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As Team GB’s 12 snowboarders prepare for gold in Beijing 2022, they can rest assured that they will have strong backing at home.

Snowboarding, the youngest ever winter Olympic sport, is already a British favourite, surpassing viewing figures at the 2018 games, according to Google. In host country China, where the middleweight is just hitting record numbers, twice as many beginners are now choosing snowboarding over skiing.

But how did the simple idea of ​​“snowsurfing”, a recreational sport less than 60 years old, come to conquer the world of winter sports?

A new documentary traces his story through the life of Jake Burton Carpenter, the “Father of Snowboarding” and founder of one of the world’s largest snowboarding brands, Burton.

He died of cancer in 2019 and the documentary celebrates his life and achievements. dear riderTaking its title from Jake’s annual letter to the snowboarding community published at the beginning of every Burton catalog, it brings together archival footage, home videos, and interviews with professional snowboarders, including Shaun White, to tell the sport’s shocking story.

Born in Manhattan in 1954, he became enamored with skiing after a family trip to Vermont in 1960 and time in the Rockies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He built his first snowboard in his New York apartment in 1977, envisioning the sport as an affordable alternative to skiing.

Inspired by the childhood sensation of riding the Snurfer, a basic wooden plank with rope grip invented by Sherman Poppen in Michigan in 1965, he left his graduate job at a New York investment bank to start his surfing business in New York. something I will do later. admits it started out as a “get-rich-quick scheme.”

Working alone in a warehouse-turned-workshop in the small town of Londonderry, Vermont, a budding entrepreneur struggles to get his idea off the ground. “I remember one time I went out with 38 snowboards and came back with 40 because a dealer said, I don’t want this bullshit,” he says of those early days.

However, as riders became more skilled and board designs smoother, it soon became clear that snowboarders were on the same slopes as skiers, prompting Jake to launch a campaign to convince ski resorts to support what Time magazine described as “the new sport.” worst.”

“Once I focused on making it a sport and putting all my energy, love, and time into it,” says Jake, “that’s when it all started to work.”

The struggle to open a ski resort in North America was first overcome in 1983 when a smooth demonstration by Jake and a few friends convinced Stratton Mountain in Vermont, the self-described “Best Ski Resort Near New York,” to allow snowboarders to ride ski lifts. That same year, Burton hosted the first National Snowboard Championships in Snow Valley, Vermont.

Jake never claimed to be the inventor of the snowboard. While hosting ski-style slalom and sprint races on the East Coast, a rival freestyle culture developed on the West Coast, influenced by the skate and surf scenes, with rival brands Barfoot and Sims at its core.

Dear Rider Director Fernando Villena said I:: “I was really impressed with the collective consciousness back then, how Jake did it in Vermont and Chuck Barfoot, Tom Sims and the others did it on the West Coast. Not only are they in a different place, but they have a different style.”

Jake, who has been inspired by surfers from his childhood home, Long Island, is caught off guard by the West Coast with his new halfpipes and jumps, and he’s forced to switch from an alpine-inspired aesthetic to being patronizing to freestyle. riders who embody the creative spirit of punk and this sport will be recognized.

Jake’s wife, Donna, helped build the brand from its inception, whom he met at a bar in 1982 near his first workshop before moving to Burton’s current headquarters in Burlington, Vermont.

The couple moved to Austria in 1985, where the Keil Ski factory agreed to build the first Burton boards with steel rims and ski-based construction. Donna, who now runs the family business, became director of European distribution.

Unlike the US, where three resorts (Alta and Deer Valley in Utah and Mad River Glen in Vermont) continue to ban snowboarders from the slopes, Europe is quickly embracing the sport.

“The big difference in Europe is that there is no liability issue,” said Donna. I, “That’s the excuse resorts in the US and Canada use, that they’re not sure if it’s covered by their liability insurance.”

Personal and personal victories aside, the documentary doesn’t shy away from what Jake calls his biggest “PR flop,” when he tries to force a snowboard patent on his arch-rival Sims. The failed attempt backfired spectacularly in the snowboarding community, severely damaging Burton’s reputation as a rogue newbie against the ski establishment.

After the Olympic debut in Japan in 1998, the popularity of snowboarding is now a world-class sport, its popularity is enormous. As Burton thrives in the 2000s, the film follows its founder’s struggles with two serious health problems: Miller Fisher syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, and terminal cancer.

As British snowboarders and skiers return to the slopes after two difficult years for most, Donna hopes they take their heart from the life story of her late husband.

“I think during these times any spirit of resilience inspires, and Jake totally has it.”

Dear Rider is available as a digital download starting Monday, January 24.

A favorite of Burton’s owner, Donna Carpenter.

..to run

Jake’s Run, Stowe, Vermont

Just before he died, the Boston Globe was making a story about people’s favorite race in Vermont. Jake was asked which one was his favourite. He has told me twice, “When I go, I want you to name this after my name.” But he was too embarrassed to tell them that his favorite run was called Lullaby Lane. He told our PR staff, “Make something. I’m not going to tell him what Lullaby is. After his death, Stowe renamed him Jake’s Run.

..Mountain

Stowe, Vermont (where Donna still lives)

Jake has a lot of great sayings. One of them is, “if your home mountain isn’t your favorite mountain, you may have to move.”

..european resort

We spent a lot of time in Austria. We love Arlberg, especially Lech and Zürs. And we live in Switzerland in 2019, where I think our favorite is probably Loch.

..resorts around the world

We took our children around the world for a year in 2003 and 2004 and followed winter. We had to snowboard on every continent except Antarctica.

The holy grail for snowboarders is northern Japan: Hokkaido, Niseko, such areas. We spent a whole month there.

I’m sure my friends, I have three kids, they will say New Zealand. You can almost surf and snowboard in the same day. The beauty is spectacular and the people very friendly.