С, , . вставьте правильны формы глаголов the sport of snowboarding is booming and the person responsible for this is jake burton. burton, the antithesis of a hard-nosed businessman, is the president and founder of what is now a multimillion-dollar corporation. "i have the best job in the world," says burton. "1 ride my board several days a week, the company is making money, the sport is blossoming." though burton (often call) the inventor of the snowboard, he (refuse) to take credit for anything more than improving on somebody else's idea. he (settle), instead, for the label 'snowboard pioneer'. the first snowboard-like object (produce) by sherman poppen who, in 1965, (bolt) two skis together for his children to slide on. poppen 6 his invention the snurfer. jake burton 7 ) a snurfer when he was 14 years old. 't (always feel) there was an opportunity for it to (market) better," he says, "for serious technology to (apply) to it, so snurfing could (become) a legitimate sport instead of a cheap toy." according to jake's father, although jake possess) any innate entrepreneurial spirit, once he had the idea for this board in his head, he (put) every bit of his energy into it. jake burton's teenage years (marry) by tragedy: his older brother (kill) in vietnam when burton was 12, and their mother (die) of leukemia five years later. "the loss made for two things," says burton, "real independence and an ability to 17 )." both (bring) into play in december 1977, when, shortly after he (earn) a degree in economics and (leave) a small sum in his grandmother's will, he (found) burton snowboards. he was 23. in the beginning burton 22 ) as a barman by night and (make) snowboard prototypes by day. after constructing more than 100 тmodels, he finally had a board he was pleased with. that hurdle overcome, he had to (convince) people to buy the things. one major stumbling block was the fact that snowboards (ban) at virtually all ski areas. finally, after 1983, when restrictions at many ski resorts (loosen), snowboard sales (climb). now 95% of the ski areas in the us 28 ) boarding, as do all ski areas in europe. an international circuit of snowboard racing and freestyle events (start) in 1986, and the sport 30 ) its olympic debut at the 1998 winter games in nagano, japan.