Biography

Lesley McKenna was born in Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland
and grew up in a little ski resort called Aviemore.


She is Scotland’s best know snowboarder and a double Olympian.


She is the only snowboarder from the UK to have ever won a half pipe
World Cup event and to have led the half pipe World Cup standings.








As well as a successful competitive career,
Lesley is a pioneer of the women’s snowboard scene.

Lesley is the co-owner and director of Chunkyknit Productions, which made three highly successful and inspirational international all girl snowboard films.
To see ChunkyKnit in action click here









     Lesley says of snowboarding
"it is the most amazing sport in the world, is done in   some of the most beautiful places and by some of
  the nicest peopleI have ever met."





Lesley is part of the European Roxy Snow team.

As well as filming and photo-shooting with the other Roxy girls she also coaches the Junior Roxy Snow Team, running
bi-yearly performance camps and during major events providing guidance support.

Lesley is a fully qualified BASI ISTD snowboard and ski coach and instructor.

When she is not on snow somewhere in the world,
Lesley can often be found enjoying the Scottish
outdoors whether surfing on the beautiful un-spoilt
beaches or mountain biking in the beautiful un-spoilt mountains.

Sponsors
Lesley works with her sponsors as partners


Orion Group

Orion Group, is a specialist employment business providing personnel to the engineering industry with 28 offices worldwide. Clients include Shell, BP, Amec, Wood Group and Exxon Mobil. Orion is the UK’s number 1 engineering recruitment business and the largest recruitment company in Scotland.
Visit: www.orionjobs.com






Roxy
Roxy are my longest standing sponsor.

I am proud to be part of the the Roxy team.
We love to snowboard and learn new tricks together.

Roxy is about supporting one another and challenging ourselves in some of the most awe inspiring environments in the World whether in the mountains or in the ocean.









Nidecker

Nidecker are one of the original snowboard brands and I am proud to be part of a great snowboarding legacy.
Nidecker is about the mountains and pushing your limits on the snow.








32 Snowboard Boots
I am proud to ride for 32 Snowboards boots.
They are the most comfortable and best performing boots out there!





Etnies
Etnies are funky, cool, fun and have a great girls line.





Poc
POC are the market leaders in gravity sports protection.
Wearing my POC helmet and body armour means I have the
confidence to charge hard wherever I ride.

Coaching

Lesley is a BASI ISTD qualified snowboard and ski coach and instructor. She is also a snowboard and ski coach trainer.

With nearly 20 years of involvement within multidisipline high level sport Lesley has a attained a level of knowledge and experience that places her personal performance and her coaching skills, amoung the world's best.

This platform of skills makes her highly sought after within snowsports. She is involved in the development of the BASI snowboard coaching scheme, works with top level riders through her role's as the Roxy Junior Team Coach, coaches world class female riders independently and also works with the British Junior Team.

Lesley also coaches on the Roxy snow camps which are available to the
general public through the Roxy shops in the U.K. and at www.roxy.com.

Lesley is available for private coaching and instruction for snowboarding and ski-ing.

Please get in touch for more details.

Roxy

The Roxy snow camp is a week long snowboard and ski coaching session held in Morzine in the French Alps just for girls and women. Lesley will be coaching both ski-ing and snowboarding along with other qualified coaches.

"Their is no substitute for   good coaching when it   comes to progressing in   sport."

The Roxy snow camp provides an unique opportunity to the
general public to be coached by Olympian and world class coach
Lesley McKenna
in the excellent freestyle park in Avoriaz and the
equally excellent halfpipe, also in Avoriaz. As well as learning
new freestyle skills campers will have the chance to improve their
general riding skillsand mountain awareness capabilities.





Accomodation is in the high class Starski Chalets and after snow
activities include DJ workshops, yoga sessions, make overs
and art classes.

For prices, dates and more information please check out
www.starski.com   roxy.com or email  

Summer

For the first time, in August 2009, Lesley will present an exclusive
freestyle camp in Cardrona in New Zealand.

The camp will be three weeks long and will cater for freestyle
snowboarders and new school freestyle skiers.
.

Lesley will be the head coach on the camp and will
be working with other qualified coaches to provide world class on snow park and pipe coaching, as well as off snow dry land snowsport specific training

The camp will provide accommodation and lift pass, coaching on and off the snow, equipment preparation workshops, mental preparation workshops and general career advice.

Numbers on the camp are limited so please express
any interest or request an information sheet by emailing

Writing

As well as being a professional snowboarder and coach Lesley likes to spend some time documenting her travels and experiences both in spoken and written form. Lesley has a regular blog on roxy.com as well as on this web site.

Lesley has written articles and blogs for various snowboard Magazines including Snowboard UK, Method Mag, Huck, Visitscotland.com, BA inflight magazine and Roxy

Lesley is also available for motivational and inspirational public speaking from corporate speaking to after dinner speaking.

For more information or to book Lesley for an event contact

Speaking

Lesley McKenna is an informed and interesting public speaker. She has experience in a wide field or public speaking from corporate events to after dinner speaking to inspiring young people. Lesley is passionate about girls and women in sport.

She is always keen to encourage others to get involved in both sport and other areas and to strive to reach their potential in whatever field they have chosen by forming clear goals and objectives and structured time management.


Lesley is passionate about girls and women in sport.




Lesley grew up in Aviemore in the heart of the Scottish highlands and before
she was a snowboarder she was a member of the Great Britain Ski Team.
She spent 5 seasons skiing full time and was UK Ladies Giant Slalom
Ski Champion in 1994. She is lucky enough to belong to an exceptional
snowsports family, with cousins Noel and Alain Baxter being top skiers,
and to have been nurtured by the progressive sporting atmosphere of the
Spey Valley: the Spey Valley has more Olympians per head of population
than anywhere else in the UK.
.

This definitely helped her to overcome the many hurdles she has faced in her successful career including a complete change of sport and two very serious injuries. She pitted herself against the best UK athletes in the BBC Superstars series and proving that she is not only a world class athlete but also helping to change the media conception of snowboarders when she won the ladies competition. She hopes her experiences over the years will be both inspirational and motivational to anyone out there with a dream of what they could achieve, especially girls and women, and especially if the odds seem high.

For more info or to book Lesley for an event contact

Media

Lesley has received media coverage across a very broad spectrum of publications and productions from being featured as a Scottish Celebrity on BBC to winning the women’s category of the BBC Superstars program.

She has been featured in women’s magazines like Cooler and Easy Living as well as having core magazine interviews in various snowboard magazines like Whitelines Snowboard Magazine, Method Mag, SUK to name a few.

She also receives extensive coverage in the newspapers both broadsheet and tabloid.

Here are some recent examples: