No. 775 Kevin Ciampini, 2013

File — Box: 73, Folder: 18

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Snowboarding pioneer Kevin Ciampini reflects on his snowboarding life and the sport’s early days. Born in San Francisco, Mr. Ciampini grew up in Ogden. His father worked at Hill Air Force Base. He was always active and athletic, and raced BMX before he started boarding in 1978 with Wintersticks. He remembers that only Beaver Mountain allowed snowboards at first, and reminisces about selling his radio to go boarding because it had snowed. First sponsored by Ed Kalbach’s EK Enterprises as Team Cat Flap in 1985, Mr. Ciampini and his friend and snowboarding partner Tim Strong competed in four world championships at Breckenridge, Colorado, most of that time sponsored by Tom Sims. He worked at ski resorts and as a product representative, helped the first snowboarders at Park City certify, and helped the sport spread to multiple Utah resorts. The end of Mr. Ciampini’s professional career came in 1989 when he broke his back at Park West, but he never stopped boarding. The inventor of XBALM lip balm and owner of a construction company, Mr. Ciampini also married in 1997 and has two children, both of whom ski. He credits snowboarding’s popularity with saving the hitherto stuffy sport of skiing, and reflects on skiing’s evolution as a sport since the 1980s. Mr. Ciampini leaves few stones unturned with his interview, touching on aspects ranging from the attitude present in early snowboarding, to the people responsible for its spread in Utah, to the complete lack of concern for safety in the early days.
Project: Outdoor Recreation oral history project.
Interviewer: Erin Halcomb

Dates

2013

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.