Evaluation of alpine skiing and snowboarding injury in a northeastern state. The snowboarder's foot and ankle. The snurfer was a wooden board with a fin on the bottom to help it track in powder. Without steel edges necessary for control on packed snow, snurfers also did not catch on. The first successful snowboard, called the Winterstick, was developed in the 1970s by Dimitrije Milovich.
Modern snowboards are reminiscent of surfboards and skateboards.
They consist of a single broad ski with a fiberglass body, plastic base, and steel edges. Snowboarding boots are classified as either soft shell or hard shell. Soft-shell boots, also called freestyle boots, have a soft outer shell with a rubber sole and allow movement of the foot within the boot. They are lighter and less expensive than hard-shell boots. Some soft-shell boots come with the option of adding inserts to provide additional ankle support.