PHYSICIANS LOOK AT RISKS OF PRESCRIPTION ABUSE | ROUTT COUNTY 1D
SKATING TO A WIN
$1.00
HANGING UP HIS HAT
Demong wins Lincoln Avenue skate ski race
Stetson salesman retires after 33 years with the company
SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2009
SPORTS 1C
BUSINESS 3A
VOLUME 122, NUMBER 51 • STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO • www.steamboatpilot.com
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JOHN F. RUSSELL/STAFF
Sherman Poppen stands next to a ‘Snurfer’ at the Tread of Pioneers Museum. He invented the toy for his children, and it became the inspiration for today’s snowboard. A collection of his Snurfers and marketing materials now are in the Smithsonian Institution.
Smithsonian honors the snowboard’s predecessor Sherman Poppen’s ‘Snurfer’ displayed in national museum Tom Ross
PILOT & TODAY STAFF
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS
On Christmas Day 44 years ago, Sherman Poppen felt a sudden need to get his children outdoors. Out of that urgency rose the sport of snowboarding, when Poppen improvised a prototype of a standon-top sled on the snow-covered Lake Michigan sand dunes. Poppen, 79, is a On the ’Net longtime resident of For a full version of the story of Steamboat Springs and Sherm Poppen’s “Snurfer,” and is widely recognized the genesis of snowboarding, as the grandfather of visit www.steamboatpilot.com. snowboarding with his invention of the Snurfer, a precursor of the modern snowboard. Now, his personal collection of Snurfers, marketing materials and even legal documents have been added to the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Without the Lake Michigan snow on Christmas morning in 1965, the history of snowboarding might have traced a far different course. It’s even fair to ask whether the snowboard would exist today were it not for Poppen’s Yuletide ingenuity. “I had two kids, 10 and 5 (Wendy and Laurie) with a third (Julie) due any day,” Poppen recalled. His first wife “Nancy said, ‘Sherm, you’ve got to get those noisy kids out of the house.’ We got the sled out and went out to the dunes behind the house. But I realized the runners on the sled would cut through the snow, and it wouldn’t slide.” Poppen suspects his unfulfilled desire to go surfing caused him to invent a new snow toy on the spot at home in Muskegon, Mich. The frustrated surf daddy seized Wendy’s 36-inch skis, grabbed a couple of pieces of wooden molding from his shop and screwed them in to lock the cheap skis together, side by side. See Poppen, page 10A
PAGE DESIGNED BY AMANDA MAIN
JOEL REICHENBERGER/STAFF
Steamboat Springs Team Lightning swim team grants little sympathy Saturday at the Fourth of July Parade in downtown Steamboat as the squad blasts water guns into the crowd.
Routt County celebrates Fourth of July daytime events in Steamboat, Yampa draw large crowds
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orecast rain stayed at bay Saturday morning and early afternoon, and downtown Steamboat Springs was flooded with a sea of red-, white- and blue-clad Independence Day celebrators. The Steamboat Springs Lions Club fired up its grills at 7 a.m. and cooked thousands of pancakes by 10 a.m. at a STORY BY packed Little Toots Park. BRANDON GEE “They’re cheaper by the thousand,” said Lions Club member Del Haute, who said he has participated in the pancake breakfast fundraiser for 60 years. Yampa Street was clogged with
SUNDAY FOCUS
people, bikes, dogs, horses, a camel, parade floats, ATVs, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds, skates, wagons and boats as parade entrants prepared to begin their march down Lincoln Avenue. The parade featured a new 40-footlong iguana car float created by Charlie and Gail Holthausen, but Lynne Masters
JOEL REICHENBERGER/STAFF
Kaedynce Kaleikini, 6, waves to the crowd as she leads the Tread of Pioneers Museum float in the Fourth of July Parade in Steamboat Springs.
See Fourth of July, page 9A
Breast cancer survivor Cathryn Wohlfert to host reception at Relay For Life on Aug. 7 Margaret Hair
Relay For Life
PILOT & TODAY STAFF
In the weeks leading up to the 2009 Steamboat Springs Relay For Life, the Steamboat Pilot & Today will profile some of the people who have participated in or been touched by the event, starting today.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS
MATT STENSLAND/STAFF
Sometimes, Cathryn Wohlfert will wear a necklace containing ashes of her sister, Susanne Agricola, who died in January 2008. Wohlfert said the death of her sister provided her with strength to fight her breast cancer.
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Lincoln Avenue in Steamboat Springs ■ Parade theme: Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp ■ Original theme: Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. (Olympic) ■ Group float: Excel Gymnastics ■ Commercial float: Yampa Valley Bank
The strength to go on
INSIDE Business . . . . . . . . Classifieds . . . . . . . Comics . . . . . . . . . Crossword . . . . . . . Happenings . . . . . .
Fourth of July Parade winners
Horoscope . . . . . . . Obituaries . . . . . . . Outdoors . . . . . . . . Viewpoints . . . . . . . Weather . . . . . . . . .
ROUTT
6D 6A 6C 4A 2A
Afternoon thunderstorm. High of 79. Page 2A
COUNTY’S
Cathryn Wohlfert thinks her cancer survivor story isn’t bad — it’s pretty good, even. Diagnosed with breast cancer in late December 2007, Wohlfert quickly found a wide base of support in Routt County. A friend’s physician and fellow breast cancer victim served as an emotional touch point. Kind words poured in from all sides.
DELIVERY PROBLEM?
VIEWPOINTS LAST WEEK: Are you going out of town for the Fourth of July this year? Results/5A THIS WEEK: Do you think nightlife is important to include in the redevelopment of Ski Time Square?
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As she got deeper into a patchwork community of survivors, Wohlfert heard so many trials and tales, it was hard to think hers would stand out in any way, she said.
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See Relay For Life, page 9A
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