This is the last of three installments of a series that focuses on snowboarding – examining the early years when the snow sport was forbidden worldwide, it’s humble beginnings, and its eventual rise to prominence in Lake Tahoe.
Rudimentary snowboarding was in its infancy when a group of rambunctious Lake Tahoe teenagers were looking for a suitable location to transfer their skateboarding tricks to the snow in the winter of 1979.
A freshman at North Tahoe High School, 14-year-old Mark Anolik was exploring different areas in his neighborhood when he randomly discovered a remote area owned by the Truckee Sanitation Company. Located at the top of Jackpine Street in Tahoe City, the property was along a creek bed and to the youthful Anolik it resembled a natural halfpipe.
Anolik quickly assessed – the potential was there. In the 1970s, skateboarders used swimming pools and water pipes to perform tricks on U-shaped structures. But activities dried up for skateboarders in the snowy winter months in Tahoe. This spot near the dump would change all that.
Excited regarding his discovery, Anolik let his skateboarding buddies – Terry Kidwell, Bob Klein, Allen Arnbrister – know he had found a natural ditch that was shaped like a half pipe. The group adopted it as their own, eventually naming it the Tahoe City Pipe.
It wasn’t long before the thrill-seeking group were regularly meeting at the dump site. Besides their snowboards, they all brought shovels and reportedly spent more time building the pipe than actually riding it.
“It took about four hours to dig it out and pack the in-run, and only one rider at a time could go down,” recalls Klein, who eventually became the director of snowboarding at Octagon, a sports marketing company in Reno.
In 1979, ski resorts in Lake Tahoe and throughout the United States had a dim view of snowboarding and refused to allow it on their mountains. Because of the ban, snowboarders like the Tahoe kids spent much of their free time searching for potential spots to ride.
To the skateboarding converts, snow-covered creek beds resembled frozen waves or drainage ditches, hence the interest. At that time, snowboarders had been mostly cruising down powder runs for several winters, but were looking for more challenging terrain to perform their bag of tricks.
The interest was there for the youthful snowboarders in many parts of the country, yet the equipment was lacking. Some riders were using Snurfers, snowboards with bungees for bindings, or riding the primitive fiberglass Winterstick boards, which were designed to be ridden like a surfboard, with foot straps instead of ropes, allowing for a more natural and freer riding experience.
EMERGENCE OF DONNER SKI RANCH: One year after the Tahoe City Pipe became a cherished spot for local snowboarders, a lone Tahoe ski resort decided to welcome the outlaw riders.
According to its former owner Norm Sayler, in 1980 Donner Ski Ranch became the first U.S. resort to sell a lift ticket to a snowboarder. The resort quickly became a popular destination not only for locals, but it’s where some of the nation’s best snowboarders visited as well.
“If you wanted to buy a lift ticket, I would sell you one,” said Sayler, who took over management of Donner Ski Ranch in 1958 and ran it for the next 46 years, eventually becoming the owner. “As far as I was concerned, you could have a snowboard in one arm if you had a $10 bill in the other.”
Despite the boast, conflicting research indicates that Suicide Six Resort in Pomfret, Vermont was the first U.S. resort to allow snowboarding in 1982.
The resort’s acceptance of snowboarding was largely due to the efforts of Jake Burton, founder of Burton Snowboards, the first snowboard factory. That same year, the inaugural National Snowboarding Championships took place on an icy run at Suicide Six.
INFLUENTIAL TAHOE SNOWBOARD COMPANY: Four years before heralded, three-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White was born in 1986, one of the first snowboard companies opened in South Lake Tahoe.
In 1982, Earl Zeller teamed with Chris Sanders and building contractor Lester Robertson to form Avalanche Snowboards. Zeller was considered a leading innovative force in the early days of snowboarding.
Avalanche Snowboards introduced plate bindings, a fin used to steer the board in powder, much like a surfboard in a wake. Sidecuts, or edges, from skis were also imposed on the boards.
Zeller downplayed his early innovations. “We didn’t know what we were doing, we were just copying people,” he said.
Another major board innovator arrived in 1983. Tom Sims (founder of Sims Snowboards) organized the first official halfpipe competition at tiny Soda Springs ski resort in Lake Tahoe as part of the World Snowboarding Championships. The event attracted snowboarders from across the country, including Carpenter and his Burton team.
