The Jim Kelly Interview

-Remembering the Early Days of Killington and East Coast Snowboarding-

Interview // Jake Sullivan. April 24, 2025
 

Jim at Killington. photo: Gary Land

In the mid-90s in Killington, there were a few local snowboarders whom we younger shredders had the privilege of looking up to. They were at the forefront of progression and represented our home mountain all over the globe. These riders showed us all that you didn’t need to be from Colorado or Lake Tahoe to get photos in magazines, win contests, or film video parts; you could accomplish all that from Vermont and do it with more attitude and style than anyone else.

For me, Jim Kelly was always at the top of this list. Every time I saw him on the hill at Killington, he was doing something huge, with more style than anyone I had ever seen. I was young at the time, and he had no idea I existed. However, watching him blast massive airs in the halfpipe on Highline inspired me to pursue riding halfpipe as I grew older.

In the age before the internet, instead of liking or re-sharing someone’s photos on Instagram, we would tear out pages of magazines and tape them to our bedroom walls. In 1998, I had a Burton ad of Jim from an issue of one of the big snowboard magazines at the time hanging front and center in my room. Seeing a local rider in an ad for the biggest brand in snowboarding was inspiring and gave us hope that one of us could achieve it someday as well.

 

Dude thanks for sitting down with me. So stoked yesterday lined up, and we got to hang and ride a bit together.

Jim: Honestly, yesterday was one of the best days I've had in years. It was awesome to be with everyone and ride with people I haven't ridden with in a long time. I got to take a run with Tim Parker and his daughter. It was so cool. And riding with dudes that used to look up to me and now I look up to them, you know?

So cool. How often are you getting out to ride these days?

Jim: I try to get out at least once a week, which is a lot more than I did years ago. The thing I regret the most was that I stopped riding at one point. I moved to Utah, which was kind of a kiss of death for me, honestly. My career was so short-lived already, but then Burton was like, “Hey, we kind of want you to move out West.” And I was like, sure. They didn't pay for me to go out or anything, but they were hinting, like, what are you gonna do next? This was way before agents or managers. Looking back, even if I had a little guidance from a bro that I really looked up to or knew the ins and outs of the business a little more, I think it would’ve worked out better.

I’ve seen it happen a lot, sometimes East Coasters move out West and can’t find their rhythm or something.

Jim: Ya, you would think moving west would be the beginning of someone's career, but for me, I only knew the East. I only knew shitty days (laughs). The best days were when it was like me, Pat (Bridges), Jason Ware, Osh, and Jan; that was our pack—my best friends and then Bridges. Bridges was always the ringleader. He'd pick us up in his mom's Skylark, and there'd be a keg in the front seat, and the four of us were like, “Where the hell are we gonna fit?” (laughs) But I had a pretty bad experience in Utah, and then I moved back here, and I just didn't ride for like two seasons. I lost all my sponsors and was like, how am I gonna afford to ride? So I just didn't. And that was such a mistake. I didn't skate much; I was getting into golf, which was really a dumb idea (laughs)

Jim at Snowbird, Utah. Mid 90s. photo: Gary Land

Before Utah, back when Bridges would pick you up in the Skylark, where were you living? Was that the early 90s?

Jim: That was like 94/95. 94, 95, and 96 were the glory years. I was living at home in Pomfret. Pat had these friends, the Pruskowski brothers, who had a house here in Killington, and we would spend the weekend at their house. Just ride all day and party all night. It was awesome.

How old were you then?

Jim: Like 15 or so. Pat was always so supportive of us. He’s like 5 years older than me and would teach us some tricks of the trade. The VTSP guys kind of never gave us any recognition, so Pat started this thing called Ice Z, which was this clothing company that James and Mike Pruskowski funded. It was just like crazy looking hats and T-shirts. It was the first feeling of like, “Hey, you’re part of something”. There was this thing called the Z Toque, which was like this ugly ass hat that you had to wear at a contest, it was like their initiation. Which, back then, was usually at the Killington Bump Off or something.

Damn that’s the event that picture of you doing the front 3 Gary shot is from, right?

