A pioneer in the rise of competitive snowboarding dies

Snowboard industry pioneer Paul Alden died on April 9, 2026, at age 89. Here he is at Vail Resort in a pair of one of the first step-in snowboard bindings ever invented, by his son Rick Alden, also the founder of action-sport headphone brand Skullcandy and co-founder of snowboard apparel brand Stance. | Alden family photo

A Utah man who worked behind the scenes to bring snowboarding into the mainstream in North America has died at the age of 89.

In the mid-1980s when ski resorts denied snowboarders access to their slopes, Paul Alden worked the phones, navigated institutional resistance and helped build the organizational infrastructure that allowed the sport to grow into what it is today. His efforts were rarely noticed.

Born in New York City in 1936, Alden came to snowboarding through his son, David, a Burton Snowboards team member through the 1980s. Jake Burton Carpenter is one of the inventors of modern snowboards and built Burton into a global brand.

Alden bought Snurfers, the predecessor of snowboards, for his family for Christmas in 1968, marking the start of a path that would lead him and his family to lifetime involvement with the snowboard industry.

Alden worked at Burton from 1984 to 1990, and during that time he helped resolve the insurance issue that kept snowboarding out of major ski resorts. Working with Jake Burton and others, he made the case for snowboarding directly with insurance industry representatives. After those companies revised their policies to cover the sport, ski areas across the country gained the legal footing they needed to open their lifts to snowboarders.

The number of resorts allowing snowboarding grew from 40 in the 1984-85 season to 476 by 1990. Today, Alta Ski Area and Deer Valley Resort in Utah and Mad River Glen in Vermont are the only North American resorts that ban the sport.

Snowboard industry pioneer Paul Alden died on April 9, 2026, at age 89. In addition to serving as one of the key behind-the-scenes architects of competitive snowboarding in North America, Alden enjoyed riding himself. He spent years teaching snowboarding at Grand Targhee Ski Resort in Wyoming — a reminder that his connection to the sport was personal, as well as professional. | Alden family photo

The making of competitive snowboarding

In 1986, Alden helped convince Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado to host the World Snowboarding Championships, specifically to accept the halfpipe as a legitimate competitive format.

A year later, he convened a group of riders and industry representatives and founded the North American Snowboard Association. Originally known as NASA, the organization was renamed NASBA to avoid confusion with the space agency. It partnered with the Snowboard European Association to create a unified international World Cup circuit with events in the United States and Europe. The circuit would eventually feed into Olympic team selection.

In 1992, Alden tried to negotiate a merger between the United States Ski Association and the United States Amateur Snowboard Association, an early attempt to bring snowboarding under the Olympic sports umbrella. The effort failed, but the political groundwork laid during that time was part of the longer process that resulted in snowboarding’s inclusion in the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

Alden played a pivotal role in convincing the International Olympic Committee to allow snowboarding.

“Back then I thought he was wasting his time,” his son David Alden said. “Little did I know.”

Snowboarding has since grown from two Olympic events to six for both men and women.

Outside of his organizational work, Alden was a snowboarder himself. He taught snowboarding at Grand Targhee Ski Resort in Wyoming for years.

Alden also was involved in manufacturing and business development across the snowboard industry through the late 1980s and 1990s.

When his son, Rick Alden, founded the action sports headphone brand Skullcandy in 2003, Alden managed its offshore production operations in China. He continued working in the snowsports industry into his final years, serving as general manager for Soldier Mountain Ski Area in Fairfield, Idaho.

Alden died April 9.

A viewing will be held April 17 from 6-8 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse at 135 E. 2000 South in Orem, Utah. Funeral services will follow on April 18, with a viewing prior to the 11 a.m. services from 10-10:45 a.m.