A View To A Kill Gadgets
After years of working with Q branch, James Bond has certainly learned to become a man for improvisation. And in true World War II style, this led to him grabbing a runner from an exploded snowmobile to make an improv device that would enable him to race down the mountain to a Beach Boys soundtrack.
With no strappings or bindings, 007 managed to fit the runner to his feet to create a snowboard. Now, this is what you call a 'device', rather than a gadget.
Bond surfed down the mountain while the feeble pursuit skiers struggled with the moguls and bumps on the black run. What really affected the pursuing baddies however was a well placed pond, which 007 was able to surf across while they, erm, sunk.
The first snowboard was said to have been invented in 1963 by Tom Sims. He named it the Ski Board and made it from ply-wood. At around the same time Sherman Poppen tied a couple of skis together to create the same affect.
It wasn't until 1979 however, when Jake Burton Carpenter started making snowboards from fibreglass that the pursuit really took off. By the early 1980s edges and bindings were being added and the sport began to take off to the point where it has remained the fastest growing winter sport in the world to this day. Burton Snowboards remain among the best sellers.
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Bond on Location
The filming of the opening sequence of a View To A Kill took place in two places.
The opening section was not in 'Siberia' as we were led to believe, but at the Vatnajökull Glacier near Höfn in southern Iceland...
...As 007 hurtles down the mountain we switch to Switzerland, and the Vadretta di Scerscen Inferiore on the Switzerland and Italy border.
There are numerous hotels in both areas.
Photo: A View To A Kill 1985 Danjaq, LLC, & United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved