THE NIKITA CHICKITA SNOWDOWN

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4/19 - While the established stars of women's snowboarding are hard at work hitting the streets and scowling the sledlands trying to "get the shot," an ever-growing cadre of up-and-coming girls are making a name for themselves in parks across the country. Nowhere is this more apparent than the contest circuit where the two factions of female riding converge. And oftentimes it is the relatively unknown young guns who emerge as the standouts. The first annual Nikita Chickita Snowdown at Northstar at Tahoe was one such event where the new guard stood up and demanded to be counted.

A formidable Snowpark Technologies course laid in wait under the sunny So Cal skies as riders like Hana Beaman, Leanne Pelosi, Alexis Waite, and Laura Hadar made their way to the venue. The contest arena began with a triple line of jumps ranging in size from thirty to fifty feet. The riders right of the third landing featured a sculpted tree jib. Running parallel to the event's mid-run slopeside BBQ lounge was an up-down rail and a twelve-foot long box. From this jib section riders were faced with another stepdown style table followed by a large hip. The final obstacle in the park was an under-vert quarterpipe with a small ledge style box perched on the deck. Of note is the fact that this slopestyle course forced every rider to hit each jib and jump instead of allowing someone to opt out of a terrain feature in favor of another that more suited their skills. This created a level playing field for both jibbers and jumpers alike. This meant that all of the girls fell on most the jumps and all of the girls stuck most the jibs.

Aside from a few solid tree jibs, the top portion of the event yielded few standouts. Marie France-Roy put on an impressive display of frontside spins including fives, sevens and even a nine attempt. Unfortunately, like at the US Open, Marie was plagued by a tendency to revert around upon landing causing each five to become a seven and so on and so forth. Still her frontside chops enabled her to rotate in control, grab with style, and ride out every trick. For her efforts Marie would be handed the win in the women's pro slopestyle division. On the amateur side, CC Marie Curry stomped what was easily the jump of the day with a near flawless backside five on the third table. Though she would earn the jump award for the day, CC would yield the amateur slopestyle win to Iris Lazzereschi. Iris's best run was highlighted by a very aggressive nosepress on the mid box. According to SNOWBOARDER Magazine's own Susie Floros, "It was the best nosepress I've seen in awhile. She didn't cheat and start with a 50-50 and then nosepress. It was like an old school JP Walker one."

With the slopestyle portion of the Snowdown completed, the riders made their way to Northstar's upper basin where a dense jib course was fenced off and awaiting the ladies. The three featured rails included a flat bar, a flat-down and a flat-down-flat. While So Cal's Erin Podue turned heads with her backside smith on the flat-down-flat, Iris Lazzareschi once again led the amateur pack. This 18-year old Tahoe local dominated the day with her seemingly bottomless bag of tricks. A nosepress to back lip down the kink, back tail to fakie on the down rail, and frontside boardslide to nosepress to backside 180 out on the flat-down earned her 1st place for the ams, a free trip to Iceland and the respect of all the veterans in attendance.

Not to let the ams steal all the glory, the pro ladies stepped it up in the rail jam as well. Hana Beaman charged the rails switch more than regular, which may have confused the judges and in turn could have caused her to be scored down. Her switch 50-50 to switch frontside on the flat-down should have put her in the money. Frontside 270ing the gap to the down portion of the flat- down rail were both Leanne Pelosi and Marie France-Roy, while Alexis Waite gapped to a frontside slide on the same rail. "Soon you am girls will be taking my paycheck," declared Erin Comstock as she accepted her 1st place prize for the pro rail jam. With tricks like front boards on the flat-down-flat, whoever plans on taking Erin's job has their work cut out for them.

By creating an environment that is tailored to the specific needs of women's riding as opposed to subjecting it to sideshow status, events like the Nikita Chickita Snowdown are becoming increasingly important. As a positive showcase for snowboarding in general, other more male oriented contests can learn a lot from the supportive atmosphere and comradery displayed by their y chromosome counterparts. Lastly, without the support of companies like Nikita, Ride, Thirty-Two, and SNOWBOARDER at events like the Nikita Chickita, gender barriers that exist within the contest circuit would have little reason to be broken.

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RESULTS ON PAGE 2!