Snowboard?: How Design Happens Series

Original Snurfer ad by Brunswick. 1966.

I read Sherman R. Poppen’s obit in the New York Times today and discovered he was the inventor of The Snurfer the prototypical snowboard from the 1960’s that Jake Burton Carpenter rode on and improved on in the 1970’s by adding bindings there by creating the world’s largest snowboarding company.

The original “Snurfer” was created by Sherm Poppen by simply fastening together two wooden children’s skis with a couple of strips of scrap wood and finding a suitable snow covered sand dune for his kids to “Snurf” down. Julie his wife contributed the name by mashing up surfer and snow. I’m not sure anyone could have written the design brief that would have created the perfect storm that resulted in the Snowboard AKA Snurfer.

#HowDesignHappensSeries [#22]

[featured image by New York Times]
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How Design Happens
Bruce Hannah 2019©