Pretty Good for a Girl: The Autobiography of a Snowboarding Pioneer – An All-Star Breaking Barriers and Following Her Heart

Pretty good for a girl was really good... It took me through every little part of Tina Basiches life. It even gave me some tips on how to be a better girl snowboarder myself!

Amazing book! Great story that is empowering for us women.

Tina is an inspiration to make the most of life.I enjoyed learning about her extraordinary life, it was enlightening.

I have never been snowboarding and I loved the book. The author is an accomplished snowboarder who tells her personal story in an entertaining, personal, and humorous way. At times the book reads as if the author is talking to you as a personal friend sharing her adventures. There are some very funny stories in the book. I highly recommend it.

I liked this book because I love snowboarding and she has made me want to be a pro too that is why I liked this book

I don't know anything about snowboarding and wasn't especially interested in it, but the title of this book caught my attention. God knows I heard "pretty good for a girl" often enough when I was growing up. Once I started Tina Basich's book, I was hooked.She tells of growing up in a Sacramento suburb and going to an alternative school where art and music were stressed. Her parents kept the TV in a closet only to be brought out for special occasions, such as the Olympics. Basich and her younger brother entertained themselves by drawing, composing and playing music, staging shows, skateboarding, and reading. By the time she went to high school (a public high school), she was accomplished in a number of fields and her hero was Nadia Comaneci.Basich tells of discovering snowboarding, becoming a pro, losing a friend to breast cancer and organizing snowboarding events to raise money for cancer research and education, and having several close calls of her own on the slopes. She talks about competitions, travels, and romances. She has a easy-to-read conversational style and the book is filled with photos and drawings.Snowboarders will enjoy the story of how she perfected the backside 720 over a 60-foot jump, as well as the descriptions of competitions and the name-dropping. And everyone who has heard (or said) the words "pretty good for a girl" will enjoy the success story of a focused young woman.

Having graduated college, I think I was too well educated to read this book. It was so, like, 7th graderish. This book isn't very well written. It jumps around a bit, leaving the reader confused. For example, Tina talks about how she got a car soon after getting her drivers license, but then mentions that she crashed it a year later. So after reading about how she crashed it, she continues talking about how she drove everywhere. Fortunately, you can tell that Tina starts to mature a little bit as a writer near the end of the book. The other problem that I had with this book is that she tries to make women seem more disadvantaged than they really are. While there are 10x less professional women snowboarders, there are 10x as many male snowboarders, so it all evens out. Women have been a big part of snowboarding since it's inception, so I am therefore not convinced of her adversity. She does get credit back, though, because of her participation in the Boarding for Breast Cancer program. Overall, I'd skip this book and read "Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder" if you are into the "Action" sports books or "Swimming to Antarctica" if you want a women-pushing-the-sport type of book.

I bought this book for my 16 year old cousin and read it myself before I mailed it. Basich has a great story to tell and the book is a joy to read. With her affable tone and clear joy for life she'll make you feel like a skater-girl pro-snowboarding insider, even if you're a grandpa or a businesswoman. Great fun!

Great

My boyfriend got me this book for Christmas. It was a well-written and interesting biography which detailed Tina Basich’s snowboarding career. It’s good to know how the sport began and who made it what it is today. Tina was a trailblazer and an inspiration to girls who want to ride with and be better than the boys. I’ve found that there’s a community that's supportive for girl riders because there are still far fewer women in the sport than men. There’s less money invested to attract women to the sport. If you are someone who’s into snowboarding, and particularly (but not exclusively) if you are a girl, this is a great read.