James Bond’s snowboard is at the Colorado Snowsports Museum
Tom Sims rode the Sims snowboard in 1985's 'A View to a Kill'
Colorado Snowsports Museum/Courtesy photo
There is a piece of pop culture at the Colorado Snowsports Museum.
If you know your James Bond movies, how could you forget the exciting chase on a snowboard in “A View to A Kill,” which came out on May 24, 1985.
The snowboard found its way to the Colorado Snowsports Museum recently.
“I was down at our resource center in Denver talking to Dana Mathios, director of collections and our museum curator, and I see this snowboard leaning up against the wall and I said, ‘What’s that thing?’ and she said, ‘Oh, that’s a snowboard from a James Bond movie’ and I was like, ‘What? We’ve got to get this on display at the museum,” Mason said.
The snowboard that appeared in the “A View to a Kill” movie had actually been on display in the museum before, but due to the recent remodel, it hadn’t been put back out yet.
Support Local Journalism
In order to give context for the snowboard that became the “getaway vehicle” in the movie, Mason wanted to have a video screen airing that segment of “A View to a Kill” so people could see the snowboard in action.
“It’s just a cool, short video clip from the movie that you can watch while you are in here and then look at the Sims board and see how it was incorporated into the getaway scene,” Mason said. “Yesterday, we had a 9-year-old boy who watched it 10 times. He was completely enamored by it.”
Colorado Snowsports Museum/Courtesy photo
In the movie, James Bond, who was played by Roger Moore, is being chased by the Russians who are on skis, driving a snowmobile and in a helicopter. Bond eventually takes the snowmobile and is trying to escape but the crew in the helicopter blows up the snowmobile and parts go everywhere, including one of the blades on the snowmobile. Bond takes the blade, hops on it like it’s a snowboard and cruises out of there.
The person doing the stunt riding is none other than one of the godfathers of snowboarding, Tom Sims. The riding is impressive, and Sims even makes it across the pond while the bad guys only make it halfway across the pond on skis. The makeshift snowboard helps Bond survive the chase in the plot.
Although Sims did the majority of the snowboarding, he had another rider, Steve Link, there to do any big airs. John Eaves doubled for Roger Moore in the skiing shots. The scenes were filmed on the Pers Glacier at the base of the Piz Palü in the Alps in Eastern Switzerland near the Diavolezza ski resort.
“Snowboarding wasn’t even allowed on Vail Mountain until 1989, so it really shows you that it was far ahead of its time,” Mason said.
This new exhibit is part of the Tom Sims Collection at the museum.
Colorado Snowsports Museum/Courtesy photo
“It’s really incredible that we have so many of his boards. Tom Sims is a California guy, but his family loves the Colorado Snowsports Museum and we actually have several of his most precious artifacts,” Mason said. “We have his first snowboard that he made in shop class when he was a teenager, it is on permanent display. And this James Bond board is now on permanent display in the museum.”
To see this piece of pop culture and watch the movie scene, stop by the Colorado Snowsports Museum in the Vail Village parking structure which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.