No. 798 Tim Strong, 2013

File — Box: 74, Folder: 15

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Utah snowboarding pioneer Tim Strong credits his introduction to snowboarding to the Air Force, which put him in Utah in 1982, and an article in Playboy about Winterstick snowboards. An east coast surfer, he found the transition natural, and soon transitioned from a Swallowtail to the game-changing Sims 1500 FE with metal edges. Mr. Strong remembers that the first resort in Utah to allow snowboarding was Alta, for a bare two weeks, followed by Beaver Mountain, Brighton, and more. His interview focuses on the sport’s history in Utah, touching on equipment, the old days of hiking before resorts allowed snowboards, the politics of snowboarding in the early days such as the unease between Tom Sims and Jake Burton, and his own snowboarding career in the 1980s. He was involved in the early certification process that Chuck Panner pioneered, and persuaded Snowbasin, the first corporate resort in Utah to allow snowboarding, to accommodate the new demographic. Mr. Strong recalls the sense of brotherhood he felt with other Utah snowboarders like his friend Kevin Ciampini, Rich and Drew Hicken, Noel Walkinshaw, and others, attributing it to Utah’s long-lasting hostility to the sport. Mr. Strong’s own snowboarding career included three years’ sponsorship by Tom Sims, including his sixth-place finish at the 1986 Breckenridge, Colorado, world snowboarder championships in the men’s pro halfpipe competition. He spends some time recalling the rigmarole that ski resorts first put snowboarders through, requiring them to wear tiny skis over their snowboards to get on and off lifts.
Project: Outdoor Recereation oral history project.
Interviewer: Erin Halcomb

Dates

2013

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.