Jim: Yeah! I wish that contest would come back. We used to do handplants on the side of this snow wall because they would build the moguls and everything so big. Where else do you find a big wall in Killington to do a handplant on? And we would make gaps called M&Ms, you know, mogul to mogul, just such fun.

Front 360, off a mogul. Outer Limits, Killington. 1993. photo: Gary Land

Dude, that photo is insane. Knowing it's on Outer Limits, airing into moguls, and when you look at it, my first thought is, there’s no way you’re doing a frontside 360. You’re so tweaked and crossed up.

Jim: So for the bump off, they built this giant jump at the bottom, absolutely no landing at all. Like, no landing. That’s what I did that on. And Bridges could attest to this, but I landed a 900 back then off that during the event as well.

No way! Was that the first 9 you did?

Jim: Yeah, I was surprised as shit. I was just hucking, trying to go as big as I could, tweaking as much as I could. Snowboarding was just so different back then, especially on the East Coast. We'd have death cookie contests where we would see who could ride the death cookie patch the longest (laughs). Bridges would be all bloodied and beat up. They'd hand out trash bags on rainy days, and you'd go off and have fun. Fun stuff.

Where did you start snowboarding? What year was it?

Jim: Suicide Six in like 90/91. I came to Killington first as a skier when I was really young, I remember it being so big and overwhelming. But when I started snowboarding, I was hanging with Spiro a lot, and he would ride Killington with Bridges, so I started going there. I remember I would take the school bus from Pomfret into Woodstock for school with all my gear on, then ditch school, and hitchhike to Killington.

Hahaha, no way, that's legendary!

Jim: Yeah, dude. Like a few days a week. My mom had bought me a pass, and that year I missed like 85 days of school or something. I’d be in all my gear, and everyone was like, “Jim, why are you in all your snow gear? It's not even snowing,” and I’d just be like, “See ya!” (laughs). I almost didn’t graduate from high school.

Damn, thats wild. So you said you started in 90/91, and that photo Gary took of you at the Bump Off was in 1993. So you definitely got good super quick!

Jim: Yeah, that was the same year I won nationals, too. I did the Green Mountain Series for just one year, and it was like Ross (Powers) and I switching spots on the podium all year. Then I went out to nationals at Vail. My mom was divorced and broke, but Jason Ware’s family helped pay for me to get there. It was awesome. His dad was our chaperone, he was the fucking man. But I won nationals out of nowhere.

Jim, cab 7 in the Killington pipe. The caption explains that Jim missed so much school that he was refused a Vermont driver's license.

You won Nationals within three years of starting to snowboard? That’s crazy.

Jim: Yeah, and I was 14 or 15 riding a 162, because it was the only board my mom could afford. And I was not tall (laughs). But that was the year Chris Copley first noticed me and started flowing me Burton boards.

How did you go from just getting some boards from Copley to being fully on Burton?

Jim: Back then, it was like me, Ian Spiro, and Jason Ware. We were all competing a lot. I had just won nationals. Spiro was the first to get a contract with Burton. I was in 9th grade and he was a senior, and he came running up to me at Woodstock High School and showed me his contract and was like, “You’re next!” and I was like, yeah right (laughs). And then, sure enough, that same winter, they called me, and that was pretty much it.

Did you get paid right away?

Jim: Yeah, a little bit. There was photo incentive, a little budget, and tons of gear. I remember going through the catalog and checking literally everything off (laughs). Where we lived in Pomfret at the time, you couldn't get packages delivered, so I'd have to deliver them to the general store. They would call me and be like, “You have like eight packages here. We can't even fit anymore. Please stop. Is there anywhere else you could deliver to?” 

Damn yeah those boxes back in the day really were so big. It’s not like that anymore.

Jim: You know, we grew up pretty poor. Very humble. So getting boxes like that was such a big thing for me. Then my first photo was right around then. Gary shot it, a full page in Transworld, the gondola tower.

Such an iconic Killington photo. Were you still competing at that time?

Jim: I was a little bit. But I was more into making video parts at that point.

What was that first East Coast video? Far East? You’re on the cover, right?

