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First Asymmetrical Alpine Snowboard / Historical Quest on Facebook


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The first picture is from 1982!!! Look at the plate bindings!

Those are early Marker turntables! Plus that is the earliest model of Hooger Booger I've seen. Pretty cool.

Ed, did you work your way through all the photos on the HoogerBooger site? AMAZING!!! What a great site. Short of the goofy navigation. Which I am more than happy to endure. Great photo history.

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The first picture is from 1982!!! Look at the plate bindings!

Those are early Marker turntables! Plus that is the earliest model of Hooger Booger I've seen. Pretty cool.

slopetool, this must be the earliest you have ever seen, because it is their very first board! It is from autumn 1982 and it was inspired by a picture of Tom Sims in the Skateboarder mag. But as the builder was a freestyle skier before, he used the Marker bindings and wash´t that interested in soft bindings.

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I do recall reading about some collaboration between Kemper and Aggression.

was curious about that. they did look very similar in profile. i used to lust after the aggro boards. i picked up an apex & sprayed it faux stealth flat black. fun board. not so good in pow (yes, what was i thinking).

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About Kemper - in 89/90 the Kemper boards were still symmetrical (like the Aggressor Comp or the Bullet). The Kemper Apex (160SL and 170GS) appeared in 90/91. By then almost all alpine companies had switched to asymmetrical race boards.

In the 89/90 season only 4 companies offered asymmetrical alpine boards - Hooger Booger (several models!), Burton - the original PJ (170), Nidecker - the Magnum 166 and Hot - the first Logical (165). Of these 4 brands only the Hot Logical had an asymmetrical nose.

A year before (the 88/89 season) Hooger Booger was the only company to offer asymmetrical alpine boards in production!

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tahoetrencher ;)

If you think that the early prototypes are not "alpine" enough, here are two pictures from October and November 1986!

The board on the second pictures has a sidecut of 54m ... for real men!!! ;-) (The white stickers are again from the court case)

Thanks for posting, awesome alpine history tidbit.

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About Kemper - in 89/90 the Kemper boards were still symmetrical (like the Aggressor Comp or the Bullet).

Yep, I had an '89 Aggressor...the only board I've ever had without inserts. I kept pulling out the rear heel screws...so much so that it looked like swiss cheese before the season was up. Shame, was a great riding board for the time.

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Reading this thread makes me wonder...:)

I would think that the Monoski developed in the 60's and made popular by Mike Doyle would be considered the first Modern Alpine Board which of course is really nothing more than a wide ski so that both feet fit on it...

As for first Asymmetrical or Swallow Tail or Pin Tail or Tapered or Rockered or Sidecut or whatever, those would be innovations or advances on the original concept which goes back way before the Snurfer to a time and place long ago and unknown...

not trying to be argumentative here ...just wondering out loud :)

a quick search on the Monoski can provide some info...

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Reading this thread makes me wonder...:)

I would think that the Monoski developed in the 60's and made popular by Mike Doyle would be considered the first Modern Alpine Board which of course is really nothing more than a wide ski so that both feet fit on it...

As for first Asymmetrical or Swallow Tail or Pin Tail or Tapered or Rockered or Sidecut or whatever, those would be innovations or advances on the original concept which goes back way before the Snurfer to a time and place long ago and unknown...

not trying to be argumentative here ...just wondering out loud :)

a quick search on the Monoski can provide some info...

"Alpine Board" perhaps. However not a snowboard. I personally have had many a conversation in regards to "Firsts". This thread is specific. Topic before us has been "What is the first asymetrical snowboard?" as raised on the FB thread.

The "Mono Ski" is a close cousin, it is not a snowboard by a very rudimentory definition. This is of course often debated. There are many variations. Personally, and I only speak for myself, I would define "Snowboard" as a single board , ridden with a sideways stance on snow. This very simple but inclusive definition allows for many of the boards used PRIOR to the term "Snowboard" was even born. Example, dozens of variations of primitive sliding devices such as the Snurfer, Skifer, Belmar, stand up sleds etc, etc. Mike Doyle was definitely a pioneer and should be seen as an innovator of early snow sliding boards. It is not a snowboard. Perhaps even a closer relative is the snow snake and the skwal. Let's not go there , those are great subjects for another thread.

Asymetrical Snowboards. What was the first?

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About Kemper - in 89/90 the Kemper boards were still symmetrical (like the Aggressor Comp or the Bullet). The Kemper Apex (160SL and 170GS) appeared in 90/91. By then almost all alpine companies had switched to asymmetrical race boards.

