Northwest Snowboards has been owned and operated by the Cummins Family since its founding in 1988. The Cummins family includes dad - Joe, mom – Cheryl, and their three sons (oldest to youngest) Matt, Mike, and Temple.

The newest additions to the Cummins’ clan are Temple's wife Barrett (Christy) and their son Cannon.

Skateboarding played a huge part in Matt and Mike’s adolescent lives. This love of skateboarding finally led them into snowboarding in 1983. Mike was able to earn some money cutting grass, which he used to order his first snowboard, a Burton Performer, from an ad in Thrasher Magazine. Mike also worked that summer at White Pass Ski Area where he cleared runs in exchange for a seasons pass for the upcoming winter. However, when winter finally rolled around, the higher powers at White Pass told him he could not ride the lifts with a snowboard. After some intervening by other concerned adults Mike was granted permission to ride, possibly the first snowboarder allowed on their lifts!  Later that year, Matt also acquired a Burton Performer and hiked Alpental for his first runs. Shortly after his first day riding Matt was hooked and decided to create a board of his own. Matt and his friend Jason Rota, with the help of Jason’s dad, built their own boards. They sacrificed an old tree fort for the plywood, chose counter top laminate for the bottom and topped it off with a custom metal center fin.

Early in 1988, Matt and Mike proposed opening a snowboard and skateboard shop to their parents. Having grown up in Gig Harbor they knew Tacoma would be a better location for a store. They found a little two hundred square foot garage that had been converted into a retail space on the corner of 6th and Stevens. This became the location of the very first store opening on November 1st 1988.

Cheryl was an experienced bookkeeper so was able to take care of the financial side of the business. The boys were more concerned with the product ordering and choosing what brands to carry. The shop carried brands like Gnu, Barfoot, Burton, K2, Sims and Avalanche snowboards. It also had clothing from early brands such as Quimbolaman, Bamboo Curtain and Storm Shorts. Some of the skateboard brands originally carried were H-street, G&S, Powell Peralta, SMA, World Industries, Zorlac, and Hosoi.

Joe still worked full time as a Biologist so Cheryl was in charge of handling day-to-day operations. Everyone pitched in for figuring out what to brands to order at first. Temple was still in school at this point but worked after school and on the weekends. The first employees were the likes of Wax Master Rob Morton and Paul Ferrel of Mervin Manufacturing fame. Theft at the new shop was a constant threat, as the shop was located near Tacoma's Hilltop district. So much of a threat actually that Joe considered bringing home all the products each night! Typically, after work employees would head up to Ski Acres and spend the night shredding up the slopes.

During the 1988 season Joe and Cheryl both learned to snowboard.

Although the family had grown up skiing at White Pass, snowboarding was relatively new to them. Joe's first board was a G&S 165. Cheryl's first was a Barfoot 145. Joe actually had a Pro Model made by Gnu in his honor called the General Joe.

It was an asymmetric freestyle board. In 1989 the shop became involved with Bob Barci.

and The Northwest Series, which was a regional snowboard contest series that held events in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Friends and employees of the shop became the “shop team” and would travel to the events to compete.

Having outgrown its two hundred square foot confines, on Easter day in 1990 the shop moved to Bridgeport Avenue in Tacoma, tripling its size to six hundred square feet.

Deciding still more room was needed; in December of the same year, the shop was moved yet again to its current location. In September 1994, the first Olympia shop opened.

It relocated to its current location in 2002. Our first Gig Harbor shop opened in January 1997 and moved to its current location in 1999.

Matt Cummins continued pursing his passion of snowboarding and ended up getting sponsored by Gnu after a few winning placements in half-pipe contests.

Shortly after Gnu picked him up he started traveling worldwide to compete and eventually turned pro for Lib-Technologies. In his spare time he started mixing together wax formulas in muffin tins in the back of the shop, which eventually led to the beginning of One Ball Jay, the first snowboard specific wax company.

Temple graduated from high school and was still working at the store, snowboarding as much as possible. He continued doing the Northwest Series and quickly turned pro.  Throughout the years some of Temple’s sponsors have been Burton and Palmer but he eventually settled down with Gnu Snowboards who he's ridden for since 1997. Temple has frequently appeared in magazines and videos for over twenty years and has managed to collect many trophies from contests around the world along with his wife Barrett.

Joe retired from his marine biology career after 30 years in 1993 at which point he really started ripping on his snowboard and at the shop. He went on to win Nationals and the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom in his age group.  Always willing to throw down his best half-cab in the pipe, his runs were the ones to watch! Joe & Cheryl even attended High Cascade snowboard camp. Joe's service at the shop is stuff of legend, often helping people for three to four hours at a time! Cheryl also competed in a few contests; including the Mt. Baker race before deciding she was more of a freerider. She runs the show from NWS headquarters now days.

Along with being a ripping snowboarder, skateboarder, surfer and accomplished artist, Mike also runs the Olympia shop. He has always had other side projects too, at one point shaping Machine surfboards with Gaelen Fletchner.

Today, twenty-two years later Northwest Snowboards has three locations in the south sound and it's business as usual. Still focused on having fun and servicing the needs of the customers to the best of their ability.