Kirby Kelly, freshman, has been coming onto the professional snowboarding scene. Most recently she won the USASA Nationals. She’s already accomplished things that most adult professionals only have dreamed of doing at Kirby’s age.
Kelly has worked hard since the age of 7, to accomplish everything she has done. Kelly is sponsored by Roxy, which is a clothing and accessory store for girls. Roxy clothing is sold throughout America in Pac Sun stores. Another big accomplishment of hers is she has landed a 900, which is a trick where she spins around two and a half times after going off of a ramp. But probably her biggest accomplishment happened this year.
“My greatest accomplishment so far, has to be when I won Nationals,” Kelly said.
Kirby competed in the Breaker Girls Division of USASA nationals, at Copper Mountain in Colorado. USASA stands for United States of America Snowboarding Association. She first competed in regionals and then qualified for nationals. Kirby won in the Halfpipe and Slopestyle events.
Kirby is open to trying and doing many different tricks in snowboarding, but she does prefer doing some tricks instead of others.
“My favorite trick to do is the McTwist,” said Kelly.
A McTwist is where she does a back flip while doing a 360, a trick that shouldn’t be attempted unless you are an accomplished snowboarder, like Kirby Kelly.
Although Kelly is becoming well known on the snowboarding scene, if you hadn’t ever been told she was a professional snowboarder you may never know she was.
“Kirby fits right in with other students,” said Kirsten Behrens, Kirby’s English teacher. “She is very humble about snowboarding and has never spoken up about it,”
While becoming a professional snowboarder, she has traveled across the country. She’s been to Vermont, California and Colorado. Most recently she traveled to Utah to train with some U.S. snowboarding team coaches. While traveling Kelly met some famous snowboarders. She has met professional women snowboarder, Torah Bright. And Shaun White, who has won 14 medals for snowboarding in the X-games. The X-games is a competition among the greatest action sports athletes in the world. It is broadcasted on national television every year.
Kirby doesn’t always put all of her concentration on snowboarding. During the summer she enjoys doing gymnastics and tumbling. She does these activities while she can’t snowboard here in Illinois, during the summer. She also manages her time very well, balancing school and snowboarding together.
“Kirby hasn’t missed much school because of snowboarding,” said Behrens. “But when she has, she’s been very responsible and told me weeks in advance.”
Kirby plans to continue her professional snowboarding career. She hopes that with her hard work she will be able to compete in the 2014 Olympics. You can see videos of Kirby all over Youtube, performing tricks on her snowboard.