Modern snowboarding was essentially a teenager in the ’90s. If you consider the introduction of modern bindings and boards in the late 1970s the birth of the sport as we know it today, then that puts its literal adolescent years squarely in a decade that started out with neon everything, gradually melting into Y2K grunge aesthetics. You can see that evolution in snowboarding fashion as much as you can see the sport growing into something more mainstream, more mature even.
Craig Kelly was an undeniable key piece in that puzzle. The Godfather of Freeriding exploded on the scene with a style and demeanor that brought technical expertise to a discipline that was still associated as an underground, chaotic subculture. He won the first two U.S. Open halfpipe events, and he took a hands-on approach to board designs and materials that revolutionized our equipment. His first pro model was the Mystery Air. The Craig Kelly Air and Micro Kelly Air came in ’91 and ’92, followed by the Barbwire Pro Model in ’94. There was the Screaming Tree in ’95 and the Big Air 64 in ’96. From Burton’s perspective, that range of boards did everything from introduce lighter models for resort riding, to paving the way for early backcountry boards including the splitboard.
“R&D, when I first started, was going to hardware stores or a boat supply store and buying waterski bindings and putting them on a snowboard,” Jake Burton said at the time. “This sport hasn’t been around for a thousand years. It’s been around for, whatever, 20 years. The changes are so radical. I hope people realize it.”
Burton Snowboards’ 50 Years of Snowboarding documentary series has traced each decade of the sport’s evolution from that company’s perspective, with its latest installment examining those growth years of the ’90s. And the film points out how snowboarding was just like any real teenager back then: it was awkward, there were plenty of cringe outfits and cringe highlights, but there was also a lot of radical growth. The sport started to find itself, influenced by the evolution of its equipment as much as the music and mainstream pop culture that was prominent at the time.
