Skoters and snowboarders are brothers of
different mothers. Mika Estes (above) goes to
the bone at the World Snowboard Camp,
Whistler's public skate facilities thrive on
daily abuse by Hernan Kahs (right) and his
hamies. Two snow camp halfpipes at
Blackcomb (spread) joined by a spine provide
many lines. Craig Kelly and Adam "MCA"
Yauch (far right) say, "See ya next year."
Panorama of Whistler mountain range
(bottom right) from atop Blockcomb Glacier.
56 TH
CRAIG KELLY INTERVIEW
PERCHED HIGH ATOP A GLACIER at the Blackcomb Resort in-
Whistler, British Columbia, The World Snowboard Camp
brings together a power-packed group of campers and d
coré instructors under the mid-summer sunshine. Iren
dance for this year's two-week sessions mere pos
Jeff Brushie, Steve Graham, Mike Estes, Keith Wallace, Pavin
Delany, Jeff Fulton, and Craig Kelly, Also press among the
horde of campers was Adam "MCA Yauch the Beastle
Boys. Adam has been boarding for the past to years and
showed up at camp to learn a bit of halfpipe law from the
crew on hand
Between the days of sun, morning stretches, faceplants
and air time, Bryce Kanights seized the moment to corner
twenty-six-year-old Craig Kelly for a brief rundown on what
he's been up to and the current state of snowboarding. Craig
just married his sweetheart Kelly doe end is building a house
Bier, Washington near Mount Baker,
What have you been up to lately?
all, the camp has beendag up most of my time and other
that ive been leaning to surt and actually skating very little.
Though the seage this year I did a lot of free riding, a couple
er filmips, the Mount Baker Bagk Slalom and the OP Winter
Suri Snowboarding Contest.
I've noticed many of the riders in the pipe are opting for a
wider stance. Does that come into play in free-boarding?
Actually ve noticed the wide stance is used more by people.
that want to just jb and bank off of things and are generally not
into riding act and don't really care about carving. This is fine, but
Tm into a totally different trip. I like to carve a good turn, carry
good speed, and bank off of things. I'm stoked to see that Terje
dominates the halfpipe and still uses a normal, by my standard.
stance which is close to 20' wide, with a little bit of angle in the
feet. He's convinced that the only way to get big air is to have a
little bit of angle and not to have too wide of stance to pump the
wall properly. I've always felt that way, too.
For many years you have been dominant at this sport, what
would you say were your best accomplishments?
Competitively, the best feeling I ever had was when I won my
first full title in '86 and it was just a slalom title. Twas an underdog
at the time and nobody expected me to win. I've decided my
biggest accomplishment now, looking back on things, is having
been a pro snowboarder, been through it all, and getting back in
control of things and not having to go sleaze out and work the
소
industry. The snowboarding industry a totally
sleazy, a hassle and a lot of brokenpromises.
I'm glad I don't have to deal that. I can just
do my own thing now and still enjoy snowboard-
ing. It's not like I got burned on it or I got so
mad at my sponsors that I had to quit or some-
thing. I just started as a free rider got into comp
petition and sponsorship, control of my rid
ing and now I'm back where I want to be.
What provides the biggest rush in snow?
Steep powder with a lot of ferrain corected
with the trees, banks, jumps, whatever I just like
steep powder, a lot of speed and rowing that if
you get it you're not going to kill yourself.
Do feel snowboarding has lost some of
its roos, so to speak?
Snowboarding has broadened, but I don't think
It lost the roots because it's real easy to get back
to the basics and just go hike in the back coun-
try, anywhere. Even if you're at Stratton,
Vermont, you can go hike and get runs that"
nobody e SE would be on. I'm getting a lot more
into hiking wherever I go, especially with filming.
its open great coing that.
What's your advice to the new kids?
Snowboarding is at a point now where there
are established styles and people are starting to
conside things right and wrong. People are call-
ing things old school and new school and I think
that it's important to do your own thing out there.
If you see somebody doing an old trick, don't go,
I wouldn't want to do that because it's old and
I'm hip I'm going to do a new thing." I would say
just eam things on your own. You can emulate
style did a lot of that myself. I learned almost
90% of my riding from watching Terry Kidwell
and Shawn Palmer in their early days. You can
still learn from watching good riders. But to fully
copy somebody's style or their tricks is a bad
one. In snowboarding there's moves you can do
that would seem stupid on a skateboard, but
they are fun as hell, and vice versa. I don't think
you should limit yourself by looking at what
somebody else does or by what's done in anoth
er sport. Just be really open-minded.
57