chicks with stix are going places…..

we have a nice new home over HERE

http://chickswithstix.com.au

Getting creative with injuries.

words by Lauren Staveley

While my northern winter started off really well, unfortunately it was cut short when I broke my foot at the World Cup in the Czech Republic. I broke my 5th metatarsal on my right foot. But not too worry after 6 weeks on crutches I am back walking and have begun a serious rehab program with Anthony Khoury which will have me back on track by June.

Apart from breaking my foot I had an awesome season, I competed in two Snowboard Slopestyle World Cups (Copper Mt, USA and Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic) I also represented Aus in the World Champs this year at Stoneham Canada, where I obtained 13th place my best result of the season on the world tour. I am currently sitting in 23rd place on the world ranking list and am hoping to hold or improve my position to qualify for the 2014 games! Here is an edit I made while I was training in Breckenridge

While I've been injured and unable to drive I decided to get creative and start making arts and crafts with my cousin Chloe. We are getting a stall at the St Andrew Market to sell our creations and have now made an Instagram called doodadsandtrinkets to sell our things!

I'm super excited to start the Aussie season at Buller and can't wait to get to another Chicks with Sticks session!

Skiing in Romania with Hanna Fisher

Reading through the other girls’ blogs on the Chicks with Stix website always serves to remind me how great and variable skiing is. We all love the mountains, and love skiing, yet all participate in completely different events!

One thing I love about competing in Big Mountain competitions is the strange and wonderful places it takes you to. I never would have thought I would end up in a small mountain lodge in a hike-only, no ski lifts apart from the main cable car to take you to the hotel base, in countryside Romania. But yet there I was, just last week, for a Freeride World Qualifier event. We got to spend a couple of days in the capital, Bucharest, for a bit of sightseeing and shopping before making the drive to Balea Lac. 

Checking out an ice chapel

Being a sport that is so reliant on weather conditions can make things tricky. Usually the competition format for the Freeride World Qualifiers is one day of qualifications, then a second day of competition for finals. However, due to bad weather predicted for the second day, our event was just a one day competition with one run. Personally, I don’t mind this so much. You just have to concentrate on one good run. We usually have to hike up (skis attached to your  backpack) to access the runs, in this case it was over an hour of hiking. But a beautiful view makes it all worth it!

View in the Transylvanian mountains

 I decided to take a fairly easy line, with about four nice, steady cliff jumps of around 2-3 metres each. And it seems as though it paid off, as I won! It was my third win for the season (one in Andorra, and the other in New Zealand). This was extra exciting as it meant my overall ranking for the season is 3^rd, and so I’ve qualified for the Freeride World Tour for next season, which has been a goal since I first started competing. Now it’s time for some relaxing, off season training, and working to save up and do it all over again...

Hanna on the podium, taking home a handmade, wooden trophy

Winter recap with Britt Cox

Britt charging down the moguls, photo: Kirk Paulsen

One of the best things about my northern season just gone is that I got to do LOTS of skiing. This was the longest season I have ever had, starting on snow in Ruka, Finland in late November and skiing all the way through until mid March. I also got to see some new places and ski a few new mogul courses, which is always exciting. One of those courses happened to be the site of next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In early Feb there was a test event in Sochi, which was a World Cup event. It was great to compete on the course and get a bit of a feel of what it might be like next year. However it's good to remember that things might change. From my experience I know that anything could happen and the course could ski up completely different with varying snow/weather conditions come February next year.

Big backie-cross, photo: Kirk Paulsen

My best result this season was in Lake Placid, USA where I achieved my second World Cup podium (3rd). Lake Placid has been a bit of a nemesis course for me in the past so it felt particularly good to ski well there and flip that around. I also competed in the World Champs at Norway where I achieved a 10th place in the Single Moguls and 8th in the Duals.

Grinning in 3rd Place, photo: Kirk Paulsen

This whole season has been absolutely incredible for the Aussies in winter sport across the board and I think its generating some great energy and a positive vibe for everyone. I feel really inspired by everyone’s achievements.

Since I have been home I’ve enjoyed some sun and surf and I’m now back into training at the AIS in Canberra. Not long now and we’ll all be on snow here in Aus….can’t wait!

End of Season Blog: Katya Crema

Training with Sami Kennedy Sim

I am happy to say that I have finished off my World Cup season strongly (and in one piece), with a 15th and 8th place finish in Åre, Sweden. With three top 8s this season, my results put me into 16th place in the overall World Cup rankings, making it my best season finish to date.  This weekend in Åre was a double event, making it a long intense four days of competition. Before things got started though, we made the most of the Audi ice driving experience available to World Cup athletes. Driving fast on ice is almost as fun as skiing fast on ice!

