Pioneer Skate and Snowboard Athlete. Known as "Mr. Shred", he is credited with many of the most important innovations in both the snowboarding and skateboarding sport. While in his seventh grade junior high wood-shop class at Haddonfield Central School in New Jersey in 1963, he made what he called a "Ski Board" combining his two favorite sports, skiing and skateboarding. During the 1970s, he founded Sims Skateboards in Whittier, California and developed the first metal edged snowboard, first snowboarding Half Pipe, the first freestyle snowboard and first pro-model snowboard. In 1975, he built the world's first long boards for skateboarding, won the Skateboard World Championship in 1976 and appeared in the film, "Freewheelin" (1976). He won the World Snowboarding Championship in 1983 and the slalom event at the U.S. Open of Snowboarding in 1985. In addition, Sims was the primary snowboarding stunt man as Agent 007 in the opening scene of the James Bond movie, "View to a Kill' (1985). Since the 1990s, his Sims Snowboards brand has been managed by Collective Licensing International, for use at all the Winter Olympics and competitions world wide. His first humble seventh grade "Ski Board", now resides at the Colorado Ski and Snow Board Museum Vail, Colorado. He died from a cardiac arrest at age 61.
Pioneer Skate and Snowboard Athlete. Known as "Mr. Shred", he is credited with many of the most important innovations in both the snowboarding and skateboarding sport. While in his seventh grade junior high wood-shop class at Haddonfield Central School in New Jersey in 1963, he made what he called a "Ski Board" combining his two favorite sports, skiing and skateboarding. During the 1970s, he founded Sims Skateboards in Whittier, California and developed the first metal edged snowboard, first snowboarding Half Pipe, the first freestyle snowboard and first pro-model snowboard. In 1975, he built the world's first long boards for skateboarding, won the Skateboard World Championship in 1976 and appeared in the film, "Freewheelin" (1976). He won the World Snowboarding Championship in 1983 and the slalom event at the U.S. Open of Snowboarding in 1985. In addition, Sims was the primary snowboarding stunt man as Agent 007 in the opening scene of the James Bond movie, "View to a Kill' (1985). Since the 1990s, his Sims Snowboards brand has been managed by Collective Licensing International, for use at all the Winter Olympics and competitions world wide. His first humble seventh grade "Ski Board", now resides at the Colorado Ski and Snow Board Museum Vail, Colorado. He died from a cardiac arrest at age 61.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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