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Since its inception in the ‘60s, snowboarding has become one of the most incredible sports having a household name. Here are a few moments that we think deserve some extra recognition.

Dimitrije Milovich Drops Out of Cornell to Snowboard (1972)

Dimitrije Milovich’s role in the snowboarding world can be described simply as this: he founded the snowboarding company Winterstick. 

After being introduced to snowboarding by Wayne Stoveken, it only took him two years to drop out of the prestigious college Cornell University. He then moved to Utah, where he started to test the prototypes of his snowboards. By 1974, Stoveken and Milovich had two “Snow Surfboard” patents and a shop set up in Salt Lake City to sell their boards.

People loved their boards. Winterstick gained national publicity in SKI and Newsweek, skyrocketing them to fame. Though Stoveken didn’t stay in Utah, Milovich continued, creating the Winterstick Company with associates Don Moss and Renee Sessions. It only took them a few years before his boards were being sold in eleven countries.

Though this couldn’t last forever. Snowboarding was challenging to sell to retailers, and with not a lot of capital coming in, Milovich had to close his doors for good in 1987. Unfortunately, it was a few years before snowboarding’s big boom.

Shaun White Completes a Perfect Season (2005-2006)

One performance of Shaun White’s that landed him in the public eye was the Gold Medal halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. However, this was one perfect performance out of an entire season of perfect performances that made the snowboarder become a household name.

Through the months of December 2005 to March 2006, Shaun White entered and won gold in 12 consecutive contests. These include the five Grand Prix Olympic Qualifiers, two Winter X Games, the gold medal in Torino, and the elusive U.S. Open. He scored gold medals in both the halfpipe as well as the slopestyle events, giving him the perfect end to a seemingly unconquerable season. There’s no doubt that White has become one of the greatest snowboarders of all time, and as new snowboarders enter the scene, that perfect season grows in difficulty as more competitors try and fail to redo it.