During the 1980s and 1990s, the "Manchester and the Mountains" area of Vermont was the epicenter of the fledgling sport of snowboarding. With the presence of Burton Snowboards, the U.S. Open Championships and one of the earliest machine-built halfpipes at Stratton Mountain, the local population led the vanguard as the sport ventured from the fringe to mainstream. Ranging from Olympic gold medalists to backhoe operators and converted skiers, locals contributed immensely to the development of the sport. Author Brian Knight details the birth, growth and development of a new worldwide sport from humble beginnings in southern Vermont.
Brian Knight is a self-employed historic preservation consultant and architectural historian. He works throughout Vermont preserving the state's cultural resources and built environment. His first book, No Braver Deeds, chronicled the Equinox Guards, Company E, 5th Vermont, in the Civil War. While working for Stratton in the 1980s and early 1990s, writing for a local magazine in the late 1990s and then teaching at history at the Stratton Mountain School, he has been an objective observer of snowboarding in southwest Vermont. He presently lives in Dorset, Vermont.