2008 Roxy Chicken Jam: Halfpipe
By: George Crosland

The world’s gnarliest female pipe rider pretty much dominated, although Torah Bright put forth a good effort. Kjersti Buass Oestgaard rounded out the podium. Torah and Kelly are seperated by a mere 5 points after the pipe contest in the overall standings in the Ticket to Ride Tour. Kelly may have dominated the pipe but the weather really ruled the show. Wind and snow put off the qualifications that were scheduled for Friday. The result was that the qualifiers took place on Saturday and the winners were pulled from that. So with essentially a 30-40 person final. The action never heated up the same as if there was the normal 8-20 person final. It was fun to see all the girls ride though and see who may be a future ripper. Kelly did not even bust a 9; her winning runs consisted of big airs, a few 5 and a 7 or possibly 2 7’s. The pipe seemed a little slow and lumpy probably from the about a foot of snow blew in there overnight.

What the contest lacked in gnarlitude it made up for in casualness and fun factor. It kinda felt like a backyard bbq, except with a lot of the world’s best female snowboarders taking laps through the pipe. With lots of big money sponsors there were all the free goodies and food you could want, so that was cool. Lot’s of friends and family came out to support them too. Greg Bretz, Trevor Jacobs, Todd Richards and way more we seen watching the action. Lonnie Kauk was doing laps in the park all day and Todd (an announcer) kept saying “there goes Lonnie Kauk, one of the best riders out there in snowboarding today” too funny and true. Seriously, there were at least 50 girls from all over the world hanging and riding. The field for the pipe was maybe 50% from out of the USA; countries like Norway, Finland, Japan, Holland Canada, Japan and more were all well represented.

It should be said that the Roxy Chicken Jam is also the last stop for the female 07-08 Ticket to Ride tour. There are four females in contention for the top position. Off the top of my head Torah Bright, Kelly Clark, Jamie Anderson and maybe Cheryl Maas are up the top honors depending how things go this weekend. As of the time of writing this on 395 South in Big Pine on Sunday March 30th, the overall TTR winner had not been determined. Another storm rolled through for the Slope finals which were scheduled for today. So what you say, it’s snowboarding. Well, if you have been to Mammoth you know what can happen when it storms; strong winds, like 50 mph+ were gusting on Sunday. I have never seen a contest run in the near hurricane like winds they had on Sunday so it was not just cause they were chicks. The wind and snow meant EPIC riding though. Most of the tourist tools from LA left Sunday in the am with the wind and snow which the blowing snow filled in chutes all day – sick riding. Stay tuned for slopestyle….

Roxy Chicken Jam Superpipe Results
1) Kelly Clark
2) Torah Bright
3) Kjersti Buass Oestgaard

Best Trick
Domenic Valle – switch Mikalchuk

Mascot Jam
Wooly Mammoth

Best costume
Zumiez couch

- Don’t let the pretty smile fool you, last years TTR champ, Torah Bright can rock a switch back 7 in the pipe that puts most people to shame




- The pipe and you can see all the snow in bottom which usually equals lumps and less speed




- Kelly Clark spins through a front 5. Kelly is a true role model. She is a big time Christian and whether you agree with that line of thinking or not (I don’t) you still have to appreciate someone who stands tall and is proud of her faith in today’s world of tight pants, looking cool, partying and so on




- Liz Beerman









- Torah Bright with a nice stylee air to fakie




- Just the scene at Mammoth, check the lift towers being used for two different lifts. At a ski area used by people from So Cal, you gotta get a lot of people up the hill fast for their $79 lift ticket





- Torah Bright – front 5




- Kelly Clark going mongo




- Manuella Pesko rocks a proper method




- Kendall Brown




- Kelly Clark stoking people out with this front 7




- Cheryl Mass is known for killing slopestyle contest, here is proof she can ride pipe too




- Not the best photo of Kjersti Buass Oestgaard, this is basically a set up trick for her but heck, she got third so we gotta run something of her




- Todd Richards taking like his “third run in the pipe all season” Todd announced, ran in the mascot contest, rode and oh yea, owns Omatic too. You think he gets to see his wife and kids as much he wants or works and travels a lot?





- Oh yea, there was a mascot pipe contest too. Anyone could enter wearing a costume. It was super funny. Todd and Greg Bretz




- Mammoth’s own wooly mammoth won the mascot contest. He (or she?) got $4,000




- Two girls linked together to be a frog, looked super hard to go down the pipe that way




- Clair Bidez and pipe champ Kelly Clark




- Danny Thomas as the penguin and a Raccoon stoke out a kid. It looked really hard to ride with the heads on.




- Yes this is Tucker Watson as a Zumiez Couch.

2008 Roxy Chicken Jam: Slopestyle

Yea, Jamie won the delayed Roxy Chicken Jam Slopestyle event in Mammoth and with that she won the overall Ticket to ride tour. Everyone kept talking about Torah Bright and Kelly Clark possibly winning the overall so I was kind of surprised to hear that Jamie won the overall. It is definitely not a surprise to hear that Jamie won the slopestyle event since she has been killing it all season though and was actually in second place overall coming into the weekend. Here is my educated guess what happened. Even though Torah Bright and Kelly Clark were running one and two in the ratings after the pipe jam, Jamie entered pipe (and got some points) and won slope. The combined pointts accrued over the weekend put her on top. So congrats to her.

You may ask yourself, well how did they get there? Simple – weather. The slope contest was originally scheduled for Sunday but wind and powder did not agree. Instead of ripping 7’s down the course, the contests were rippin pow turns instead. The pow was really good too. For Monday the sun was out and it was a much better day to run things.

Roxy Chicken Jam Slopestyle Results
1 Jamie Anderson
2 Chanelle Sladics
3 Sina Candrian
4 Spencer O’brien
5 Meri Peltonen

Best Trick
Raewen Reed – back 180 to front board to 180 out

TTR Standings overall
1 Jamie Anderson
2 Torah Bright
3 Kelly Clark
4 Kjersti Buass-Oestgaard
5 Cheryl Ma

- Molly Aguirre and Matt from TTR. Molly said her ankle hurt too much to ride pipe but siad she was gonna
try slopestyle




- 1 and 2 on the podium - Chanelle Sladics (2nd) and Roxy Chicken Jam jam/TTR champ Jamie Anderson. Jamie is fine, I just caught her with her eyes half closed




- The contest was called off due to wind and snow but that meant insane riding in the protected zones of Mammoth




- stack of some boards belonging to really good female riders




- Big crowd for Saturday (shown), no crowd for the storms on Sunday’s postponed slope finals




- Kimmy Fasani, fun to watch ride and nice to talk to




- Roxy and the sponsors did their best to entertain the fans while the winds raged outside

Wednesday, April 02nd 2008 @ 08:56 PM.
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