Snowboarding legend and board sports pioneer Tom Sims passed
away September 12, pronounced dead at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital from
sudden cardiac arrest.

Sims is credited with creating the first snowboard in 1963,
dubbed the “first skateboard for the snow.” He founded SIMS snowboards in 1976
and continued to innovate over the last 40 years. Other firsts to his credit
include: the first metal snowboard edge, the first pro-model snowboard, the
first women’s specific snowboard, and the first folding highback snowboard
bindings.

Sims was a competitor of the highest caliber with a long
list of podiums. He was the primary snowboarding stunt double for Roger Moore
in the 1985 James Bond film “A View to a Kill.” Throughout the years he
continued to be a driving force within his own brand. Sims brought forward
thinking innovations and products that morphed and grew the snow and skate
industry landscape.

“His constant quest for the deepest powder, the longest
downhill paved road and the smoothest wave has been and always will be an
inspiration to us all,” read a memorial statement from SIMS Snowboards on
Facebook. Other tributes simply read “legend,” “my first snowboard,” “No words
can suffice,” and “Thanks for starting everything I live for.”

He is survived by his wife Hilary, sons Tommy and Shane,
daughter Sarah, stepdaughters Alexa and Kylie Wagner, and sister Margie Sims
Klinger of Santa Barbara. Memorial donations should be directed to Santa
Barbara Cottage Hospital.