The five most inspirational female riders of the season
As the season's high profile snowboarding contests wrap up, here are the girls we think deserve an extra pat on the back and a large margarita if we see them in a bar any time soon....
Jana Meyen-WeatherbyIn 2007 Jana Meyen was voted the most influential female snowboarder in the last 20 years by Snowboarder Magazine. And she hasn't hung up her snowboarding boots just yet. She started the season by get married - she now competes as Jana Meyen-Weatherby. She ended the season in style by winning the Roxy Chicken Jam in Mammoth a few weeks ago. Not bad for someone who has been riding since 1989 - longer than some of her pro-teammates have been alive. Brilliant.
Kelly Clark
She might not have bothered the podium too much over the last couple of seasons but the 2002 Olympic gold medalist has had a stellar season - culminating in her taking the TTR Women's title and a tidy $50,000 a couple of weeks back. She had wins at the Burton European Open, Nissan X-Trail Asian Open, and the Roxy Chicken Jam. She also took second at the US Open and third at the New Zealand Open. All this is in addition to sweeping the Grand Prix series and winning a Dew Tour stop. Hopefully she'll be spending some of her winnings on a case for her new trophies...
Jenny Jones
Britain's friendliest snowboarder has always been destined for great things. She's threatened the world's podiums a few times in the past but injuries have cruelly kept her trophy cupboard barer than she'd like. This season, everything went to plan and Jenny scooped the X-Games Slopestyle title. I swear every snowboarder in Britain celebrated her victory on their Facebook status that day, and in her replies you never saw such a humble winner. Oh yeah, and she came second in the US Open and the US Roxy Chicken Jam contests and finished the season off with the British Slopestyle title last week. Time for a holiday methinks...
Kjersti Buaas
If we had to pick out our favourite all-round rider of the season we'd go for the brilliant Norwegian Kjersti Buaas. Where many riders tend to prove stronger in one discipline, you could never put Kjersti Buaas in that category - she's got it all. In the European Open she came second in the halfpipe and fourth in the slopestyle. At the recent US Open she came fourth in the pipe and won the slopestyle and the quarterpipe. A super-talented and experienced rider who also has a mighty fine line in outerwear with Roxy. Jealous? We are.
Jamie Anderson
This South-Lake-Tahoe resident's work early in the season definitely paid off. She took the Burton Global Open Series championship and a cool $100,000 thanks to the points gained in her Antipodean efforts. She won the New Zealand Open slopestyle and halfpipe, Billabong Snowstock Big Air, the Australian Open slopestyle and took third in the halfpipe. Second place in the Nissan X-Trail Asian Open gave her another handy 800 TTR points and she spent 41 weeks of the season as the top ranking rider. However, she didn't compete in the US Open and only managed a 16th place finish in the Burton European Open halfpipe and her TTR rankings podium place slipped away. We're sure she'll bounce back - she's only 18 and has plenty more years to pick up yet more medals and giant cheques.
Who were your favourite riders of the season? It could be someone competing internationally or locally or maybe a friend who mastered her first turns. Leave a comment below about your more inspirational rider of the season.
April 8, 2009 - 05:11
Kjersti for sure. She is mighty entertaining too..if her podcasts etc are anything to go by!
April 8, 2009 - 09:39
I was at the Roxy Chicken Jam in Mammoth a few weeks back and have to agree Jana was by far the most impressive rider there. Considering how long she's been in the industry its also good to see that age isn't important.
Jenny, Kelly and Kjersti were also super impressive to watch too. Its amazing how strong the women's field is now!!!