It’s been a busy 2024 for Kennedi Deck. A magazine cover. An official welcome to The North Face team. And now, a pro model board.
The rider from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was named a pro by K2 at what looks like a bowling alley over the weekend. The brand posted a video to YouTube commemorating the announcement early Monday morning.
“The time is right. With over a decade of progression, turning heads, competing in contests, filming video parts, and more - Kennedi Deck has proven that they are raising the bar for modern snowboarding,” K2 said in the video’s description.
Only 100 iterations of the K2 Spellcaster feature the artwork of Canadian snowboarder and artist Dan Bubalo. It will be available at local snowboard shops across the country on Tuesday, November 26.
“Kennedi Deck is officially PRO for K2 Snowboarding, and we couldn't be happier,” the video says. “This is just the beginning.”
Deck has an impressive resume as a street rider, landing video projects like K2’s BIG BAND, Vans’ Evergreen, and Jess Kimura’s The Uninvited. Their part in The Uninvited led to claiming the 2018 crown of Transworld Snowboarding’s Rookie of the Year.
Deck also co-produced and appeared in the film “From the Bottom of One’s Heart”. It’s a LGTBQIA + community snowboard video directed by Mikaela Kautzky and supported by Vans. The video features the riding of Seen Snowboarding, a crew run by queer snowboarders that is a platform that hosts meetups, circulates gear, redistributes resources, and creates videos that center queer and trans snowboarding, with the goal of increasing visibility and access.
You can watch that film below.
“This video is dedicated to all the queer and trans snowboarders and viewers everywhere. We love you. We thank you for being exactly who you are,” Seen Snowboarding says in the video description. “We hope though that this video can spark some inspiration for more folks to feel like snowboarding is for them, for more videos to be made, more norms to be challenged, and more diverse expression and crews on the hill and in the industry. Thank you for being here.”
Despite the big news, this isn’t even Deck’s first signature model of a product. In 2021, they collaborated with Vans to release a pro model snowboard boot, off-hill boot, and skate shoe. Deck is also an artist, and worked with Vans to design the collection. The High Standard OG was the first ever boot to be offered in both men’s and women’s sizing.
“Plain and simple, I think it is very important to break down the gender binary in snowboarding,” Deck told Mary Walsh in an interview for Snowboard Magazine. “Creating products that are inclusive for anyone seems like a first step. Hopefully in the future with Vans and other companies, we can continue to push for more inclusive products, teams, language, award categories, and everything.”
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