Test driving Audis on the lake

On Friday I qualified in 14th place, with only the top 16 women going through to finals. In my first heat  I was in third place and attempted a pass into second which didn't end well. I got caught on Simmerling's skis beside me and crashed in the turn. A little disappointing but happy that I'm feeling confident to take some risks and put it on the line. After all, that's what this sport is all about! In yesterday's race I had the twelth fastest qualifying run and was only 0.25 of a second behind fourth place. 9 girls within a quarter of a second; the times were extremely close! In my first heat I completely missed the start and was in fourth position coming into the first turn. I was not giving up that easily though! I made a pass into third place through the first bank turn, and then another risky pass on the negative turn, forcing myself in second place. I made it through to the semi finals; my second time for the season.

Start section.

In the semis, this time I had a great start but managed to catch an edge before the first turn, forcing me to miss the gate. Extremely frustrating! I finished fourth in the small final after making a big mistake in the mid-section of the course. Again, disappointing but happy with my 8th place result none-the-less. All in all, it's been a fantastic season. I have made some major improvements with my skiing, particularly when it comes to head-to-head racing. I performed well in the two major events of the season; 8th at the World Championships and 11th at the Olympic Games test event in Sochi. I also had a personal best result of 6th on World Cup, and a personal best overall World Cup ranking of 16th.



Unfortunately I couldn't bring home a medal this year, but I'm expecting good things to come for next season! A big thanks to my teammates for being great training partners this season. Also to my coach, Matt Lyons; our guru ski technician Marcos Ruiz; the physios who joined us this winter, Anthony, Claire, Nick and Markus; John Marsden who got me incredibly fit and strong for this season and who joined us for a few weeks on tour in January; and importantly to my family and friends at home for being so supportive day-in, day-out throughout the whole year. I couldn't do this without you!

Northern Lights

Anna Segal 2012-13 Mashup

Our favourite slopestyle lady-shredder Anna Segal has released her season edit. Check out Span send kickers at Mt Hood, the One Hit Wonder, Nine Queens, Dew Tour and Breckenridge.

Checking in from Norway

Katya is in Norway right now, with the rest of the Aussie Ski X team, waiting to compete at the FIS Freestyle World Championships this weekend. Training on the track began yesterday and there is another training day today, then the whole thing (qualis and finals) happens in one day on Sunday.

Busy few days!

via Anton Grimus

Katya is having her best season so far this year and this morning she checked in to give us a quick update....

"I'm back in Voss, Norway for my third World Freestyle Championships. The course is a lot of fun, with a technical start section, some big jumps in the middle and a super fast bottom section. My goal for this race is to make it to semi finals, so top 8. The season so far has been a personal best, with a 6th place in the Telluride World Cup, a 10th place in the San Candido World Cup, and two podium finishes in Continental Cups. I'm excited about this race, and can't wait to get after it on Sunday."

She also sent in some pics and all I can say is........ the snow looks better than dinner!

slopestyle course

lamb's head ?!

Here's the latest edit from Katya's season........



Episode 3 - 2013 Winter- Katya Crema from Katya Crema on Vimeo.

Colorado Check-In

A mid season edit from Ambassador Lauren Staveley....

A Japanese Winter

Hey Chicks with Stix tribe......hope  that summer or winter is treating you well wherever you are in the world! Our CwS Coaches and Ambassadors are all over the place and having a ton of fun competing and coaching and generally ripping it up somewhere cold and snowy!

And yep..... this is why there has been a definite lack of blog updates this season [soz]

Well we're planning to make it up to you with some check-ins from around the world and some updates on comps, statuses and even injuries (more on that later)

So keep tuning in here and follow us on  FB for some give-aways REAL SOON [promise]

First up : an update from CwS Coach Olivia Coates who is living it up in Japan this winter....

words by Olivia Coates

"Wanting to escape the norm of the Canadian ski fields; this winter I ventured to Japan for some iconic pow and a cultural change. Apprehensive at first, knowing not a single word of Japanese (except for the tourist go-to of konichiwa) I set out on an adventure that found me in a world away from home, (even though the time difference was a mere hour apart).

For 3 months I was based at Happo-one resort in Hakuba Japan. I taught snowboarding for Evergreen Ski School and when I managed to find some time away from teaching, travelled to get lost in nearby cities and new resorts.

