Innovator dies

Sherman Poppen, the snowboard inventor who laid the groundwork for a multi-billion-dollar industry, has died. He was 89. Poppen died on July 31 at his home in Griffin, Georgia. In 1965, while living in Michigan, Poppen was looking for a way to entertain his daughters on a snowy Christmas Day. So he strapped two skis together and held them in place with wooden crossbars. A year later, he got a patent on the contraption. Jake Burton Carpenter improved the design and helped bring the snowboard to the masses but maintained Poppen was “the guy who started snowboarding”.