Gear Nuts
I always talk about how much of a gear nut I am. That is one of the things I love about ski towns. Virtually everyone has an extensive quiver of gear somewhere in their house that they love to talk about. Most of these items are useless, but people hold onto them like trophies. I’m not sure if this old gear is kept around purely for bragging rights or if people think that they might actually grab that pair of Volkl Renntigers or the Burton Safari on the way to the mountain some day. I don’t know what it is about the history of outdoor gear that fascinates me. It must be a combination of my love for history and sports, but I think I can blame my parents for this one. We always had an extensive collection of sleds, skis, snowboards, hockey sticks, enough skates to equip the entire neighborhood for hockey games on our small pond and then there was a special corner of fascinating products that none of the other kid’s garages had. This corner was populated with jarts, mini bobs and something called the Snurfer. In an effort to prove to my boss that I started snowboarding before he did I will now go into the history of the Snurfer and how they came to be in my garage.
According to my research, Sherman Poppen invented the Snurfer in 1965 in Muskegon MI. He licensed the concept to the Brunswick Corporation how began to sell the Snurfer in 1966. From what I can gather, they initially made two models which are pictured in the original add above as well as below; a regular model in yellow with black stripes, and a “Competition” model which came with fancy plastic studs for traction and a metal skeg on the bottom. They retailed for between $10-30 dollars a piece and half a million Snurfers where sold between 1966 and 1976.
My Grandfather purchased several Snurfers in 1966 or 67. Here is a picture of them:
According to family history, my mothers father who purchased the Snurfers and my father who was dating my mother at the time would go to a big hill over looking Crane’s Beach in Ipswich MA and try to ride the Snurfers down the entire hill. Not an easy task.
Somewhere along the line they decided that it would be easier if they added the wooden foot brace, which gave them more stability and decreased the likelihood of your foot slipping off the front of the board which usually ended with a pulled groin or worse. However, it wasn’t their innovation that propelled the Snurfer into the spot light. Eventually, a guy named Jake Burton came along and he had added a binding to his Snufer and history was made.
Growing up I would spend hours trying to figure the Snurfer out. It is a humbeling experience, but one I look forward to trying to tackle again this winter. My parents have finally had enough of winter and are moving to warmer climates. Fortunately, when they cleared out the garage they forwarded a piece of that special corner to me.
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