For most people, the American dream is owning a nice house or making a comfortable living. James ‘The American Dream’ Kelly lives a little differently. He spends his days practicing downhill skateboarding, jetsetting to Australia or Europe, blogging about it, developing his own parts, and starring in films like the one above, released by Arbor Skateboards.
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Kelly was born in Petaluma, CA, a pretty flat town outside San Francisco. He first saw downhill videos on YouTube at 14 and was hooked by his first race in 2007. In 2012 won the International Gravity Sports Association World Championships in Calgary, Canada.
His talents speak for themselves in this short, set in the Western Sierras. It’s hard to fathom that what Kelly is doing is in fact real; surfing tortuous mountain roads at 50 mph and braking by skidding sideways while traffic flashes is a hell of a dream.