14
SEP/OCT 2019
15
“There is so much
history and so many
stories and I am only
going to be able to
scratch the surface.”
History articles can be tough to write, it’s impossible
to give the subject the proper and complete cover-
age. There is just never enough space or time to pull
it off the way you envision it should turn out. Case and
point, trying to squeeze 30 years of snowboarding his-
tory into eight pages. There is so much history and so
many stories and I am only going to be able to scratch
the surface.
The reason snowboarding took off the way it did in the
90’s is because of the visionary people, like John In-
gersall, John Calkins, Chris Karol, and Tim Windell,
who got involved. Like anything, it’s human nature to
take something, make it your own and strive to make
it better. The founders of snowboarding on Mt Hood
never would have dreamed that in 2022 the Beijing
Winter Games would be the 8th Winter Olympics to
contain snowboarding.
It was only right that these visionaries wanted “endless
winter”, so Timberline gave the okay and snowboard
camps started to spring up. Alpine ski race camps had
already been well established on the Palmer Glacier
and then the snowboarders showed up, Timberline
and Government Camp would never be the same.
High Cascade Snowboard Camp, Windells, USSTC,
Chris Karol, and Mt Hood Snowboard Camp all
played an important part in the evolution of sum-
mer snowboarding and yes... freeskiing as well. Be-
fore the snowboarders showed up there weren’t any
rails, jumps, jibs, or half pipes. Let’s not forget the
visionaries in Whistler as well. The glacier there also
became a mecca for snowboarders from all over the
world. Camp of Champions started by Ken and Dave
Achenbach lasted 28 years until shutting down, Craig
Kelly’s World Snowboard Camp was also a big player
for many years. Tim Windell started his first camp,
Shred the World, before moving it to Timberline and
changing it to Windells Snowboard Camp.
Jimi Scott with a timeless method