In the 89/90 season only 4 companies offered asymmetrical alpine boards - Hooger Booger (several models!), Burton - the original PJ (170), Nidecker - the Magnum 166 and Hot - the first Logical (165). Of these 4 brands only the Hot Logical had an asymmetrical nose.

A year before (the 88/89 season) Hooger Booger was the only company to offer asymmetrical alpine boards in production!

Wintergold, Dude you are on the money. I remember my symmetrical Nidecker Magnum (153 or 156) from 89/90. Got my first Nidecker Concept Asym in maybe 1990 and a Kemper Apex the following year. That was followed by a Lacroix 165 in maybe 1992. I remember seeing a whole bunch of Sims riders with proto Asyms at the Snow Summit PSA race back in 1991. Burned through several sets of Emery bindings before I got my first set of SnowPros in 1991. Those were good times back then. Thanks for the memories! Tom

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Reading this thread makes me wonder...:)

I would think that the Monoski developed in the 60's and made popular by Mike Doyle would be considered the first Modern Alpine Board which of course is really nothing more than a wide ski so that both feet fit on it...

As for first Asymmetrical or Swallow Tail or Pin Tail or Tapered or Rockered or Sidecut or whatever, those would be innovations or advances on the original concept which goes back way before the Snurfer to a time and place long ago and unknown...

not trying to be argumentative here ...just wondering out loud :)

a quick search on the Monoski can provide some info...

Doyle, will come right out and tell you he wishes he would have put the bindings "surfstyle" on his Single ski... But he also says he had a blast outskiing patrollers and instructors from the resorts he visited on his single ski with only a few years experance, compaired to their life time of practice and "drills"......

He knows what he did for 4 vs 2 edges......

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Doyle, will come right out and tell you he wishes he would have put the bindings "surfstyle" on his Single ski... But he also says he had a blast outskiing patrollers and instructors from the resorts he visited on his single ski with only a few years experance, compaired to their life time of practice and "drills"......

He knows what he did for 4 vs 2 edges......

Cool Bordy. I had not heard that. I have seen the cool "First" mono he built in person. Pretty impressive. I have photos in the archive somewhere. I have talked to some of his skiing buddies from the early days. They have some awesome stories to tell.

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In the 89/90 season only 4 companies offered asymmetrical alpine boards - Hooger Booger (several models!), Burton - the original PJ (170), Nidecker - the Magnum 166 and Hot - the first Logical (165). Of these 4 brands only the Hot Logical had an asymmetrical nose.

I have to disagree - I had Lib Tech asym boards in spring '90 racing in the CSSA series. And I am sure I saw Mistral Asyms then as well.

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I have to disagree - I had Lib Tech asym boards in spring '90 racing in the CSSA series. And I am sure I saw Mistral Asyms then as well.

tex1230 - I am only talking about what was really available on the market. Not some customs or prototypes. If you are talking particularly about spring ´90, then maybe you are already talking about the boards from the 90/91 season. Remember that I wrote that from that season on almost all (!) alpine boards were asymmetrical.

About Mistral - in 89/90 the raceboards from Mistral were called Inka and Aztec. And they were definitely symmetrical. But again, in 90/91 they also had asymmetrical boards - they were called Ecstasy.

But I must admit that I don´t have a lot of information about the Lib Techs. Do you have any concrete facts? Model names? Photos? That would be highly interesting!!!

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Lib Tech Inner-course - I don't have photos but the design was consistent for 3-4 years, only the topsheet changed. First one I had was the skeleton, then team members got the solid black ones...I had 3 of those, then finally a catman graphic, which was a late 91-92 and is currently in the hands of Mr. Shred Gruumer - may be the Libs were not available in Europe in 90?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Back when I first started to snowboard, I could not afford to buy as many as I wanted at MSRP. So I became the first winterstick and Sims rep. on the east coast. Back then it was hard to get very many boards per year from Sims. I also put an ad for what was the first snowboard camp in Tignes Val D'Isere when I owned Jasbar (John And Steve Bogue All Retailers) sport ( a company I had to set up mostly to get a tax ID number to buy at wholesale- no one would carry the boards so it was the only way to get them). I supplied a lot of East coasters with their first boards in the early 1980's. Brian and DJ Hipona were some of my early well known customers.

But before I advertised the Snowboard camp in International Snowboard Magazine, and got Tom Sims to send me a cool shot of a cliff jump to rasterize (which I think was on their 3rd issue) I asked Tom Hseih for the back issues.. I have several copies of Absolutely Radical and I think it was issue # 3 or 4 that advertised the "Prop snow plane" which sort of looked like a propeller prop of an airplane and was what I believe was the first advertised Asym. There might have been one before that, but to the best of my knowledge it was the first. It was weird looking with some bindings that didn't look that strong.

Edited by John Gilmour
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