The thing that lured me to Japan was the exceptional snow conditions that we’ve been hearing about for a few years now. It just so happened that the year I decided to make the trip, was the year of the worst snowfall in a decade or so.  Seems fitting, my mother always said I was the sunshine child, too bad this title isn’t so good when you’re chasing winter!

In saying this, the snow did fall, just not as regularly as we would have liked. When it snows in Japan, it dumps. A storm will settle in for a few days and what you will experience during those days is the best snow of your life!

Big smiles in Cortina trees! Up to my neck in white stuff! 

 The vending machine tells it all

This season it seemed that patience was most certainly a virtue, I became really good at waiting. Watching North America and Europe early in the season get a truckload of snow, while I sat in Japan, waiting for what felt like the whole 3 months; for the snow that was said to be coming!

My off snow adventures in Japan proved to be some of my greatest memories of the trip. Of course a trip to Japan wouldn’t be complete without spending at least 3 days in Tokyo. It’s a must, even if you’re the most diehard ski or snowboarder in the world!

The ordered chaos of The Scramble at Shubuya Crossing! (movie reference: Tokyo drift)

  Masumoto Castle; where the samurai’s lived!  

    Tokyo’s handy map; a little too big to be handy, but a great size to shade you from the Japanese sun!

Happo-one, Cortina and Hakuba’s surrounding resorts offer so much terrain for every level of free skier and rider. However, tree riding within most of the resorts is considered off piste (except Cortina) and is monitored very closely, with cameras on chairlifts and active ski patrol on each mountain; I found out early into my season why this was so heavily patrolled, especially at Happo-one. A few encounters with dam walls, river crossings, as well as some very hairy drops onto cat-tracks. Not to mention the sluff slides and avalanche gates which are scattered amongst the resorts. I soon learnt that the mountains of Japan are very sensitive to varying snow conditions and that it was imperative to ride with caution.

 Dropping off of dam walls and getting lost in Happo’s trees.

This season I filled my freeride boots with bigger drops, deeper snow, tighter trees and I let my instinct guide me into some very adventurous situations. As for my park riding… well there’s one park to be found in Hakuba and it was a 20minute drive away, so a couple of sneaky night jib sessions were set up in the backyard to keep park cravings at bay.

Night jibs J                     

 A friendly bunch of ski and snowboard instructors :P

My Japanese winter was … interesting. I made some amazing new friendships and like every season learnt more about myself and my riding. Now that I’m home and moving back into the swing of uni I can already start to feel those riding jitters coming back. This time they’re not craving the big mountains and deep snow, instead sunny park laps and friendly faces.

See all you lovely ladies at the Chicks with Stix in Perisher! Make sure you yell out if you see me, I’m always up for some park laps with the girls!

Freeride World Tour, Stop 1: Revelstoke

words by Nat Segal

No matter how long or hard you train and prepare for a winter of competitions, the first is always fairly daunting. Despite having a history in competitive skiing, I always have butterflies the week leading up to a big event and this one is definitely the biggest so far.

For the last four years I have been competing in big mountain. Last winter I qualified for the Freeride World Tour. It's the boss of all big mountain events, the closest thing we have to a World Cup. There are five stops of the tour, starting in Revelstoke (CAN) this week and continuing on to Chamonix (FRA), Kirkwood (USA), Fiberbrunn (AUT) and Verbier (SUI). Naturally, I am trembling in my boots a little.

It's quite difficult to share the true nature of my butterflies without a bit of a background in big mountain competitions.

Imagine a big beautiful face like the one below. Choose a line to ski (a way down that is), try to imagine it backwards as if you were skiing it and assume everything is much different than it seems. Hike or take a helicopter to the top, wait and then stand alone in the start gate, praying that the left-hand couloir will take you to the 15ft air and not the mandatory 50ft exposure of rocks and then start skiing.

Mac Daddy Face, Revelstoke Mountain Resort

So you are skiing, remember that the judges want to see fast, fluid style but you have to stay in control. No bobbles or hesitations, they want to see you charge down the line like you are skiing a blue run. It's best to include either some exposure (skiing through/above rocks and chutes) or airtime to increase your overall impression. Halfway down your legs will be jelly but just keep on going, there will be no relief until the straight line out the bottom. Pop over your chosen cliffs, jump turn down the chute and enjoy the feeling when you realise that you have hit all your features and you can book it to the finish line.

That's about it. At the end of the run relief will flood over you. You will feel as if you have been skiing moguls all day but in fact you have only taken one lap.

