Craig is the person most responsible for spreading the sport of snowboarding around the world. He was the first pro snowboarder and he walked away from the limelight and sponsorships at the peak of his career to pursue backcountry snowboarding and so he was also the first ultra-puriest snowboarder.
“I think we are nature, I think we naturally fit into the scheme of nature, but we create our lives in such a way that we start fighting nature and we start fighting the way of the universe. Sometimes, when I’m out there snowboarding I feel like I line myself back up.”
“I’ve had somebody explain it to me, that what I do, it’s an escape from real life, it’s a way that I can go out there and just be on my own terms and escape the harshness of reality. But to me, rather than an exit from something else, it’s really an entrance to where everybody should feel with their life. It’s like you’re really in tune with the type of person you want to be and you’re comfortable with who you are, your position within the environment, and the world and everything that defines you… it seems to be all lined up where it should be.”
“As a general rule, it’s better to just be living for the moment, because if you plan ahead, you might just not make it that far.”
“The smile after a good run, to me, is all I need to know about snowboarding.”
1966 – 2003
“My experience and what I do in snowboarding is is really quite independent of the industry and the more indepenedent it is, the more pure and better I feel about snowboarding.”
Craig Kelly Tribute