About this episode

The episode recounts the efforts of snowboard pioneers in the 1980s to gain access to ski resorts amidst widespread bans.

In the ’80s, a dispersed subset of renegade youth used all possible tactics to storm the gates of ski resorts amidst widespread snowboard bans. Today’s episode is that story. Tricia and Jen sit down with Brad Steward, one of the great pioneers of the snowboard industry, to divulge how he and other total legends claimed snowboarding’s place on the chairlift. At the turn of 1980, Brad was a teenage rider barred from his local hill—he was studying public-land-permit bylaws and hassling staff down at the U.S. Forest Service Office. Later when he got a job at Sims, no guerrilla tactic was off the table, from gifting boards to the grandkids of Mammoth Mountain’s owner (knowing they’d fall in love with the sport) to enlisting a Trojan Horse “adult” (Paul Alden) blessed with the buttoned-up energy and wardrobe it took to gain some respect from ski-area management. The crew talks certification shakedowns, trespassing arrests, hairball chairlift offramps, and other skier-on-snowboarder crimes. Finally, they discuss how, with 3 ski-only mountains still kicking it, Brad’s superhero days of fighting for access may not be over yet. Support Going Off on our Patreon…

People in this episode

Hosts: Tricia, Jen

Guest: Brad Steward

Topics covered

• snowboarding history
• ski resorts
• youth culture
• pioneers
• access rights

Keywords

• snowboarding
• ski areas
• Brad Steward
• 1980s
• access rights
• Mammoth Mountain
• public land

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sims, U.S. Forest Service

Places: Mammoth Mountain

More episodes of Going Off Snowboard History Podcast

• How Snowboarding Showed Up in a Famed ’80S TV Ad · August 12, 2026 · 1h 4m

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