1929
 M.J. "Jack" Burchett cuts out a plank of plywood, secures his feet to
 it with a length of clothesline and some horse reins, and heads for
 the hills.

 1963 
 Tom Sims claims to have constructed his first "skiboard" for a class
 project as a New Jersey eighth-grader.

 1965 
 A guy named Sherman Poppen invents a toy for his kids called The
 Snurfer by bolting two skis together.  Later he organizes Snurfer
 competitions at the Pando Ski Area in Rockford, Michigan.

 1970 
 Inspired by sliding on cafeteria trays in upstate New York, 
 East Coast surfer Dimitrije Milovich starts developing snowboards,
 "based on surfboard design with a rudimentary idea of how skis work,"
 he says.

 1975 
 Milovich and his product, the Winterstick, get a write-up in the
 March issue of "Newsweek" and a two-page photo spread in "Powder."

 1977 
 Jake Burton Carpenter moves to Londonderry, Vermont and starts
 Burton Boards, making prototypes out of shaped foam and fiberglass,
 solid fiberglass, steam-bent solid wood, and vertically laminated 
 wood.

 1977 
 Mike Olsen builds his first snowboard in junior high school woodshop.
 He continues to experiment with boards and in 1984 he quits college
 to start Gnu.

 1978 First ad for "The Skeeter: A Unique Skateboard for the Snow"
 appears in the September issue of "Powder," foreshadowing a 
 freestyle movement.

 1979 
 At the annual Snurfer contest in Michigan, sponsored Snurfer pro
 Paul Graves blows away the crowd during a freestyle demo with four
 sliding 360s, dropping down on one knee for part of the course, 
 and dismounting at the finish with a front flip.

 1980 
 Burton boards and the Winterstick introduce ski technology into
 snowboard design with a P-Tex base on their prototype boards.

 1982 
 The National snowboarding Championships are held at Suicide Six, 
 outside Woodstock, Vermont.  The race consists of a kamikaze 
 downhill on a steep, icy run called "The Face." The primary goal
 of the race appears to be survival.

 1985 
 Only 39 of the approximately 600 ski areas in the U.S. permit
 snowboarding.

 1985 
 "Absolutely Radical," the first snowboarding magazine, appears in
 March. Later that year the name is changed to "International 
 Snowboard Magazine."

 1986 
 Regis Rolland, French pioneer, stars in ³Apocalypse Snow², Launching
 the first generation of European snowboarding fans.

 1986 
 Europeans begin to organize their own regional events, such as the
 Swiss championship in St. Moritz.

 1986 
 At the World Snowboarding Championships, in Breckenridge,
 Colorado, Paul Alden, Dave Alden, and Fran Richards convince the
 management that the halfpipe is not a high-speed event.

 Sometime in the late '80s - Jeff Brushie does a method in the middle
 of a race, an obvious fuck-you to the race format. 

 1990 
 The USA holds its premiere national championships in February, at
 Snow Valley, California. The worst snowstorm of the decade hits just
 before the event, closing all roads to Big Bear, stranding amateur
 snowboarders from all over the country. A rescue caravan of locals,
 led by USASA president Chuck Allen, sneaks the competitors past the
 police barricades and gets them to the contest on time.

 1990 
 Beating out the competition at the world championships in 
 Breckenridge, Shaun Palmer stands triumphant at the podium, "Palmer' 
 tattooed on his belly, holding his board, a lasting
 image of competitive snowboarding glory.

 1994 
 Snowboarding is declared a medal sport of the 1998 Olympics.

 1995 
 Competing at the Mount Baker Bank slalom, Terje Haakonsen beats out
 all other competitors by four seconds despite going through the 
 course fakie.

 1996 
 Mike Hatchett releases his latest video TB5, featuring riders 
 like Johan Olofson, Victoria Jalousie, and Noah Salasneck performing
 incredibly death-defying stunts and tricks. With tight editing and
 glorious footage of Alaska, the film is state of the art.