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Tom Sims RIP

slopestar

By slopestar
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boarderboy Contributor Plus

boarderboy

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What a classic, frozen moment!

Don't know if T.S. would be amused or flattered to know the latest Burton collection has at least three, evolved, metal-edged swallowtails so conceptually close to the board he's riding here.

Somebody ought to design a two-board, all-conditions quiver commemorating Tom Sims and Craig Kelly!

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slopestar Senior Contributor

slopestar

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Sad to hear of another legend being lost. I was so sad when we lost Craig... I worked for him (really Kelly Jo Legaz) in Canada for several summers back in the 90's. Hopefully they are both together again and slashing pow turns. Thanks for all you have done for us. Peace to you and your family!

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fin Senior Contributor

fin

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This was my first snowboard back in 86'. Bought it at the local skate shop in Chico, CA where I was going to college. They also had the Burton "BackCountry" but at the time I thought it looked too "corporate" and I wanted a west coast, surf influenced board. Photo taken in the front area of our shop.

Had the opportunity to meet Tom Sims WAY back when Bomber first started. He was still running hardboots at the time and we set him up with some bindings. Super nice guy and seemed to have a story for everyone in the industry.

It killed me to watch the Sims name get bought and resold over and over again. It deserved better in my opinion and I always wondered if Tom felt the same way.

RIP Mr. Sims, you made a difference with me and many others. Thank you.

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Neil Gendzwill Super Contributor

Neil Gendzwill

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Cool, Fin! My first board was a Burton Elite but I traded up to a much superior Sims 1710 Blade, and that's the board I really learned to turn on. Probably should have kept both of those but you know how it goes, short on cash. I had a buddy that had a 1600 FE and I thought it was about the coolest thing I'd ever seen, unbelievably thin and light. I think it was '86 or maybe '87 when they used to have the North American championships at Sunshine that I saw Terry Kidwell ripping it up in the primitive hand-built half-pipe with his signature Sims freestyle board, and again very cool. But when I went to get my own Sims I leaned towards the Alpine...

When I was a kid, all the best guys we saw in Skateboarder seemed to be running Sims Bowlriders, a very wide wheel. I finally got the chance to try a set after a couple of years of pining for them, and I think they were the slowest wheels I ever rode! But they looked cool. And of course I had to try my hand at building an 8-wheeler after seeing Lonnie Toft ripping it up on his Sims special.

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Steve Prokopiw Senior Contributor

Steve Prokopiw

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I mentioned on my fb page that his was the first brand I sold in my little shop back in '85.What I didn't say is that the order I made for Sims boards came on time and sold out quickly;the order I made for the main competitor(guess who),after being guarateed a 1 mile radius of exclusivity, came 4 months late and was already being sold at a bigger shop that pulled the rug out from under me just a few blocks away.

In this era of adversarial relationships between the different factions of snowboarding,no one in my memory represented the purity of snowboarding more while at the same time influencing surf style, race style, and freestyle.Pure...Juice Ride In Peace,Tom Sims

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John Gilmour Senior Contributor

John Gilmour

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I first saw tom Sims at a skateboard contest in Long Island NY.

I got into slalom and went to a contest to see slalom racing at the Nassau Coliseum 36 years ago. Tom was riding a huge wooden deck 36" with a kicktail (not far off from what people ride today).

My friend Larry bought 40 Sims cones that day. And without Tom Sims bringing cones to sell...I might not have ever gotten into slalom and won a World Championship- or gotten a silver medal from the french and spanish Olympic Committees for speed skateboarding (as I would have never tried to find Bob turner who made my board when i was looking for more Sims racing decks) or even be writing here.. I still have 35 Sims cones all with the original stickers- Larry won't sell me his- they have too many great memories. .

I also had Sims bowl riders - and would race one guy who was fast on them. tea-ba AKA Cheeta, Nelson Vales. The first board I luged on had Sims Pure Juice.

Sims made some of the first longboards which got me into longboarding. Being comfortable on longboards is in part what made me take up snowboarding- as I thought the longboarding would make the crossover easier....having Sims make a board just made me as a skater more comfortable in trying it. There was a huge Burton Sims rivalry back then.

If I never got into snowboarding, I would not have met Madd Mike and there never would have been Madd boards, I also never would have gotten Turner going again , and slalom skateboarding might still be dormant.

The skate slalom scenes in NYC by Tavern on the green and Memorial drive (Boston) would have never existed.

I never would have taught anyone to snowboard.

I bought things that said Sims on it because I thought the brand was cool. Loved the swoosh logo signature.

I made an 8 wheeler I because I could not get a Toft 8 wheeler, though eventually I got one. I owned about 15 of the Sims/turner racing decks, I had a vintage 44 inch taperkick, several Sims 1500 FE pros, a Sims FE, Sims 1600 FE Pro, Sims 1710 Blade. I rode Sims Asyms (Loved saying that as it sounds funny) , and many Sims race decks and convinced my Home mountain of tiny Wachusett to buy 75 Sims ATV's for people to learn on. I owned Sims skate gloves with green urethane tips, When i went to Brazil the only park board I had was mounted with Sims Snake Conicals.

My coach in longboarding and slalom is Ed Economy- a Sims team rider.

I worked as a rep. for Sims in the early 80's. I would talk to Tom and his dad Paul all the time when I was buying Turners from Paul Sims in 1982- they were Sims racing decks Bob Turner(also R.I.P.) Made for Sims. tom got me into hardbooting after only riding a few times on a Sims 1500 FE. I asked tom what he rode (Koflach Valluga's) and immediately ordered a set. When I started the first snowboard camp in Tignes and needed photos- Tom was quick to send me slides to use in an Ad I put in International Snowboard Magazine.

