Meet Paul Graves

Called “a snowboarding pioneer” by Time Magazine and often called “the founding father” of snowboarding, Paul has led the industry since its inception. As a talented athlete and ardent promoter and consultant for the media, board makers, event organizers, mountains and many of the early biggest names, Paul was responsible for product development, prototype testing and worldwide marketing of the snowboard in its earliest days.

In 1982, Paul founded and hosted the National Snow Surfing Championships at Suicide Six in Woodstock, Vermont with his team at Snowboard East. He later gifted the event to his friend, Jake Burton Carpenter, and it became Burton’s U.S. Open of Snowboarding.

He saw the sport achieve enough structure to hold championships and competition, saw its popularity soar as it was eagerly accepted by young people, and rode the wave as public perception shifted from rejection, to tolerance, to wholehearted acceptance.

Paul was actively involved in both the design and technical advancement of snowboarding, and his connections established divisions in North America and expanded the sport to Japan and Europe.

In 1996, Paul was named an Ambassador of the State of Vermont by the Office of Travel and Tourism under Howard Dean’s administration.