[4] Working from a barn in Londonderry, Vermont, he improved on the Snurfer, a snowboard precursor which featured a rope to allow the rider some basic control over the board.
"[5] By the late-1970s, he was among a small cadre of manufacturers who had begun selling snowboards with design features such as a bentwood laminate core and a rigid binding which held the board firmly to the wearer's boot.
[7] Burton is credited with developing the economic ecosystem around snowboarding as a lifestyle, sport and culture, in addition to founding a premier board manufacturer.
Carpenter met his future wife Donna Lynn Gaston, then a student at Barnard College, at a 1981 New Year's Eve party at the Mill Tavern in Londonderry, Vermont.
Carpenter survived several health scares in his later years: knee injuries, testicular cancer, pulmonary embolism and notably, the Miller Fisher variant of Guillain–Barré syndrome, a rare and serious neurological disorder.
[8] Carpenter died November 20, 2019, in Burlington, Vermont,[14] after announcing recurrence of his cancer to Burton staff earlier in the month.