Famous Folks From Our Town

When we first approached this project, there were a million ideas running through our brains about what to include in the book. We were all over the map. But ultimately the photographs steered the project, regardless of all our grand plans. One of our first ideas was to include some famous residents. But then who do you include, who do you leave out, how do you define “famous”? Eventually we decided that wasn’t a road we wanted to travel, and we needed the space for other things anyway. But, once again, blog to the rescue! This is a place we can profile some of those famous folks, no problem.

This week, in honor of winter and ski season, we would like to talk about Craig Kelly. Don’t know Kelly? Then you probably aren’t a snowboarder. In the late 1970s, Fulton’s Schwinn Cyclery in Mount Vernon attempted to sell snowboards. They did not sell. Eventually they were turned into rentals. They were not rented. Finally the owner’s son, Jeff Fulton, commandeered the four boards and headed to Mount Baker with three other friends. Fulton, Dan Donnelly, Eric Swanson and Craig Kelly, all from Mount Vernon, were the first to snowboard at Mount Baker Ski Area. They were on the forefront of an amazing new sport.

Kelly was a natural talent on a snowboard. He was already an accomplished BMX racer and a chemical engineering student at the University of Washington before becoming a world champion snowboarder. He was one of the first sponsored, professional snowboarders. During his fifteen-year professional career he won four world championships and three U.S. championships. He also won the Mount Baker Banked Slalom three times. As the sport became more popular he was featured in several commercials and appeared in seven Warren Miller films.

Eventually he retired from his professional career to devote himself to backcountry riding and guiding. He also continued to work with his old sponsor, Burton Snowboards, on design and development. According to owner Jake Burton, “When I started listening to Craig that was when my company became successful and really took off.… when the rest of the industry listened to Craig, that was when the sport really took off.” In 2011 Burton dedicated its prototype facility in Kelly’s name.

Kelly died on January 20, 2003 in an avalanche near Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada while guiding two groups of backcountry adventurers who were heli-skiing on a glacier.

If you want to learn more about this boarding legend, or just see a little video, check out this preview to “Let It Ride: The Craig Kelly Story”.