Fawcett Photo Design

Mike Chantry, Homewood Ski Area, Lake Tahoe, 1988

Mike Chantry, Sand Mountain, Nevada 1988

Excerpt from Lee Crane’s story at Transworld Snowboarding, History of Halfpipe:

In 1978, resorts in California’s Lake Tahoe basin hadn’t realized snowboarding’s potential and refused to allow snowboards on their mountains. Because of this, snowboarders spent most of their free time searching for good spots to ride. “Back then not everyone in high school had cars so we needed places to ride that were close by,” remembers 29-year-old Tahoe local Bob Klein.

Klein’s friend Mark Anolik was hiking around Tahoe City in 1979 when he discovered the perfect hit on land owned by the Tahoe-Truckee Sanitation Company. It was literally the city dump. No one is quite sure if the spot was a bend in a creek bed, or the edge of the land fill. It had an entry and a couple hits, which was all these snowboard pioneers needed. Word of the pipe spread and within a few days Mark, Bob Klein, Allen Arnbrister, and Terry Kidwell were beginning to session the spot. They named it the Tahoe City Pipe.

By the spring of 1980, thanks to a local phone company employee and skateboard fanatic named Mike Chantry, the pipe was exposed to the skateboard world. ”Mike Chantry took me there nearly blindfolded because Bob Klein didn’t want anyone to find out about it,” remembers Tom Sims, founder of Sims Snowboards.

“What’s wrong with other snowboarders finding the pipe. At that time there weren’t even that many snowboarders in the world, let alone riding the Tahoe City Pipe.”

Over the next few years pro skateboarders Rob Roskopp, Steve Cabellero, and Scott Foss began visiting the pipe. Lensmen from Thrasher magazine and later International Snowboard Magazine were close behind, not as much for the pipe, but because of the people who were there.

By today’s standards the Tahoe City Halfpipe was not even a halfpipe. “The pipe itself was really just one-hit,” Chantry says. “To make it good took a lot of shoveling.”

That didn’t seem to bother Terry Kidwell or Allen Arnbrister. “Once Kidwell and Arnbrister got into it, it became more of shaping thing,” Klein explains. ”They would spend more time shaping it than riding.”

Keith Kimmel, Donner Quarterpipe, Lake Tahoe, 1986

Along with Terry Kidwell, Bob Klein and Allen Arnbrister of Tahoe City, Keith Kimmel was one of the original pioneers of modern day snowboarding. He was featured on the cover of the first International Snowboard Magazine (ISM) in March of 86, ripping the original Tahoe City halfpipe, a natural gully near the TC dump.

In this photo, published in the ISM Interview and Thrasher Magazine, Keith is pictured here in one of the first “switchstance” moments in snowboard history. You can read more about the early days of snowboarding halfpipe here.

Tom Burt and Damian Sanders at Mt. Rose Nevada before mainstream ski area acceptance, 1987

Tom Burt and Damian Sanders were two of the original founding fathers of snowboarding. While Damian’s freestyle flare and movie debuts drove mainstream acceptance and explosive growth, Tom (and Jim and Bonnie Zellars) fathered the backcountry movement in early media. Damian was FLF Films early poster boy and starred in their earliest snowboard movies which further fueled snowboarding’s popularity into the early nineties. Together, the four were sponsored by Chris and Bev Sanders/Avalanche Snowboards of South Lake Tahoe.

Damian Sanders at the first Squaw Valley Halfpipe (Lake Tahoe, 1989)

Tom Burt at the first Squaw Valley Halfpipe (Lake Tahoe, 1989)

Dave Seoane, Sugarbowl, Lake Tahoe, from Roadkill

Question – Dave Seoane is a:
1) Sculptor?
2) Pro snowboarder?
3) Professional cinematographer?
4) Furniture Designer?
5) all of the above, plus some?

Dave Seoane, Pyramid Lake, Nevada

John Cardiel, FS Rock-N-Roll, Original Burnside Bowl, Portland, Oregon, 1991

One of the easiest riders I ever had the luck to work with was John Cardiel. I’m glad to hear that John is recovering from being hit by a very large truck many years ago. Our roadtrip was the first story that I had ever been assigned to write and photograph. It was for Snowboarder Magazine in 1991 and featured John going to summer camp, namely High Cascade Snowboard Camp. Halfway through the week John treated us with a skate session at the original Burnside Bowl.

John Cardiel with Chew, High Cascade Snowboard Camp, Mt Hood, Oregon, 1991

John Cardiel, Timberline at Mt. Hood, Way Above Palmer Snowfield, 1991

The weather was pretty uncooperative during the week until we hiked up Mt. Hood above cloud level and John spun off a crystal ridge line several times. In the days before digital, I was glad to see all the Kodachromes had turned out nice and sharp.

Craig Kelly Backside, Soda Springs, Sims World Championships, 1985

At the third world championships, Craig ruled the pipe along with Kidwell, Kimmel, and Palmer. Craig had just picked up his sponsorship from Tom Sims a month before, and he’s sporting Raybans, Moto Gloves and Levis. In this photo it’s funny to see people sitting on the walls which is generally prohibited at today’s events. The World Championships moved to Breckenridge the following year.


Craig Kelly, Mt. Baker, 1991