Burton Snowboards

One man's mistake: Burton snowboards

Burton snowboards can be considered the product of one man's mistakes. Jake Burton didn't invent snowboards, but he was an avid lover of skiing and that became his primary influence on making snowboards.

Jake Burton was born in New York City on April 29th, 1954. He had his first skiing experience at Birch Hill in New York at the age of seven. Since then, he continued to ski and at his first boarding school, was introduced to one of the precursors of snowboarding, the snurfer. He continued to experiment with the snurfer during his days at Marvelwood-Cornwall, his second attempt at boarding school. It was at Cornwall that Burton found a knack for skiing and went on skip the 11th grade and graduate. He then proceeded to the University of Colorado where he aspired to make the NCAA Champion ski team. However, his plans were cut short when he fractured his collar bone three times before he even put on a ski. It was after college, in 1977, that he decided to move to Vermont and create Burton snowboards.

Burton snowboards originally started out with Jake, two relatives, and a friend. Burton considers the employment of his relatives and friend as his first of many mistakes he would make. His mistakes would cost Jake $100,000 in debt during his first 2 years in the business. He would have to work in New York over the summer to make money and keep himself afloat. After a while, he no longer had money to hire people and found himself as the sole employee of Burton snowboards. However, Jake persevered and found himself taking orders for kids from the west coast at 2 AM. Since then, Burton snowboards has become one of the world's largest manufacturers of snowboards and is renown for their excellence in quality.

Jake Burton wasn't the father of snowboards, nor was he an outstanding businessman. He was just a man that had a passion for snowboards and made some mistakes. But eventually, his mistakes paid off and he is now considered one of the pioneers of modern snowboarding. Burton snowboards are good enough for the professional and easy enough for the beginner. Their Custom line of boards make the perfect all-around boards for any level of boarding.

For more information on Burton snowboards, please check out the links provided below.

And be sure to check out our pages about Snowboarding Pictures, Snowboarding Tips, Lamar Snowboards, and Sims Snowboards elsewhere on this site.