Roxy Chicken Jam US
At the end of March some of the best women snowboarders gathered at Mammoth Mountain for the Roxy Chicken Jam. Not only was the Chicken Jam title up for grabs but the Ticket to Ride World Champion would be decided. Then someone decided to be a diva.
No it wasn’t Torah or Kelly or even Todd Richards - it was Mother nature. The weather had decided to makes it’s voice heard. The event started on Friday, when qualifiers for both halfpipe and slopestyle were to be held. I had arrived from Tahoe on Friday morning to find grey, drizzly skies and chilly temperatures. After navigating the maze that is Mammoth’s lodge, I finally found Chicken Jam HQ – only to be told that qualifiers were cancelled due to weather.
Since it was my first time at Mammoth and there no competitions to watch, I decided to do some exploring. The weather was constantly changing depending on where you were. In one spot it would be warm and slushy and minutes later I’d be riding hard crust with ice pellets pummeling my face. I still managed to have a fun day and hit up some of the parks as well. The Chicken Jam slopestyle course might have been closed, but I spotted many pros taking advantage of the off day for some fun in the public parks.
Saturday began clear and sunny, if not exactly warm, for the halfpipe competition. The competition organizers had decided that they would hold qualifiers before the finals. After the qualifiers, where five riders advanced to the finals, I headed down to the sponsor village at the base area. It seemed pretty hopping as people tried to score swag from title sponsor Schick Quattro. Zune, Zumiez, Paul Mitchell were also in attendance showing of product and giving away goodies. Boarding for Breast Cancer was on hand to raise awareness.
I headed back up to the pipe for the afternoon finals and nabbed a spot on the deck. The morning sun had softened up one wall, which some riders seemed to struggle with in practice. I enjoyed the banter of the announcers – especially when Todd Richards revealed that he had suggested that Roxy name this event the Estro-Jam.
The finals had a lot of your usual suspects with a few surprises. From the start it looked to be a battle between Kelly Clark and Torah Bright. Torah was pulling out her usual set of technical tricks including the cab 700 and back to back fives.. Kelly Clark was going huge on every run. Kjersti Buass was also in the hunt taking her spins inverted. Cheryl Maas looked to upset the podium regulars with some insane tricks. Her Haakon flips and ally oop McTwist had the crowd roaring.
In her last run Kelly Clark threw down to secure the win – big airs, big spins and clean style all the way. Torah Bright placed second, and Kjersti Buass claimed third. Dominique Valee won the Schick® Quattro for Women® $3,000 Best Trick Award for her ollie oop Michalchuk.
The finals were followed by the Mascot Halfpipe competition. It’s pretty amazing what someone riding half blind in a bulky costume can do in the pipe. Mascots ranged from the bizarre (Zumiez couch) to the extinct (Woolie the Mammoth). In the end hometown hero, Woolie, took the halfpipe crown. The Zumiez couch got the nod for best costume.
Saturday evening the revelry continued with a free concert in the village by the Silversun Pickups and Alberta Cross. A huge crowd was on hand and everyone seemed to be having fun rocking out to the live music.
The truce with Mother Nature broke on Sunday as wind and snow resulted in whiteout conditions, leading to the postponement of the slopestyle competition. Unfortunately I had a flight to catch Sunday night so I couldn’t stay to witness the comp on Monday. I did hear that it was sunny and gorgeous.
Jamie Anderson won yet another slopestyle medal and claimed the Ticket to Ride World Champion title as well. Jamie, Kelly Clark, and Torah Bright all went into the weekend with a fighting chance to claim the crown, but it’s Anderson, who had an impressive showing in the pipe finals, that pulled it out in the end. Channelle Sladics and Sina Candrian rounded out the slopestyle podium.
