Burton's first women's pro model snowboard designed by professional snowboarder Shannon Dunn

urton's first women's pro model snowboard designed by professional snowboarder Shannon Dunn has a dark blue bottom surface with a light blue dolphin graphic. The tope surface is a lighter blue withthe same graphic depicted. According to Dunn, "Burton Snowboards offered me a pro model with their company. I agreed (Burton is a premier company and I thought their product was the best--so I switched sponsors.). I designed Burton's first women's pro model: The Dolphin 144-- my signature pro model. That board was also specifically designed to fit a smaller profile/woman. I worked with Burton's designers to come up with a shape that worked for me, and I figured it would work for many other girls. Living in Encinitas and surfing in the summers inspired me to have a dolphin graphic. I worked with an artist to get the graphics just right.”

Shannon Dunn (Downing) began snowboarding in 1988 at age 16, in her hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado when the sport was just gaining traction on an international level. In 1985, snowboarding became more relevant as a competitive sport with the arrival of sport specific magazines and videos, the introduction of international snowboard competitions and the acceptance of snowboarding in more resorts throughout the United States. By the late 1980s, women were beginning to enter contests hoping to spark a desire in younger girls to participate. Dunn began competing a year after she started snowboarding and took first in the 1989 Halfpipe Rocky Mountain Amateur Series and second place overall. By 1990 she was competing in the pro circuit and won third in the 1990 Body Glove Snowbout. From 1991 through 1997, Dunn was a consistent first place finisher at the pro contests and won gold in halfpipe at the first ever Winter X Games in 1997. She went on to earn a spot on the inaugural Olympic snowboarding team and became the first American athlete to medal in snowboarding winning the Bronze medal in half pipe at Nagano. Dunn continued her domination of the medal stand on the pro circuit until the 2002 Salt Lake City games where she came in fifth as American Kelly Clark to gold. After the 2002 Games Dunn retired in order to concentrate on her family. Dunn co-founded “Boarding for Breast Cancer” in 1996 and continues her philanthropic work.