A SCHOOLGIRL from East Dorset is riding high in the world of snowboarding at the tender age of just nine-years-old.

Jess Smith, who lives in Verwood, won a bronze medal at the British Championship in Laax, Switzerland, earlier this month in the half-pipe under 12 category.

The Ringwood Junior School pupil was the youngest female rider to compete in the competition.

The youngster, who started snowboarding at the age of seven, already has several snowboard sponsorships from clothing companies to snowboard shops and equipment companies.

Her latest sponsorship comes from The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead where Jess spends four hours a week training.

Jess' dad Allen said: “She started over at Snoxtrax and a trainer said ‘why don’t you have a go at snowboarding?’ and she’s been keen as mustard ever since.”

“All the best little ones and big ones took part. She was the youngest one out there.”

Jess will next be competing in the English Slope Style Championships at Snozone in Castleford Leeds in May.

Allen is hoping Jess may be able to join the Team GB home nations academy this year before her 10th birthday in October.

“I say to her ‘what do you want to do today?’ and she says ‘go snowboarding’. She’s either trampolining or snowboarding. It’s her favourite thing to do.”

“She loves it which is why she’s so good at it.”

“Her brother is a skier, a freestyle skier, he does it for fun whereas she gets into competitive mode.”

He added: “It was probably four or five years ago we booked a family ski lesson. We all did it together, then they decided to get a bit better than us.

“After watching the last winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia, in 2014, we said ‘we’ll do that, it looks loads of fun’. Now it’s a lifestyle rather than a hobby.”