Snowboard king popularized sport
Multimillionaire got start making boards in a barn
Jake Burton Carpenter, a self- described punk who became the multimillionaire owner of Burton Snowboards, died Nov. 20 at a hospital in Burlington, Vt. He was 65. The cause was complications of testicular cancer. Carpenter, who personally tested his company’s products while snowboarding about 100 days a year, had been successfully treated for the disease in 2011. He later survived Miller Fisher syndrome, a rare nerve disorder that left him temporarily paralyzed and dependent on a respirator and feeding tube.
Carpenter — he often went by Jake Burton — did not invent the snowboard. That was credited to Sherm Poppen, a Michigan tinkerer who in late 1965 cobbled together two skis to make a winter surfboard of sorts for his children.
It was called the Snurfer, a name combining snow and surf. Carpenter received one when he was 14 and said “It was almost like a rodeo ride standing up. I got passionate about it right away.” The Snurfer’s underground vibe attracted his rebellious side. Around the same time, he was expelled from boarding school.
About a decade later, fresh out of college with an economics degree, Carpenter turned his focus to making Snurfing into a full- fledged sport.
For someone who thrived on the thrills of speed, Carpenter got off to a slow start in business. While bartending at night, he spent his days in a Vermont barn, experimenting with various woods, plastics and other materials to make a superior snowboard, running up tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
But by 1984, sales had hit US$ 1 million, and in a decade, the company was worth more than $ 100 million. Estimated sales in 2015 exceeded $500 million.
As for the sport and its practitioners, “at first, we were a nuisance, then a novelty, then a threat, and finally the saviour of the ski industry,” Carpenter told the Journal of Case Research in Business and Economics, which examined his business as a case study in 2010.
Carpenter was born in New York City on April 29, 1954. He was 12 when his older brother was killed in Vietnam, and their mother died five years later of cancer.
“The losses made for real independence and an ability to persevere,” Carpenter told Sports Illustrated.
In 1983, he married Donna Gaston, who later held top roles at Burton Snowboards. The company expanded globally, also selling boots, helmets, goggles, winter apparel and luggage, among other merchandise.
Survivors include Gaston, three sons, two sisters, his stepmother, two stepbrothers and two stepsisters.
we were a nuisance, then a novelty, then a threat.