WELCOMING THE KNUCKLE DRAGGERS: Although the Tahoe region was slow in accepting what some mockingly called the rebel “knuckle draggers,” nationwide the ban was easing. By 1985, an estimated 40 U.S. resorts began welcoming the riders, even though some resorts required assessment tests and access was granted only on designated runs.
One of those resorts was Slide Mountain (now Mt. Rose). In the early to mid-1980s, Slide Mountain initiated a snowboard certification card. The riders had to pass a basic test conducted by ski patrol and ski school, then pay a small fee to receive their snowboard safety certification card. Only then, would they have access to the modest Nevada-based mountain.
Later in the 1980s, Boreal Mountain began going out of its way to attract snowboarders, seeing it as a key to their future in competing with larger area resorts. The ploy worked and to this day it continues. Boreal attracts far more riders than skiers because it offers extensive terrain parks and features like handrails, boxes, halfpipes and jump lines.
SQUAW VALLEY USHERS IN SNOWBOARDING: Perhaps the biggest breakthrough in Tahoe came in the spring of 1987 when Squaw Valley (now Palisades Tahoe) decided to allow snowboarding on a trial basis for the remainder of the season.
Satisfied with its previous experimental results, the next season (1988) Squaw officially opened to snowboarding. One year later, two South Lake Tahoe resorts – Heavenly and Sierra Ski Ranch (now Sierra-at-Tahoe) – lifted the snowboarding ban as well. Sierra embraced the riders, building its first terrain park that season.
Nationally, snowboarders were gaining acceptance everywhere. By 1990, there were roughly 476 ski resorts throughout the country allowing snowboarders and the sport was welcomed into the Olympics in 1998. By 2000, snowboarding was the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., with the number of boarders rising to a total of just over 7.2 million.
ALPINE MEADOWS FINAL TAHOE HOLDOUT: But one Lake Tahoe ski resort – Alpine Meadows – remained firm in its beliefs and weren’t budging in remaining a skiers-only resort.
Located next to Squaw Valley, Alpine remained adamant that snowboarders were not welcome. Eventually, the midsized ski resort decided if you can’t beat them, join them. On a trial basis, Alpine opened its lifts to snowboarders on a trial basis the final week of the 1995-96 ski season. Next season the ban was lifted for good.
“We feel the sport has grown up,” said then Alpine spokeswoman Brinn Talbot. “Our guests’ needs have changed. A lot of families have snowboarders in their midst, and we want to welcome them, too.”
NOTABLE LAKE TAHOE SNOWBOARDERS: Early snowboarding pioneers from the Tahoe region included Terry Kidwell, Damien Sanders, Jim Zellers, Shaun Palmer, Tina Basich, Mike Basich, Jeremy Jones, and Tom Burt.
The region’s most notable snowboarder is Jamie Anderson, who in 2000 learned at age 9 how to snowboard at Sierra-at-Tahoe, which she still considers her home mountain. Anderson and her seven siblings were home schooled and spent their idyllic winter days honing their skills on the slopes at Sierra.
Anderson went on to win the gold medal in the inaugural Women’s Slopestyle event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She has three Olympic medals overall – two of them gold. Anderson is also an eight-time X Games medalist, four of those gold, and three time World Snowboarding champ.
“I still think Sierra-at-Tahoe is my favorite place to snowboard in the whole world. As a kid, we (Jamie and her siblings) spent every single day at the mountain,” recalls Anderson.
Hannah Teter is a three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medalist in halfpipe, winning gold in 2006 in Torino, Italy, and silver in 2010 at the Vancouver Games. At age 18, she moved to South Lake Tahoe to pursue her snowboarding career, making Sierra-at-Tahoe her home resort. He pro career lasted approximately 14 years ago.
Born in Kauai and raised in Lake Tahoe, Elena Hight is a two-time Olympian (2006, 2010) and X Games gold medalist.
At age 6, Hight embraced her snowboarding niche on the slopes of Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra. She was riding professionally by age 14 and her career lasted 16 years. Hight retired from competitive halfpipe riding in 2018 to pursue big mountain snowboarding and film projects.
Two other recent Tahoe snowboarding products are Nate Holland and Chas Guldemond. Holland was a three-time Olympian in boardercross. His best finish was a near-podium fourth place at the Vancouver Games. Guldemond competed in the first-ever Olympic slopestyle event at 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, missing the finals after finishing seventh in the semifinals
PART ONE: Tahoe resorts played role in snowboarding gaining acceptance
PART TWO: Origin of Snowboarding
