VAIL, Colo. — At the Colorado Snowsports Museum in Vail, Executive Director Jennifer Mason says that among all the snowboard history people can see is the first snowboard millions of people ever saw.
"It brought it into pop culture and mainstream,” said Mason. “It was James Bond, and it was all of sudden James Bond and snowboarding collided and elevated the sport.”
The snowboard that is now on display in the museum is the one James Bond rode in the 1984 movie "A View to A Kill," when Bond escapes the bad guys by taking the front skid of a snowmobile and using it as a snowboard.
“It's got all the makings of all this cool, amazing story,” said Mason. “There is a snowboard scene in this movie and we actually have the board that was used.’
At that time, snowboarding wasn’t well known and the iconic Bond movie scene was years before snowboarding was even allowed at Vail.
“Snowboarding was not allowed on Vail Mountain until 1989," said Mason. "This is five years prior to even snowboards being allowed on one of the largest ski mountains in the country."
The snowboard was donated by the Tom Simms family. He was the stunt man who performed the snowboarding scene in the movie, and one of the pioneers of snowboarding in the United States.
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