We Ride: The Story of Snowboarding is a 92-minute documentary that follows snowboarding from a homemade toy in 1960s Michigan to a global sport and culture. Produced by burn and filmed and edited by Grain Media, it was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, himself a former professional snowboarder, and Jon Drever, and narrated by actor and pro skater Jason Lee.
We Ride: the snowboarding documentary from burn and Grain Media
The film premiered on 31 January 2013 at the opening of the Air & Style contest in Innsbruck, Austria, and went online for free on 24 February 2013. It was produced by Paz Parasmand for Grain Media, edited by Katie Bryer and scored by Patrick Jonsson.
Its story runs from the Snurfer through the rise of competitions, snowboard films and urban riding, right up to the sport’s present. Pioneers, champions and current riders tell it in their own words, mixed with decades of film footage.
The riders and pioneers in the film
The film draws on a long list of the sport’s best-known names, through interviews and historic footage:
- Jake Burton Carpenter, who founded Burton Snowboards in Londonderry, Vermont, in 1977.
- Tom Sims, the skateboarder who built an early board in a school shop class, founded Sims Snowboards and organised the first World Championship halfpipe contest in 1983.
- Craig Kelly, Terje Håkonsen and Todd Richards, three of the riders who defined snowboarding’s competitive and freeriding years.
- Chuck Barefoot, Mike Basich, Tom Burt, Mike Chantry and Regis Roland, more voices from the sport’s early decades and its boom.
- Gigi Rüf and Ståle Sandbech, burn-sponsored riders representing the modern era.
A short history of snowboarding, from the Snurfer to the Olympics
Snowboarding began in 1965 in Muskegon, Michigan, when engineer Sherman Poppen fastened two skis together as a toy for his daughters. He called it the Snurfer, and in 1968 he organised the first snurfing competition at a Michigan ski resort.
In the 1970s, builders such as Burton, Sims and Dimitrije Milovich of Winterstick in Salt Lake City turned the idea into real snowboards. When Jake Burton entered the National Snurfing Championship in Muskegon in 1979 on his own design, that race became known as the first snowboarding competition. The first US national snowboard race followed in 1982 at Suicide Six in Vermont, and the first World Cup was held in Zürs, Austria, in 1985.
Resorts were slow to accept the newcomers. In 1985 only about 7 per cent of US ski areas allowed snowboarding, and riders at some areas had to pass a skills test before boarding a chairlift. By 1990 most major areas had opened up, and today around 97 per cent of ski areas in North America and Europe welcome snowboarders. The sport joined the Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan, in 1998; by 2018 the Olympic programme included halfpipe, slopestyle, big air, snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom.
Watch We Ride and more snowboard films
burn released the full film on YouTube, embedded above. If it sparks your interest, follow it with a later freestyle milestone or Xavier de Le Rue’s more personal mountain film.
Related reading
- Chilean Andes Snowboarding: Funner Filete
- Don’t Panic: A Snowboard Film Excerpt
- The Balance of Powder: A Sherpas Cinema Film
- This Is Skiing!
- Bon and Montant’s Wing-Assisted Eiger Descent
- The Khumbu Icefall through Theodore Fairhurst’s Helmet Camera
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