Jim: Far East, and yes, I was on the cover. It was small time. There was RJ Films; he did a few movies. And this guy, Rich Rough Garden, made a 16mm video called Celestial Homespun. I had a part, Bridges had footage, it was sick. Someone just sent me a YouTube link to it recently.

The self-proclaimed "First Ever East Coast Snowboard Video" with Jim on the cover. photo: RJ Films

Damn, I’ve never heard of that! I’ll look it up immediately when I’m home.

Jim: Yeah, it was sick. But aside from a few videos, there were lots of magazines going at the time, so we would just shoot photos in hopes of getting them in there. Neil Korn was doing Eastern Edge. Bridges and Mark Sullivan started East Infection. There were Transworld and Snowboarder. Lots of magazines back then.

Jim on the cover of East Infection Magazine.

It seems like there was a lot going on at Killington back then, too.

Jim: Yeah, there was a heavy posse here, plus everyone would come to Killington or Okemo right before the Open, so there were always pros coming through. I remember Terje and Johan came through once. Jimmy Scott, Frank Wells, so many people. That would always juice us up to just go as big as you can and show them what’s up. That was right around when they started to actually build the halfpipe with a pipe dragon.

Were you riding and hand-dug pipes at Killington before then?

Jim: Jeff Brushie did a camp up here one year really early on. It was on South Ridge. It was literally just like banks (laughs). They carved it out with a cat the best they could, but it was horrible. We ended up just building a one-hitter out of it. And the best part was, no one even showed up! (laughs) It wasn’t even rideable, so no one came. But sometime after that is when Killington started to build one on Highline. Before that, we would drive all the way to Stratton to ride pipe. We had a friend down there that we would call over and over, asking if it was cut, and then send it down there.

Jim in the Stratton Pipe. 90s. photo: Gunars Elmuts aka GunarsPhoto

You mentioned Bridges' first magazine earlier, East Infection. Did you go on any of those E.I. van tours?

Jim: Oh yea, quite a few. Some memorable moments (laughs). But probably the most memorable was the bus trip. We took the Greyhound bus from Rutland to Portland, Oregon, and back to go ride Mt Hood.

I’ve heard about this trip, the “68 Or Less Tour”?

Jim: Yeah. You could take the Greyhound anywhere in the continental US for only $68. I was only 16 and I’ll never forget, my mom dropped me off in front of the East Street house and she's just like, “Have fun James” (laughs). Nowadays, I’m like, how the hell are you just gonna let your kid do that? (laughs) But there were eight or nine of us. It was me, Gary, Bridges, Dick Nesshover, Rosie, our buddy Cagney, I think, Crusher, this girl Carrie. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but it was such an experience. We knew we were pretty fucked when we got on the bus in Rutland and the bus driver was like, “Next stop, West Rutland”. (laughs). We were like, oh my god. It took us like two hours to get to Whitehall!

Anything crazy happen?

Jim: I got forced into buying fake hash (laughs). This big burly dude cornered me in this bathroom stall in Cleveland and kind of forced me into paying 20 bucks for what ended up being a bullion cube. Just the gnarliest experiences. I mean, it was a good experience, too. We got to hang out in Chicago and see the sights. We snuck alcohol and pot into the bus; we smoked a ton of weed. But then we made it to Hood.

Was that your first time out there?

Jim: Yeah, and it was overwhelming. I mean, we didn't know what to expect. We stayed at a place called the Shamrock, aka the Scamrock. We showed up, and the American Women’s Snowboard Team was there, so it was like a bunch of dudes and a bunch of girls, and it was so fun. That’s where our friend Ryans Marachak got the nickname Crusher, he crushed a can on my head. A Spaghettios can, not just like a beer can. (Laughs)

Jim at Mt Hood During the 68 Or Less Bus Trip. photo: Gary Land

No way that’s gnarly. I feel like Mt Hood is such a right of passage for East Coasters. Did you go back there other summers?

Jim: Yeah, I went out another summer and stayed at the Burton house. That’s when I first met Pat Malendoski, and this dude Matty Swanson, who was sort of like the Burton Team Manager back then. I stayed there a few times.

