Snurfer production model created by Sherman Poppen
name: label: inventor
content: Poppen, Sherman R.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Wooden board with rounded tip is painted yellow with a red triangular stripe painted on the front. The top of the board is mostly covered with two pieces of sticky vinyl textured material peeling at the back. There is a half inch wide hole drilled into the middle of the very top. The bottom of the board has five long vertical grooves cut into the surface. This snurfer production model is the first patented design leading the way to the modern snowboard. (U.S. Patent #3,378,274 – Surf-Type Snow Ski) This model has a rounded tip and a hole for the rope handle which became a snurfer trademark. Poppen modified this particular model by replacing the original staples with gritted sandpaper to keep from slipping off the board.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Sherman Poppen, inventor of the snurfer, a predecessor of the modern snowboard needed a distraction for his two little girls on Christmas day in 1965. The kids were restless and his pregnant wife, Nancy, needed a break, so Poppen took them outside to play in the Wisconsin snow. Bored with sledding, Poppen bound two children’s skis together, tied a rope to the front and the Snurfer was born. Nancy combined the words “snow and surf” for the moniker “snurf” and pretty soon Poppen was building snurfers for all of the neighborhood kids. Poppen, an engineer by trade went on to design a dozen different versions of the Snurfer. In 1966, Poppen teamed up with the Brunswick Corporation and licensed the product to them. They worked together to create a board from laminated wood used for bowling alley gutters. Poppen developed a racing model and from 1968 through the late 1970s, Snurfer racing competitions were held in Wisconsin becoming very popular and propelling ‘snowboarding’ into the national consciousness. Competition from other snowboard designers and manufacturers began appearing and this growing competition was too great for Poppen and Brunswick to keep up. In 1972, Brunswick discontinued production of the Snurfer but the JEM Corporation continued manufacture until the early 1980s. In a twist of fate, Jake Burton raced Snurfers and was inspired to create an even better snowboard. He soon became the head of Burton Snowboards and leads the industry with new innovations and superior product.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: name of sport
content: Snowboarding
label: level of sport
content: recreational
label: web subject
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Sherman R. Poppen
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2009.0092.02
label: accession number
content: 2009.0092
label: catalog number
content: 2009.0092.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: production model
label: Object Name
content: production model, snowboarding
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 48 in x 7 in x 4 1/2 in; 121.92 cm x 17.78 cm x 11.43 cm