The early boards were wood, no edges and just little metal fins in the back. This was mid 80's and snowboards had been around since at least the late 70's, but these were still pretty primitive. The one we made was made from to 1/4" pieces of plywood, perpedicular to each other to make it exactly like a 1/2" piece of plywood. I believe the tip of each piece was bent separately - used my moms iron and ruined it. She found out is was ruined after ironing some clothes and ruining them. She was not very happy, donated the iron to my dad and made him buy her a new one - that was off-limits for woodworking. The original iron is still in the woodshop and does get used from time to time.
Once the pieces were bent, they were laminated together, trimmed to shape, painted and then I waxed the bottom. I made the "bindings" out of sheet aluminum and velcro.