Lessons | Kennedi Deck

Dear Kennedi, Kenny, Ken,

I’ve had the pleasure of watching you grow up in snowboarding. From joking around at High Cascade’s skatepark to riding C.O.P. (Canada Olympic Park), and now seeing you travel the world filming video parts, winning multiple Rider of the Year awards, and even getting your own signature boot—it’s been a wild ride, and you’ve earned every bit of it.

Growing up in Grand Prairie, AB, you had to hustle for those turns. I mean, those long car rides just to find a decent hill? And then moving away from family to Calgary at such a young age—seriously, that takes guts. But all that effort is clearly paying off. In your short career, you’ve already been a part of incredible projects like Evergreen, Superglue, and From the Bottom of One’s Heart (my personal favourite). I’m sure you’re just getting started, and I know you’ll keep shaping snowboarding and changing the game for the better.

With that, it’s exciting to share Kennedi Deck’s Lessons piece. In it, they outline what they’ve learned from snowboarding, diving into major themes like authenticity, risk and reward, patience, and perfectionism. So saddle up, cowboy and enjoy the ride—these are the life lessons of Kennedi Deck.

By William Fraser

Take What You Get 

It does not need to be perfect. I don't think I have ever gotten the perfect clip. You can work so hard getting a clip, watch it back on the camera, and still find something off—your arms look weird, it wasn't quite 90 degrees, or maybe you question if you came off the end perfectly. The trick is still done, and it may work, but it is never what you made it out to be in your head. Lots of things in life are like that. We all can walk around with such big expectations of certain things:  the perfect car, the perfect house, the perfect pair of pants... I love a good pair of pants. I definitely obsess over things, but I’m starting to realize that’s not how life works. Snowboarding has helped me deal with things as they come and not lose (too much) sleep over the stuff that doesn’t turn out exactly how I pictured it in my head.

When The Juice Is Worth The Squeeze 

The process of street snowboarding teaches you a lot about risk and reward. You learn to figure out when to push harder and when to step back and re-evaluate. Snowboarding has taught me to weigh options in a very calculated and laid-out way. When I think, it is like a pros and cons list appears in my head, and I can see the sides tallying up. This skill has spilled over into life outside of snowboarding, too. Whether it's deciding if the big tree at the end of the rail is going to get in the way, or if putting my entire life into my truck and moving to another country is really going to help my career, it’s all about weighing risks and benefits. We're just out here trying to figure out if the juice is worth the squeeze. Oftentimes, the snowboarding decisions tend to be a bit easier than the big life ones, but I take those W’s where I can.

Lipslide. Bethlehem, Connecticut [o] Marc O'Malley

Shootin’ From The Hip 

So much of professional snowboarding requires you to react. You need to be able to stop everything and go at the drop of a hat. I might get two days' notice before needing to be on the other side of the world, which means that I better not be too attached to that dentist appointment I had. When I was younger, I didn’t mind so much. I was a little more rouge. It’s fun most of the time, always having to be ready to shoot from the hip, but finding balance and navigating some of my other responsibilities can be a struggle. It has been something that I’ve been learning. At times those folks with their nine-to-fives and their holidays all blocked off look like they have it pretty dialed [laughs], but I wouldn't trade this for anything.

Wear The Baggy Shorts

This one goes somewhat in the other direction. I've always been true to myself in life, and that's carried over to my snowboarding career. Growing up, I was the kid who wanted to wear baggy shorts and play on the boys' soccer team—I wanted to do things my way, even if it wasn't the norm. Snowboarding kinda supports that mentality. It's part of the culture. But there's also pressure from the industry to check certain boxes and fit a mold. Standing up for what I want in life has helped me carve out more of what I want in snowboarding. Take branded content as an example—you can start becoming something else, posting IGs because you feel like you should, to meet some industry standard. But that's never been what drew me to the sport in the first place. It was always about the people themselves that made the brand cool, not the other way around.

For me, it's not like I don't know who I am, what I wanna do, or how I wanna be represented. It's more about making sure I'm staying true to myself, while still doing a good job at my job and not getting lost in the middle of it. With some of this I guess I’ve learned to play the long game. Be patient. The brands that truly align with who you are and what you bring to the table will stand out. You can feel that connection. So, while I’ve always brought genuineness to my snowboarding, I guess snowboarding has taught me patience—holding out for the right fit and staying true to myself. It creates a cycle: being genuine and patient leads to success, which circles back to more genuineness, more patience, and more success.