april moore skelton

“She looked like she had been riding for years on the very first day I watched her ride,” says snowboarder Lindsea Lumpkin’s father, Tommy. “It was incredible.” 

That was at age 4 - which is not all that long ago, considering Lindsea is now 12. Although Lindsea lists her hometown as Athens, she’s currently living and attending school in Frisco, Colo., enrolled in a special program that allows her to get out of class early some days to go train as a snowboarder. Since she began competing in 2005 - as a second-grader - she’s participated in 24 United States of America Snowboard Association National Championship events, and medaled at 15 of those - and that was when she lived in a place that gets, on average, less than 3 inches of snow a year.