard team, Matt Hale, Matt Minor, Adam Brown and Greg Flowers

1985: First World Cup held in Austria (Only 7 percent of U.S. ski areas allow snowboarding at this point in time.)

1987: First “European” snowboard championships.

1998: Snowboarding is made an Olympic sport

Today: More than 3.5 million people are snowboarders. About 97 percent of all ski areas in North America and Europe embrace the sport.