22 feb 2008

Best female snowboarders of all-time.

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Tomas Zuccareno
Tara Dakides is a rock star and we're lucky
to have seen her in concert a few times.

Tara Dakides (Omatic)

Tara was once a Rock Star of the Year nominee. No shocker there—we've always been awed by her face-melting riffs.

Back at the turn of the century, Tara took home gold medals in Slopestyle and Big Air at Winter X 2000, and was one of the only female snowboarders to push the bar of women's riding by pulling huge, consistant inverted airs. She went on from the X to nab back-to-back TransWorld awards for Best Overall Female Rider in 2001 and 2002, and then cruised back to the Slopestyle podium at Winter X '03. Janna Meyen has said of past X Games that a Slopestyle win didn't feel the same if Tara wasn't a part of the competition. Tara is to women's snowboarding what rice is to China.

A staple food and a rockstar; that's hard to come by. And so, to thee who rocks, we salute you.



Tim Zimmerman
Barrett is pretty much snowboarding's femme
O.G., at least as far as Winter X is concerned.
Give her a golden steamroller: she paved the way.

Barrett Christy (Gnu)

In 1997, Barrett Christy became the first and only snowboarder to win both the pipe and big air events at the U.S. Open. That same year, she also snagged Gold at the Winter X Games in both Big Air and Slopestyle—as a rookie. From there, she went on to the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, as a member of the first U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team. She was a staple on the podium of the earliest Winter X Games, with a confident style and groundbreaking maneuvers like her signature Barrett Roll—a switch barrel roll late 180. Barrett has been driving women's snowboarding forward through its most developmental decade to date, collecting ten X Games medals along the way, earning her the prestigeous distinction of the most medaled female athlete in X Games history.

A progressive pioneer and methodical trailblazer, Barrett Christy shoulders much of the credit for where we are today.

Vote: http://expn.go.com/expn/story?pageName=femalebestever