Today marks the first day of Stop 1 of the FWT at Revelstoke. It is currently dumping pow outside and does not look like it wants to relent until later this week. Until that time, I will continue to ski pow, taming my nerves and telling them that when I hit the start gate I will know where I am going; that my body can take the fear and turn it into energy and that when I finally drop in for my comp run that I will feel nothing but pure enjoyment and purpose.

Wish me luck.

Happy New Year

words by Zoe Jaboor.

Happy New Year everyone! We thought we'd start the new year off with a quick updates on some of the Chick with Stix coaches

While Katya is off getting top ten results in World Cup, and Anna is getting podiums in Dew Tour,  and Lauren is hitting up the park at Breck, and Nat is dropping cliffs in Jackson, and Katie is getting powder bumps in Colorado …. some of us are left back in Australia, dreaming of the white stuff. Don’t get me wrong, Im not complaining. I have been making the most of the warm weather and good waves, and preparing for my first trip of the Northern winter.

This time at home has made me more aware of the amazing results that our Australian female athletes are achieving overseas. Not only have our CwS coaches and ambassadors (mentioned above) been throwing down, but some of our future leaders have been reaching new heights and putting our country on the map in the international snow scene. 

Pip Sparrow grabbing the goods on her backflip

Pip Sparrow (who has been participating in Chicks with Stix since its inception) is a mogul skier and

recently finished 5^th at the US Selections in Copper, Co. Under the guidance of coach and friends, Pete McNeil and Katie Blamey at the The Mogul Skiing Academy.  Pip achieved her career best result. I am so pleased to see her achieve in the sport of mogul skiing. She is committed, driven and dedicated. And to top it all off, she is an absolutely lovely girl! Pip’s friends and fellow mogul competitors have also been making a mark. Taylah O’Neil qualified first for the finals at Copper, and ended up second. And Britt Cox achieved a 4^th place in Duals in a World Cup in Kreischberg, Austria.

Watching all these girls ripping it up all over the world is making me excited to get over there and start skiing! I head over to the North America on the 10^th of January to judge a few World Cups (aerials, moguls and half-pipe)  in Val Saint-Come, Lake Placid and Park City. Somewhere in between I will fit in 7 days at Red Mountain in British Columbia to shred with some friends. Until then, I will continue to take advantage of the summer and head out for some waves with Anita, Han, Ali and Merrin, all who are enjoying summer with me at home in Jan Juc.

Hope you're all having a great summer/ winter wherever you are!

KATYA at World Cup

Katya is competing on the Wold Cup circuit and really nailing it. Looks like all that summer-break training paid off ! With a podium in Canada and a sixth place in Telluride [with 4 Aussies getting through the qualifiers] the season is looking good.

Here's Katya's update just in from Colorado......

elated!

"Today I achieved a new personal best result, finishing in 6th place in the Ski Cross World Cup in Telluride, Colorado.

Yesterday I had a solid run in qualifications, posting the sixth fastest time amongst the ladies. A good confidence boost coming into finals! Today I was excited to race head-to-head on what has been one of the best tracks on the World Cup circuit. Telluride did a great job in building a world class course, with some of the biggest and most technical features we've seen since the Winter Olympic Games and X Games.

I had a great quarter final heat, finishing in second right behind Fanny Smith of Switzerland. In the semi finals, a couple of small mistakes and some aggressive skiing from the ladies meant that I didn't make it though to the big final. I finished second in the small final, putting me in 6th place overall. A great result for the second World Cup of the season! 

The Aussies had four athletes in the finals today, so a great day for the team. Well done to teammates Scott Kneller, Anton Grimus and Jen Owens who finished 11th, 18th and 11th respectively. 

Tomorrow we fly to Europe where the Aussie SX team will prepare for the next World Cup in Van Thorens, France, on Wednesday and Thursday of next week (18/19 December). No time for jet lag on this schedule!"

beautiful Telluride, CO.

Femalewolfpack.com

Words by Nat Segal

As the age old adage goes, 'if you want to get something done, you've got to do it yourself'. It is with this in mind that  professional skier and infamous badass, Rachael Burks, created FemaleWolfpack.com.

Rachael, after spending many years shredding the gnar, competing in the Freeskiing World Tour and filming with the likes TGR and Warren Miller Entertainment, noticed a lack of opportunity for female exposure in the extreme sports community.

“I’ve been skiing professionally for 6 years and have been frustrated by the limitations of filming opportunities based on sponsorship alliances and existing film paradigms. I feel like if you’re doing things that are film-worthy, you should be filmed. Subsequently I decided to ripple the waters a bit: I want to give all girls an opportunity to be seen.

