Josie and Lesley present - WTF is it about boardsports that is so special anyway?

Lesley McKenna. Photo credit: Alba Pardo

Lesley was born in Scotland in the 70s, skied since the 70's, snowboarded since the early 90's and has spent a lot of time on the snow over the years. Lesley competed on the ISF snowboard tour back in the day, the TTR tour until 2009 and also experienced 3 Winter Olympic Games as a halfpipe rider, as part of the Great Britain Olympic Team. Lesley has been part of the furniture at Roxy since 1997, first as a rider, and now as the Snow Team Manager/coach. She has worked hard to develop the Roxy Future Team, and to provide coaching and mentorship to the young female athletes in a very male dominated environment. As a rider she also set up Chunkyknit productions with fellow Scot Josie Clyde and together they made 3 all girl snowboard movies, Dropstitch, Transfer and Last Winter. 

For the Women in Boardsports retreat in Saas-Fee, Lesley and Josie will talk about what’s going on in the bordsports industry, or how they title their speech: “WTF is it about boardsports that is so special anyway?”

And this is what they think:

“It is a time of change for the boardsports industry, perhaps the dawning of a new epoch even. With the announcement that Snowboard Slopestyle will now be an Olympic sport came the first ever City Surf events. Very large sums of marketing money are being spent from within the industry and from outwith the industry on various different projects like the Traveis Rice. 'Art of Flight' film, where expensive helicopters threatened to overshadow the amazing riding in the film. On one hand, the core industry die hard are fighting to 'keep it real' whatever that means, and on the other, there are many parties, including the top riders, fighting for the largest slice of the pie they can get while stating that they remain legitimate. So, what is the legitimate culture of boardsports in 2011 and what is it about boardsports that make them special. What should we protect and nurture and what do we need to trim down and direct? It is up to you to decide...”