Kleh, Cindy (L.) 1959-

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KLEH, Cindy (L.) 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born March 14, 1959, in San Francisco, CA; daughter of Thomas Robert (an ophthalmologist) and Louise (Travers) Kleh; married Kimo Kaanapu, August 9, 1986 (divorced, 1994). Ethnicity: "White." Education: University of Hawaii—Manoa, B.A., 1982. Politics: "Green-leaning." Religion: Buddhist. Hobbies and other interests: Snowshoeing, mountain biking, inline skating, high-altitude hiking and backpacking, yoga, dance, meditation.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—584 Montezuma Rd., No. 5, Dillon, CO 80435. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Summit Outdoors, San Francisco, CA, columnist, 1993-98; Ten Mile Times, San Francisco, writer, 1999-2001; freelance writer, 2000—. Worked as a bartender, tour guide in Hawaii, and teacher of snowboarding techniques.

WRITINGS:

Snowboarding Skills: The Back-to-Basic Essentials for All Levels, Firefly Books (Buffalo, NY), 2002.

Work represented in anthologies, including When in Doubt, Go Higher: Mountain Gazette Anthology, edited by M. John Fayhee, Mountain Sports Press (San Francisco, CA), 2002. Author of "Riding High," a weekly column in Summit Outdoors, 1993-98. Contributor to periodicals, including Mountain Gazette.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Research on "the state of the hippie in the year 2003" and "the end of the ski bum era."

SIDELIGHTS:

Cindy Kleh told CA: "I grew up in northern Vermont in a skiing family of six. Even my mom gave in and learned to ski when she was forty-five. I started in 1964 on wooden skis with cable bindings and lace-up leather boots. I attended college in Honolulu, where I learned to surf and scuba dive. I worked for Ski Hawaii for two years, helping with tours to the top of Mauna Kea (nearly 14,000 feet in elevation) on the Big Island. I missed skiing and visited my older sister and her family, who owned a bed-and-breakfast in Keystone, Colorado, each spring break. I finally decided I would rather live in the mountains and vacation in Hawaii. I moved to Colorado in 1985 and learned to snowboard the same year.

"I began my writing career with a snowboarding column, 'Riding High,' for Summit Outdoors magazine. I expanded my stories to all sports, writing about backpacking, rafting, wakeboarding, inline skating, and mountain biking (and more).

"I have been tending bar for the last twenty years, finding many of my best story ideas from bar patrons (and then they tip me!).

"I taught snowboarding at Keystone Resort for three winters. I thoroughly enjoyed empowering people through snowboarding, especially kids. I have witnessed entire lives turned around by learning to snowboard. The confidence overflows into all aspects of people's lives.

"Snowboarding is extremely easy to learn, but the first day(s) can be demoralizing and painful. After years of dealing with beginners, I began to see how much the mind could make or break the experience. I've always strived to make the learning process less intimidating and easier on the ego. I've also gained enormous amounts of patience in dealing with others' fears and failures. I was even more excited than my students when they succeeded.

"I expanded my teaching knowledge by becoming certified to teach by the Association of American Snowboard Instructors. My most inspiring teaching experience was with the Snowboard Outreach Society, which brings inner-city and/or 'at risk' youth to mountain resorts to learn to snowboard, with help from Vail Resorts, which donates all equipment, instructors, and lift tickets for five consecutive weekends.

"When I started teaching snowboarding, I also started competing, qualifying for the United States of America Snowboard Association Nationals, 1999-2003. I was covering many snowboard competitions for local papers and figured it would be more fun and less cold to compete than just to watch from the sidelines. I got interviews with the competitors while waiting in the starting gates with them.

"Thinking about competition kept me in shape all summer and made me more critical of my own technique. I forced myself to work on my carving and control. I wove yoga and meditation into my winning strategies, experimenting with the power of the mind over the power of the nerves. I have won three bronze, four silver, and two gold medals in the Women's Legend class (ages forty to forty-nine), competing in giant slalom, slalom, and boardercross categories.

"While writing Snowboarding Skills: The Back-to-Basic Essentials for All Levels, I constantly kept in mind the reader's well being. A mind-set of compassion made the writing process flow (usually)."