Billabong Flaunt It at Sierra At Tahoe - March 7, 2010

I woke up super early since I was staying at a house in Tahoe City, and Sierra is hella south. Look at me talking like a Nor Cal person... hella. Ha! I guessed Sierra was about 50 miles away from the house we were staying at, so we left at 7am I think... or 6:30? Around there. It was an easy drive, we got there and parked and Emily and I headed to the lodge to register for the Billabong Flaunt it. God, I was sore from hiking the day before at TransAM, and we had to climb a flight of stairs... yes, I am weak shit. We got ourselves all registered, and we had the option to buy lift tickets from Billabong for $50. We went to check at the ticket window to see if we could get adaptive and guide tickets for cheaper, and we could! Not much, but $70 for two tickets is definitely better than $100 for two tickets. We also got sweet t-shirts and I grabbed some Dakine whale decals... they're so cute!! They have a little talking bubble that says "Yo!" Billabong also gave us t-shirts to keep, they're pretty cool. Says Billabong Flaunt It. Oh yeah, when I was filling out a paper for the competition, one of the questions said, "Favorite song to ride to?" I showed it to my friends and we laughed over it. One of them told me to write down, "Fuck off, I'm deaf" haha but I just wrote down, "I'm deaf" with a drawing of a sad face.

Emily and I went up the first lift we saw and we tried to figure out where the heck to go. I had never been to Sierra before so I was a total gaper. Luckily, we saw some other pink bibs, so we quickly went and followed them and found where the competition was being held. The sweet thing about us being competitors is that at the lift line, we had our own line so we got to cut in front of everyone, pretty much! So stoked because it was SUPER packed there. I was able to see the slopestyle layout from the chair, and it looked FUN!! Yes, there were some side-approach stuff, but by that point, I was like, "Whatever... I'll just try em!" The course started with 2 side-approach down rails next to each other, one was super long, and then you had to pick either a slanted box or the side-approach down-flat-down box, then 2 jumps, and then a tall rainbow rail. We had practice for a bit before the meeting, and I was happy to see I was able to hit everything fine with good speed.

The meeting went down, and of course, I had no idea what they said. Some people told me that the rainbow rail wasn't a part of the course, but others said yes, it was included. Whatever, I love rainbows, so I decided to hit it anyways!! The competition started, and I gotta tell you, it was so nice being able to take a chairlift and not hike. There was also a really fun park to go through before I got to the competition, so that definitely helped me calm down and not be so nervous. I'm not much of a jumper, but I got a frontside 180 off my toes with a sweet grab. Ha ha. I was just going to have fun in the slopestyle, then really focus on the rail jam part because I feel more confident in rail jams. There were some girls throwing down some serious stuff, holy crap. My friend did like a misty 7 of some sorts off the jump. I read somewhere that it was a nollie cork 7? Whatever it was called, it looked super sick.

As the competition went on, it got warmer and thus, the snow got more slushy. It was getting hard for me to clear the jumps, but I cleared them fine, and before I knew it, the competition was over. I was told to go to the lodge at the bottom for a free lunch before the rail jam... yeah, free lunch!!!!!! Billabong provided us competitors with burritos, chips and guacamole, and blue Gatorade... THANKS BILLABONG! It was delicious! After I ate, I had plenty of time to go ride and have fun before the rail jam started, so myself and friends went and slayed!

We returned just in time for the rail jam, and it was more like a box jam! There were 2 down boxes, one was fat and had a big gap, and the other box was a skinny box, and yes, it was side approach. Sweet.


Me on the far left, looking pretty in pink while waiting to drop in
I started off by doing a 270-on the fat box, and I held my frontboard all the way down, and got it. I was stoked! I started hiking, and I was so excited I pretty much forgot about how sore I was from TransAm the day before. I went to try the side-approach box to get it over with. I was able to lock on, and I did a noseslide down it. Yay! I went to hit it again, this time from the right side. I had NEVER hit a side-approach feature from the right side, so I just went for it. Ollied, did a boardslide (or is it called a lipslide?) to fakie, and I landed it. I was SO happy! I kept on hiking and dropping in; it was so much fun and I was smiling all day. All the girls in the rail jam threw down, and it was a very very close competition. I would have hated to judge that competition. I probably would had just said everyone won and gave out prizes haha!

The jam was over, and we went to the bottom of the rail jam area where there was a podium built out of snow and we hung out, waited for the awards. There was a raffle, and I didn't win anything. Dang! They finally announced the winners and I was stoked to see most of my friends taking the podium.

Slopestyle
1st - Lynn Neil
2nd - Nicki Slechta
3rd - Jessika Jenson
4th - Kumara Kelley

Rail Jam
1st - Nicki Slechta with a Front Board 270 out
2nd - Erika Vikander with a 270 on and off
3rd - Lynn Neil with a Front Lip 270 out

Dakine Best Trick
Jessika Jenson for a Nollie Front Cork 720

All in all, it was SUCH A FUN competition, and I am so glad I came out and did it. I met some great people and had such a great experience. Although I did not win, someone from Nikita saw me in the rail jam and talked to my boyfriend about maybe getting me on Nikita. THAT IS SO EXCITING!!!! I really, really hope it goes through, I absolutely love Nikita! A friend of ours also took pictures, I'm waiting on them still and will post the pictures as soon as I get them.