Thus, FemaleWolfpack.com was born. The website is a video-only, online hub for female athletes to showcase their skills. It "is unprecedented, unprejudiced, and unrestricted" says Rachael. Anyone can submit an edit for publication.

"It is a place for any online viewer interested in action sports entertainment to go and watch incredible footage without spending time weeding through viral clutter."

Sounds like magic to me. FemaleWolfpack.com will be launched New Years Day 2013, so keep your eyes open for some jaw-dropping action. In the meantime, check out the Femalewolfpack teaser that was released today. 



Femalewolfpack_Teaser from rachaelburks on Vimeo.

End of Season Break Up

Words by Zoe Jaboor

Babing-up the Jan Juc nature reserve. Photo: Nicole Lewis

Friday the 2^nd of November marked the Chicks with Stix season break up party and a close to a great season of shredding. While not everyone could make it, I had the honor of hosting some of our coaches and ambassadors down at Jan Juc including the Segal sisters (Anna and Nat), Katya, Nicole, Katie, Tori, Han Studd, Merrin, Anita and Lauren.

Trying to make everyone look at the camera. Photo: Nicole Lewis

Our day started mid-morning with a photo session around some of the stunning locations in Jan Juc. Under the creative direction of super photographer (and Air Traffic Controller – her pretend job) Nicole Lewis, got trigger-happy with the CwS crew. 

Frolicking on the beach at Jan Juc. Photo: Nicole Lewis

Sometimes these little shoots can get a bit awkward but when you have ten hyperactive girls that haven’t caught up in a while it can only lead to heaps of laughs and sore tummy muscles!

Nat and Katey....need we say more

After a quick bite to eat the team headed to the beautiful Surf coast yoga studio for an exclusive yoga session with super duo Jane Vasey and Monica Rude from OmRyder. These girls are absolute geniuses when it comes to yoga and they lead us through an intense flow focusing on all areas specific to skiers and snowboarders. 

Jane and Mon talking to the girls about OmRyder. Photo: Nicole Lewis

OmRyder is a new program created to supplement snow-sports through yoga practices. OmRyder is a new partner of Chicks with Stix, so stay tuned for more info on these impressive ladies and their relationship with Chicks with Stix.

The yoga session started off with a quick introduction, and then 45 minutes of intense flow (under the direction of Jane). It was then followed by some partner yoga, which Mon guided us through. It was awesome to see some of our coaches getting up close and personal with each other in some very strange positions. This session was hands down the best yoga experience I have ever had. Afterwards I just wanted more. Although I pulled up sore over the next few days. 

Mon guiding Anna and Katey through a Downward dog and handstand preparation sequence. Photo: Nicole Lewis

After yoga we moseyed around the gorgeous gardens of Surf coast yoga eating and drinking some special snacks prepared by the OmRyder girls. We had a cleansing juice (of pear, cucumber and coriander) and some active eats (raw-nola, activated almonds and quinoa) from the dehydrator.

Needless to say that we were all buzzing after our yoga session and needed no encouragement to get our gear together and hit the waves. Although the wind was onshore and the swell was messy, we all paddled out at Torquay Point and got a few party waves together!!

Beach + Yoga + Surfing + Food = STOKED. Photo: Nicole Lewis

As you can imagine, after all that activity everybody had managed to work up a huge hunger. Brad fired up the BBQ and we tucked into a big feast of delicious salads, lemon chicken and babaganoush (Han’s grandmothers recipe)!

Have an awesome summer/ winter wherever you are! Photo: Nicole Lewis

Having organized this day for all the girls, I was so happy with the outcome. Everybody made such a huge effort to come and it was an amazing way to finish off a very successful season. It really highlights why Chicks with Stix is so successful. It’s because everybody who participates in the program at all levels has so much passion and love for the sport. We are so lucky to be involved in this industry and have the opportunity to work with each other. I’m really excited to see this program grow each year. With the Olympics just around the corner, 2013 promises to be a huge year! Many of our coaches and ambassadors are aiming to make the team, so stay tuned over summer to see how they go in the Northern hemispheres winter.

Things are only going to get bigger and better from here on in! Take care and have fun! Make sure you keep us updated with your summer/winter adventures!

Learning to fly

words by Britt Cox

Here is a pic of me having a flying lesson for my 18^th birthday. But different to being in the air on skis but still lots of fun! 

