Snowboarding visionary Jake Burton Carpenter dies at 65

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Nov 22, 2019, 12:57 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Associated Press

Snowboarding visionary Jake Burton Carpenter dies at 65
By EDDIE PELLS November 22, 2019

Whether you had a gold medal hanging from your neck, were just learning how to stand on a snowboard, or were one of those flustered skiers wondering where all the kids in the baggy pants were coming from, you knew the name "Burton." ... Jake Burton Carpenter, the man who changed the game on the mountain by fulfilling a grand vision of what a snowboard could be, died Wednesday night of complications stemming from a relapse of testicular cancer. He was 65. ... In an email sent to the staff at Burton, CEO John Lacy called Carpenter "our founder, the soul of snowboarding, the one who gave us the sport we love so much."

Carpenter was not the inventor of the snowboard. But 12 years after Sherman Poppen tied together a pair of skis with a rope to create what was then called a "Snurfer," the 23-year-old entrepreneur, then known only as Jake Burton, quit his job in Manhattan, moved back to Vermont and went about dreaming of how far a snowboard might take him. ... "I had a vision there was a sport there, that it was more than just a sledding thing, which is all it was then," Burton said in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press.

For years, Burton's snowboards were largely snubbed at resorts -- its dimensions too untested, its riders too unrefined, its danger all too real -- and many wouldn't allow them to share the slopes with the cultured ski elite in Colorado or California or, heaven forbid, the Swiss Alps.
....

At a bar in Pyeongchang, South Korea, not far from where snowboarding celebrated its 20th anniversary at the Olympics last year, there was a wall filled with Burton pictures and memorabilia -- as sure a sign as any of the global reach of a company that remains headquartered not far from where it was founded in Carpenter's garage, in Londonderry, Vermont.
....

His final years were not the easiest. ... Not long after being given a clean bill of health following his 2011 cancer diagnosis, Carpenter was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, Miller Fisher Syndrome, that left him completely paralyzed for a short time. ... After a long rehab, he was back on the mountain, and in 2018, he was standing near the finish line to watch White win his third Olympic gold medal.

This month, Carpenter sent an email to his staff: "You will not believe this, but my cancer has come back," he said, while outlining his intention to fight the good fight. ... Not two weeks later, Lacy sent out another email, notifying employees that Jake had died peacefully. The email included one, simple directive. ... "I'd encourage everyone to do what Jake would be doing tomorrow, and that's riding," Lacy wrote. "It's opening day at Stowe, so consider taking some turns together, in celebration of Jake."

Read more: https://apnews.com/42efe5c01f7844aea670099f7220d930

---

Sherman Poppen himself died a few months ago. His obit is at DU. I'll link to it when I have a faster connection.

My first snowboard is a mid-90s Burton Twin 58. I owe both Jake and Sherman a lot.

Hat tip, {redacted}

DU, August 11, 2019:

The "grandfather of snowboarding," Sherman Poppen dies at 89

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212371871

[underpants]

1. It's amazing what people can do when they follow their heart and passion

[Demonaut]

2. I remember the ban on snowboards in the 80's, it took a few years...and me a few years after that

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. It is with a heavy heart that we share that Burton founder Jake Burton Carpenter passed away.

It is with a heavy heart that we share that Burton founder Jake Burton Carpenter passed away peacefully last night surrounded by loved ones as a result of complications from recurring cancer. He was the soul of snowboarding, the one who gave us the sport we love. #RideonJake

Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Jake Burton Carpenter, who outfitted snowboarders and championed their sport, dies at 65

Obituaries

Jake Burton Carpenter, who outfitted snowboarders and championed their sport, dies at 65

By Emily Langer
November 21, 2019 at 7:35 p.m. EST

Jake Burton Carpenter, a self-described punk who became the multimillionaire owner of Burton Snowboards, a company he founded in a Vermont barn in 1977 and that has been credited with transforming snowboarding from a renegade diversion into one of the most popular winter sports, died Nov. 20 at a hospital in Burlington, Vt. He was 65.

The cause was complications of testicular cancer, said a company spokeswoman, Taren Dolbashian. Mr. Carpenter, who personally tested his company’s products while snowboarding about 100 days per year, had first been diagnosed with the disease in 2011 and underwent successful treatment. He later survived a bout with Miller Fisher syndrome, a rare nerve disorder related to Guillain-Barré syndrome that left him temporarily paralyzed and dependent for a period on a respirator and feeding tube.

Mr. Carpenter — he often went by Jake Burton professionally — did not invent the snowboard. That distinction was widely credited to Sherm Poppen, a Michigan tinkerer who on Christmas morning in 1965 cobbled together two skis to make a winter-weather surfboard of sorts for his children.

[Sherm Poppen, a grandfather of snowboarding, dies at 89]

{snip a huge image}

It was called the Snurfer, a name combining “snow” and “surf,” and is regarded as the modern forerunner of the snowboard. Mr. Carpenter received one when he was 14 and indulged in Snurfing on a golf course on Long Island, where he lived at the time. ... “It was almost like a rodeo ride standing up. I got passionate about it right away,” he told the Associated Press years later, adding that the Snurfer’s “underground” vibe attracted his rebellious side. Around the same time, he was expelled from boarding school.

About a decade later, fresh out of college, Mr. Carpenter sought to marry that “underground” appeal with more sophisticated technology and marketing to turn Snurfing into a full-fledged sport. In time, he would become, in the description of Sports Illustrated magazine, “the person most responsible for transforming snowboarding into an international craze.”
....

Emily Langer is a reporter on The Washington Post’s obituaries desk. She writes about extraordinary lives in national and international affairs, science and the arts, sports, culture, and beyond. She previously worked for the Outlook and Local Living sections. Follow https://twitter.com/emilylangerWP