Cara-Beth Burnside burst onto the skate scene in 1989, when she was featured on the cover of Thrasher magazine, dressed in pink and rocking a ponytail, while busting out of a vert ramp.
After a career as a pro snowboarder (she was part of the first ever US Olympic snowboard team back in 1998), Burnside went on to convince ESPN to host a girls demo stand at the 2002 X-Games.
This was a huge step forward for women’s skating, as the year after saw the first X-Games women’s vert event. By 2005, the prize money for men and women was equal.
To top it all off, she was the first women to have a signature skate shoe. How rad is that!