Were you mostly riding pipe out there?

Jim: Mostly pipe, sometimes the jumps. But man, I loved it. There was just something special about being out there. I can still taste the salt from them salting everything out there. Frank Wells hand-carved pipes out there that were insane.

How was the Burton Team house?

Jim: It was rad. I bunked with Dave Downing and Shannon Dunn. I was just this little teenager. They were so nice, they drove me up to the mountain every day. They gave me a lot of props for going huge and just charging. It was such a fun experience. And then for a few years, we’d also go up to Canada to Blackcomb. It was super cheap, the halfpipe was always good, and the people were great. Gary Land was up there with me.

Oh rad, Camp of Champions?

Jim: Yeah, Ken Achenbach’s camp. I went there two summers in a row. I got a guest coach position. We rolled up and were just calling this number I got from someone at Burton. You know, pre-cell phones. This guy answers and gives me an address and we show up not knowing what to expect. It turned out to be this sick house. We stayed there for like a month or until our money ran out. It was so sick.

Jim at Camp of Champions. 1995 Blackcomb Glacier. photo: Gary Land

That’s awesome Jim, such a unique formative time for snowboarding, and you got to be there for so much of it. After you moved to Utah and things didn’t really go as planned, what did you do?

Jim: Yeah, so in Utah, I kind of just got thrown to the wolves. Burton gave me a couple of photographers' numbers and kind of just said good luck. I shot with Andy Wright and a couple of other guys, but just never felt at home. I had a really bad experience in my living situation and just kind of freaked out and moved back to Vermont. I missed it here. I didn’t like Salt Lake in the summer, so much smog, it was hot. I would go to the skatepark here and there, but I just never really liked it. So, I moved back to the East Coast and eventually started working as a rep. First for Salomon, then for Nitro. My biggest regret is that I stopped snowboarding. I should have never moved to Utah and started doing more contests, Grand Prix’s, US Open, and seen where things went. But that’s life.

I think sometimes it takes moving away from Vermont when you’re young to realize just how good we have it here. I know it happened to me years ago.

Jim: Yeah, like I said before, I had no direction when I went out there. I’m sure it's different now, but there were no guidelines for how to do this; we were all writing the book. If I had a little help on what to do or how to do it, things might’ve gone differently out there.

Jim at Snowbird, Utah. Mid 90s. photo: Gary Land

I think that’s really important for the younger kids now to hear as well. The grass isn’t always greener. Remembering back, I first officially met you when you were working for Salomon right when you moved home.

Jim: Yeah, I remember. I hated it (laughs). Trying to sell a product I didn’t like, the boards were horrible. The boots were ok, but I hated the boards. I kept saying, why can’t they make a board with regular sidewall construction, not cap. And they finally made a board, I think it was called the Ace, that was stiff, camber, sidewall, and no one there could ride it (laughs). But then I moved to Nitro, I liked their stuff. I’ve been working in sales and marketing for various brands and industries ever since.

Do you keep up with modern snowboarding? Anyone or anything out there today that has made you stoked?

Jim: I've been really psyched on Joey and Maggie Leon, and their Spotheads crew. They seem like passion comes first and it really shows. Mad respect to them.

That's so sick, they are some of our favorites as well!

Jim: My wife was on a walk this winter over by Thundering Brook Falls, here in Killington. She ran into these two guys filming a trick on the walkway that goes through the marsh there. I was so stoked when I heard that. Turns out it was Jesse Gomez and Henry Viswat, whom I met through you shortly after! It's rad to know there are people still out there getting it around here.

Those guys were so hyped when they found out it was your wife! It's awesome having you around, dude, and to see you out there riding from time to time. I’m hoping this interview will inspire some younger local kids to do their homework and learn about the rich history of pros and rippers we were lucky to have here at Killington over the years.

Jim: Thanks so much, Jake. This has been awesome.

Thanks for all the inspiration over the years, Jimmy!

Jim with a one-off Burton board made with his iconic Killington Gondola shot by Gary Land at the release of Gary's East Street Archive book. photo: Jag