Snurfer girl Wendy Poppen (right) and her father Sherm Poppen at the World Snow Surfing competition at the Muskegon State Park, Muskegon, Michigan.. Courtesy photo.
By Stewart McFerran
It’s two years overdue, but the late Sherman “Sherm” Poppen, inventor of the first snowboard known as a Snurfer, was finally recognized for his achievement during a March 5, 2022 induction ceremony in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Poppen, a former Muskegon resident, was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum in 2020.
Wendy Poppen, his daughter, said the pandemic delayed the ceremony, and she wishes the induction had taken place even earlier, before his death in 2019. She gave the acceptance speech for him.
“This is the last hurrah for my dad and the Snurfer,” she said.
Our February 2021 story, “Dropping in on a Snurfer”, prompted sliders and sledders to look in the attic for their old snurfer boards. (The boards were used to snow “surf,” aka snurf.) I heard from many who found them in those dusty places. That they kept them all these years is a tribute to Poppen, the inventor of the Snurfer. The original snurfer board Poppen made for his daughters is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
Snurfer evolution
I recently had an opportunity to chat with Wendy Poppen.
“The world’s first person on a Snurfer was me,” she said.
Wendy, age 10 at the time, vividly recalled the experience.
“He nailed my skis together that day,” she said. “He just took my little wooden skis and my Cubco bindings (a brand of easy-release bindings for children under 50 pounds) and nailed four little pieces of wood, two on the tip and two on the tail. And then I got on it, and the rest is history ⸺ or I should say, it was herstory.”
Wendy attended the Leelanau School in Glen Arbor and was an avid downhill skier. Two days after high school graduation, she said she drove to the mountains “and I’ve been here ever since.” She taught skiing in Park City, Utah and Sun Valley, Idaho.
When she was growing up, she said her father worked as a salesman at Lake Welding and Supply Company in Muskegon.
“He just liked to tinker around and invent things,” she remarked. “He invented some kind of a welding tool that ended up getting a patent, so he was familiar with what you needed to do to get a patent (from) the U.S. government.”
After nailing Wendy’s skis together, Poppen continued tinkering.
“He started tricking-out a water ski,” she explained. “So, we started sliding down the hill on a water ski. Then he contacted Brunswick, (maker of wood floors for bowling alleys).
“I will never forget the day he took me to a (gently sloping and snowy) hill on a golf course. Four guys in suits came out with my dad, who was in a suit, and me, all bundled up. They stood there and talked, and I just snurfed down the hill and pulled the Snurfer up (the hill). I did that, like, 15 times while they were just chatting away, so they could see what it was all about. And then they ended up purchasing the patent and then creating the board.”
She said her dad was an avid skier at that time and understood how important edges were. She believes he suggested the use of a metal skeg on the rear end of the Super Racing Snurfer.
Wendy’s win
“Not many girls snurfed,” Wendy recalled. “It (was) the era of girls-don’t-do-sports-things, and I’m sporty and athletic. And I grew up with that toy (the Snurfer), so it was normal for me to do it.
Asked about her participation in the second annual Muskegon Community College snurfing competition, held near the Blockhouse at Muskegon State Park, Wendy offered: “I’m pretty sure I competed with the boys. I don’t think there was a girls’ and boys’ division, just the Midget Division.”
She has the ribbon she won. It reads: First Place World Snurfing Champ 1969, Midget Division.
Wendy remembered the time she and Jake Burton Carpenter raced.
“I beat him,” she said. “I guess I wanted to beat everybody because my dad invented the toy.”
Carpenter, from Vermont, traveled to Muskegon with a Snurfer he modified with a binding that attached his boots to the board. He was not allowed to compete with this board in the Snurfer championship at the state park, but he went on to found Burton Snowboards.
Wendy said she returned to Muskegon in 2012 for the dedication of a statue honoring the evolution of the snowboard. The 14-foot-tall bronze, titled “Turning Point”, was created by artist Jason Dreweck and his mother Teresa Hansen. The statue depicts an elegant ribbon of “snow” between a female snurfer at the top, symbolizing Wendy and her sisters, and a modern-day snowboarder at the bottom.
Stewart McFerran used to snurf down snow-covered Michigan sand dunes in Muskegon. He remembers being present when snowboarding legend Jake Burton Carpenter was disqualified from the 1979 Snurfer championship.
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