Current Exhibits

Beginnings - Snurfing to Snowboarding 1965 to 1985

This groundbreaking exhibition explores the evolution of snowboarding—from a homemade backyard toy to a global cultural phenomenon. The story begins in 1965, when Michigan engineer Sherman Poppen nailed two skis together for his daughters to slide down a hill. His wife Nancy coined the name Snurfer by blending snow and surf, unknowingly sparking a revolution in winter sports.

Through rare photos, patents, and memorabilia—many drawn from the Paul Graves Archive—visitors can trace snowboarding’s early evolution. Graves, one of the sport’s first professional riders, played a pivotal role in legitimizing snowboarding. In 1979, he convinced competition organizers to let Jake Burton Carpenter enter the Snurfer Championships with his modified board, creating the first “Open” division. A few years later, Graves founded the National Snow Surfing Championships at Suicide Six (now Saskadena Six) in Woodstock, Vermont, bringing snowboarding into the national spotlight with coverage by Sports Illustrated, Vermont Life, and NBC’s Today Show.

The exhibit chronicles the sport’s rise from 1965 to 1985 with rare photographs, patents, letters, first hand accounts and videos that tell the story of forces that brought snowboarding to life.

Check out our timeline: The History of Snowboarding

Includes links to multiple videos covering the birth of the sport!

And don’t miss The Dawning, a film by Gary Land and East Street Archives.

Hubert Schriebl – From the Alps to Vermont

A stunning photographic retrospective honoring one of Vermont’s most prolific visual storytellers of mountain culture.

Born in Austria, Hubert Schriebl began his career as a mountain guide for the Austrian Alpine Club, joining expeditions to the Everest region in the early 1960s. His passion for photography was born during these Himalayan adventures, and by 1964 he was the lead photographer on the first ascent of Manaslu II (North) at 23,480 feet.

That same year, Schriebl arrived in Vermont to teach skiing at Stratton, where his camera soon became an essential part of the mountain’s story. Over the next five decades, he photographed four Winter Olympics, countless ski and snowboard events—and worked as the longtime photo editor of Stratton Magazine.

The exhibit features a curated selection of his most striking winter sports imagery alongside early Himalayan expedition photos and intimate scenes of Vermont life. Together, they reveal the depth and diversity of a career defined by curiosity, precision, and passion for the outdoors