I remember Tom riding in the James Bond film and being stoked to see snowboarding on the big screen (it was supposed to be a Snowmobile front ski)

I rode with Tom at Stratton after having spoken to him for over 2 decades.

Sims and their legacy of products has had a major impact in my life.

If I know Tom- he's already working on some kind of cloud surfer.

Edited by John Gilmour
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crucible Contributor Plus

crucible

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Just found out that one of the founding fathers of our sport has passed away:

http://espn.go.com/action/snowboarding/story/_/id/8388772/tom-sims-remembered-peers-snowboarding

I met Tom Sims only once, but he left an indelible impression on me.

It was in 1995, during the Gold Rush phase of the snowboarding industry. Japanese money and venture capital money were plentiful, there were over 200 snowboard companies in the market, and our industry was the darling and savior of the snowsports and outdoor market.

I was a snowboard rep for Winterstick snowboards at the time, and bumped into Tom Sims walking past their demo tent in Ogden UT during the SIA snowsports demos. He had just wrestled back control of Sims from his licensing deal at Vison, and was coming out with a full line of boards again to deal with Ride/Morrow, K2 and Burton.

We shared a chairlift and then the back of a haysled at Powder Mountain, and I remember asking him how it felt to back into the grind of the snowsports business again. He talked about how he wanted to reclaim his mantle of being the founding father of freestyle snowboarding, and of the legacy of Sims as being a pioneer in our sport. Finally as we were nearing the unloading ramp, he just beamed a big smile and said, "Dude, the most important thing about today is that there's 12" of powder just waiting for us!"

The man had his priorities in order.

We all owe him a debt of gratitude.

Edited by crucible
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noschoolrider Contributor Plus

noschoolrider

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One of the first videos I ever saw, it made me ache to ride...

http://youtu.be/B28kpDuqXVo

do yourself a favor and check it out. Look at the emphasis on actual snowboarding technique in this video. Real snowboarders know how to turn gracefully.

I totally agree!

Seeing Tom Sims snowboard in View to a Kill and the "This is Snowboarding with Team Sims" video inspired me to try snowboarding.

Tom Sims doubles for James Bond in View to a Kill:

Tom Sims interview:

http://whitelines.mpora.com/features/interviews/tom-sims-licence-shred.html

Tom, thanks for turning me on to snowboarding. RIP

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boarderboy Contributor Plus

boarderboy

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Tom Sims, who was credited with inventing one of the earliest snowboards and, as a world-champion competitor and manufacturer, with helping to further snowboarding's widespread acceptance in the sporting world, died Sept. 12 at a hospital near his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 61.

The cause was complications following cardiac arrest, his sister, Margie Sims Klinger, said.

Mr. Sims was an avid skateboarder in 1963 when he built a crude "ski board" in his seventh-grade wood shop class in Haddonfield, N.J., so he could continue to ride during the winter.

"That's what led me to build the first snowboard: not being able to skateboard on an icy street," Mr. Sims said in a video posted on the magazine Trans-world Skateboardingï's Web site. "So after that, it was just 12 months a year of boarding, whether it be skateboarding, snowboarding or surfing."

His boyhood invention did not work very well, but it inspired him to continue to refine the design. At the same time, he began building a career as a designer of skateboards.

In the mid-1970s, when Mr. Sims was riding boards he had made in professional competitions, he founded Sims Skateboards in Whittier, Calif., to manufacture and market them. Soon the company was sponsoring skateboarding luminaries like Christian Hosoi and Craig Kelly and expanding to manufacture snowboards as well.

By the 1980s, many ski resorts still looked at snowboarding as a fad, if they allowed it at all. The sport was nevertheless growing, and riders had started organizing competitions. Most of the early contests involved slalom races, as in alpine skiing. Mr. Sims brought his aggressive skateboarding style to the sport and helped introduce freestyle snowboarding, using natural and artificial obstacles on the hill to perform tricks.

"He was the catalyst for having half-pipe in snowboard competitions," Pat Bridges, the editor of Snowboarder magazine, said in an online tribute, referring to the familiar U-shaped obstacle. "He actually got freestyle competitions off the ground, and that was invaluable."

Sims Snowboards broke new ground in the industry. The company is often credited as the first to design boards with metal edges, making for a smoother and more stable ride; the first to design boards for women, making them lighter, shorter and narrower to accommodate smaller boots; and one of the first to design and manufacture high-backed snowboard bindings, which allow for more responsive maneuvers. An improved version of that bindings design is used by nearly all snowboarders today.

Mr. Sims became a world-champion snowboarder in 1983. He was also Roger Moore's stunt double during a snowboard sequence in the 1985 James Bond film "A View to a Kill."

Snowboarders are now commonplace at nearly all ski resorts, and snowboarding made its debut as a Winter Olympic sport in Nagano, Japan, in 1998.

Thomas Paul Sims was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 1950. His family moved to the East Coast when he was 2. He first saw children skateboarding on a family trip to Los Angeles in 1960 and was immediately smitten.

In addition to his sister, Mr. Sims is survived by his wife, Hilary; two sons, Thomas Jr. and Shane; a daughter, Sarah M. Sims; and two stepdaughters, Alexa and Kylie Wagner.

A slightly refined version of Mr. Sims' humble seventh-grade "ski board" now resides at the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum in Vail.

NYT 09/19/12

Edited by boarderboy
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