Local woman up for the Dew Tour challenge
OGDEN -- When Lynn Neil was a youngster growing up in Jackson, Wyo., just seeing someone on a snowboard, especially a girl, was relatively rare.
Today, women are throwing down backside-720s in front of thousands of adoring fans, and Neil is getting right into the thick of it.
The 25-year-old Ogden resident is among the many athletes gearing up for this month's Winter Dew Tour competition at Snowbasin. After coming close to a spot in the womens' snowboard slopestyle finals at the tour's first stop in Breckenridge, Colo. last month, Neil has her sights on bigger things as the only competitor on the tour who calls Ogden home.
"I've been working on a couple of tricks I didn't do in Breck, so hopefully I'll have a few new ones to pull out of my hat," she said.
Neil finished first out of more than 20 competitors in the qualifying round at Breckenridge with a score of 91.67 out of a possible 100 points, but finished 10th in the preliminary round that sent only the top five to the finals.
"I fell on my runs in the prelims, so I'm just working on my consistency and my landings," she said.
Her first-place qualifying finish guaranteed her the chance to compete at Snowbasin as well as the final Winter Dew Tour stop at Mount Snow, Vt., in February.
Neil came to Ogden six years ago to attend Weber State University, where she founded the school's first snowboard club.
"They had a ski club, but no snowboard club when I got there," she said.
"It was hard at first, but it's grown, and the university and the local mountains have helped out with things like discount passes and travel. Now people are coming here because of the snowboard club."
She has since turned the reins of the club over to successors, but Neil and her longtime boyfriend/coach are actively involved in The Wasatch Project, a nonprofit group that helps up-and-coming snowboarders realize their dreams and potential in the sport.
She has become a regular on other tours such as the Burton Global Open Series, where she is currently ranked ninth out of 78 competitors. That tour and others have taken her around the world, from New Zealand to Europe to Canada.
"The Dew Tour is pretty similar to those, but it's publicized real heavily and marketed really well, so it's probably one of the biggest I've ever done," she said.
When summer hits the Northern Hemisphere, she heads south to ride in places like Argentina and New Zealand. But despite all the globetrotting, she maintains a soft spot in her heart for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, a world-class mountain in its own right where she learned to ski at a young age while her father worked there.
She ditched her skis for a snowboard in the fifth grade, and the rest is history in the making.
"I've always had a real competitive nature, and there weren't very many girls doing it, so I thought I would give it a shot," she said.
Neil trains in Park City most days, and enjoys living along the Wasatch Front for several reasons: Its local resorts, the central location between resorts in Colorado and California, and the presence of a major international airport in Salt Lake City.
She arrived in Ogden early enough to witness the city's rebirth as a hub of outdoor sports, and takes advantage of training facilities downtown like the Flowrider at the Salomon Center and The Jibyard nearby.
"It's pretty cool that we have all that right here in Ogden," she said.
Neil maintains a steady, year-round regimen of both outdoor and indoor training. And while she keeps setting her sights higher, she says it's all about taking things one day at a time.
"Hopefully I'll get better and better each year."
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