e new Executive Director of Carving e Future shares her past and sets her eyes on the road ahead

D“Dropping!” someone yelled from behind me. I was sitting at the top of the halfpipe, eyes wide and muscles shaking, as I watched a rider barreling through the crowd to drop into the crazy thing. He reached the rst wall and shot up into the air, above the crowd. My heart stopped as I watched him. “ at guy is going pro!” someone shouted.

at young rider was Travis Rice. He was only a few years older than me, and he was already a god in the Jackson Hole snowboard world. By the end of his run, I was jaw-dropped. At the time, I was taking a snowboard clinic with Rob Kingwill and I was struggling to ride halfpipe. Rob advised my parents that if I wanted to progress my snowboarding, my gear would need a major upgrade. e boots I was using for my Switch step-in bindings weighed more than ski boots. My dad reluctantly agreed, and I was at the shop picking out my very rst Lib Tech the next day. at day, at 12 years old, I became a snowboarder. I was on the hill riding with my dad or friends every weekend after that. My dad, Tom Neil, was a professional ski bum working in the tune shop at Teton Village Sports. I was lucky to grow up on the mountain, skiing in daycare every day. I learned to love the outdoors; nature fed my soul.

I was also passionate about gure skating and began traveling nationwide. When I was a freshman in highschool I moved away from home to pursue gure skating at the next level. My friend Elaine drove us both up to Crystal Mountain almost every weekend to shred. When we were out snowboarding I was free from the pressures of school, gure skating, and reality. ere was nothing like that feeling, and I knew I needed more.

I moved back home to Jackson for my last three years of high school and joined the Jackson Hole Ski & Snowboard Club Snowboard Team with the goal of getting good enough to compete. ere were other girls on the team, and we fed o each other. Competing was always fun—meeting new people, seeing old friends, and winning prizes and money. It was a world I wanted to be in. I won the Crested Butte Extremes in the junior category and Winterstick Snowboards was the event’s main sponsor. I won a board and Winterstick called me the next fall to ask if I wanted to ride for them. e feeling of landing my rst sponsorship was unreal. I had dreamed of that moment ever since watching Travis in that halfpipe years before.

My love of snowboarding continued to grow as I grew as a person. I met the president of the Weber State University Ski Club while studying there. She invited me to partner with her to start the Snowboard Club, a club that is still actively running today! I hired my boyfriend, Dustin, as our assistant coach and he absolutely loved coaching the students. I became even more obsessed with snowboarding and decided I couldn’t pursue competition and school at the same time. I graduated with my Associate’s Degree and called it good. en I dove head rst into the world of competitive snowboarding.

Dustin and I created a program for young athletes to come live with us and train called the Wasatch Project. Dustin coached them, and I made sure they were doing their homework. We met so many awesome kids, including future Olympians Jessika Jensen and Red Gerard.

I was competing in boardercross races and loved the adrenaline rush. I was invited to Gold Camp at Mt. Hood to train with the U.S. Team. I raced in events like the Grand Prix and World Cup, and I started entering slopestyle events. My park skills were rapidly improving, and I eventually traded my race board for a freestyle deck.