A Natives tribute to the late great Tom Sims |
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| By adamrowden, 25 Sep '12 at 16:32 |
The world of winter sports lost a true, if not the truest, pioneer recently, when Tom Sims died from a cardiac arrest on Wednesday 12th September. For those people who have a true love of the mountains this is a man that needs no introduction as he paved the way for almost all of us.
Born in Los Angeles in 1950, Sims’ family moved to New Jersey two years later and it was there that he would, at the tender age of 12-years-old, make a “skateboard for the snow”.
It was this creation that means that Sims is the man who is often credited to have invented the world’s first snowboard. He developed it in his seventh-grade woodshop class at Haddonfield Central School in New Jersey in 1963 and little did this pioneering young dude know that he had, then and there, come up with one of the raddest inventions around. And what was his aim? Simple, he wanted to combine his two favourite sports - skiing and skateboarding. His original model was 34-by-8-inches with an aluminium bottom and a carpeted top.
His career within the industry has spanned over four decades and his creations in both the world of snowboarding and skateboarding have gone on to shape both sports. He was, for example, the man behind the first snowboard to have metal edges and he was also involved in the incorporation of some of the earliest high-back bindings.
In 1976 he set up Sims Skateboards and it was with this venture that he also became the first person to introduce longboarding to the world. In fact it was these longer boards that became his initial speciality. Just four years later he made the move into snowboarding, and it was Sims Snowboards that was the first company to design boards that were specifically for women, making them shorter, narrower and lighter.
His inventiveness was not his only asset though, Sims was also, as you most probably already know, a very accomplished rider.
In 1976 Sims won the World Skateboarding Championships and in 1983 he became the snowboarding world champion. His talents were also utilised in the film industry when he was brought in as the stunt double for none other than Roger Moore in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill.
The world of extreme sports owes a lot to this man who is survived by his wife Hilary, sons Shane and Tommy, daughter Sarah, step daughters Alexa and Kylie Wagner as well as his sister Margie Sims Klinger. And the thoughts of everyone at Natives go out to the family at this difficult time.
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