The Roxy Chicken Jam 2011 goes down at Mammoth Mountain
The seventh edition of The Roxy Chicken Jam went down at Mammoth Mountain in California, from March 24 to 27. The event featured an all-women snowboard halfpipe contest on Friday, March 25, with Kelly Marren clinching the win and pocketing a prize purse
of $15,000. The Roxy Powder Jam took place on Saturday. The result of Saturday’s contest will be announced after the submitted films get judged Sunday afternoon.
Roxy Chicken Jam is a weekend-long gala that attracts thousands of spectators and the best as well as rookie riders from all around the world to one of the best parks and one of the only 22-foot Super Pipes in North America. It is a action-packed weekend
featuring the female riders in a halfpipe and a slopestyle contest. However, this years’ competition had a setback as Mammoth Mountain experienced its largest snowfall in history along with strong winds: around 24 mph. The weather conditions could not have
been any worse for the contest.
The organisers of the event put their heads together Friday morning to decide the fate of the contest. It was decided that holding the halfpipe contest during the afternoon was their best bet as the weather forecast expected the winds and snowfall to get
only worse over the weekend.
Riders such as Torah Bright, Kelly Clark and Elena Hight had come to the location to participate in the contest. However, they opted out of it after judging the conditions to be too harsh. The line up for the halfpipe was left with the energetic young rookies.
"We wanted to ride our best, but going big in this kind of wind is dangerous," Hight says. "The groms really wanted to compete, so [Roxy] decided to hold the contest. I remember being that 13-year-old kid who was pumped to compete in any conditions, so we
decided to pull out and watch them ride."
The halfpipe went down as scheduled with the pros and the amateurs decided to make the best of the spotlight and unloaded their best tricks in the contest. A fierce battle went on between the determined riders for the highest spot on the podium.
As the dust settled, it was the 19-year-old Marren who stood victorious. After a shaky first and second run, she managed to seal the fate of the contest with her third run that included the Michalchuk and frontside Crippler."At Euro X Games, I [landed] both
tricks in practice," she says. "But it didn't come together for me in the event. I decided that no matter the conditions, I wanted to land those tricks here." She did exactly that to talk home the $15,000 prize purse.
29-year-old Leslie Glenn impressed the judges with her prowess in the pipe to secure the second place in the contest. The 10-year-old Chloe Kim rounded out the podium after landing a McTwist and frontside and backside 540s to finish in third place.
As expected, the weather became worse on Saturday. It was not safe to hold the slopestyle competition in such weather, so the organisers cancelled it. Instead, they introduced The Roxy Powder Jam. The girls were split into teams of three, with each team
consisting of both, invited pros as well as qualifying amateurs. The team were equipped with GoPro cameras to come up with the most exciting films. The girls spent the entire Saturday doing their thing on the mountain and filming it. Their edited videos will
be judged Sunday afternoon and the winning teams will share the $15,000 prize purse.
The Roxy Chicken Jam may not have gotten Mother Nature’s blessings, but it still managed to make the best of the given situation and delivered on its promise of thrilling action and exciting riding.
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