It’s just less than 3 weeks until the northern winter starts for me. I have been soaking up the sun while studying for my year 12 exams because I won’t be seeing much of that once my season starts in Ruka, Finland (its dark most of the day there at this time of the year).  

I am going to be starting the season in Ruka with the Aussie mogul team where we will have a few weeks training before the first world cup of the season. The Ruka course is a great but challenging course and I am really looking forward to getting back onto it. After Ruka we travel to Austria for another world cup and then I get to spend Christmas with my brother in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. 

As a team we will then follow the Mogul World Cup tour through North America and to Sochi, Russia. Our plans have not yet been finalized beyond the test world cup event in Sochi but we have plenty of skiing to keep us happy between now and then. 

I am very exited for the season and am looking forward to taking my water ramping skills onto snow. All the best to anyone heading overseas for the Northern winter, have fun!

Thredbo One Hit Wonder 2012

Anna sizing up the jump

words by Anna Segal

This is the second year that I’ve participated in the Thredbo One Hit Wonder. The event started off in 2009 to showcase Australian snowsports on an internationals stage. Since then it has grown to attract some of the best free-skiers from around the world including, Jossi Wells, Dane Tudor, Bobby Brown and Gus Kenworthy.

The allure of this competition has always been the massive, immaculately built jump which Thredbo’s park crew spends weeks preparing. This year the jump measured 93 ft from the edge of the take-off to the beginning of the landing. This was the minimum distance we had to travel through the air to make it over this monstrosity, safely.

Just thinking about the size of the jump made me nervous, so I tried to keep it out of my mind until I could view it in real life. It was planned that the invited athletes would have a week to hit the jump, which would include one day for the “Peoples’ Choice” competition and one day for the AFP Gold ranked big air event.

With a jump of this size, the weather needs to be almost perfect. The weather gods weren't exactly co-operative, giving us a number of days of wind and/or rain. On the positive side of things, we had two perfect, blue bird days (better than none), allowing the event organisers to pull off both competitions. 

Anna tweaking her tails over the jump

The two days we were able to hit the jump were the two best days of my 2012 Southern Winter season! Over such a humungous jump, I really had time to think about my movements in the air. Once I had the speed dialed and was able to expel the fear from my mind, everything slowed down and became clearer.

So far, I've been the only girl to take part in the One Hit Wonder Down Under. Next year I'll be working with event organiser, Tim Myers, in an attempt to attract more female skiers to join myself and the boys for this amazing event! 


Vote for Anna here!


Anna Segal - People's Choice 2012 from One Hit Wonder Event on Vimeo.

Chicks with Stix Season 2012 Throwdown at Mt Hotham

 

words by Zoe Jaboor

Wow – what an unreal weekend we had at Hotham for the Chicks with Stix Throwdown. The weather gods definitely made us work for it this time with gale forced winds, road closures, and trees falling down all over the place. 

At last, after meetings with the very friendly crew at Hotham events and the amazingly talented park crew, we got an awesome course set up just next to the Swindlers park. Our course ran down a small gully and had lots of little natural and man-made features scattered throughout. We had a flat box, a small wedge over a tree, a hitching post with quarter pipe, a berm with a flat bar, a hip jump and a single barrel down bar.

Shinae McGowan rocking out through the park in pink!

We had 24 competitors registered for the Throwdown, girls with all kinds of different levels of experience. For most competitors this event marked their first ever competition. L

uckily, we had loads of seasoned coaches on hand to dish out advice and guide the chicks through the course. They included:

Hannah Studd (Chief of course) worked with Koppa from the Hotham Park Crew to put up a progressive and fun course that girls could get creative, and learn on.

Ali Deane and Erin Height singing out across Hotham as the announcers for the day. I think we can all agree that they girls were absolute naturals. They kept the event alive and energetic even through the wind, snow and fog.

Merrin Jokic  (Head Judge) organized Mimi, Lucy and myself in scoring the girls runs through two qualifying runs and one finals run.

Anita Jaboor (Chief of results) worked with Amy and Scotti from Hotham Events to compile the scores to get the final result .

Wennie Tan showing us her rail skills

One of the highlights of the day, aside from watching the chicks throw down, was the presentations at Swindlers. We had some amazing prizes to give away to our new CwS champions. Armada have come to the Chicks with Stix party for the last two years and their amazing support shows their strong commitment to women’s freestyle and freeride skiing. 

Junior Women's Podium

Open Women's Ski Podium

All girls on the podium for the Open Ski category took home a pair of Armada skis! Our winner, Dani was luckily enough to get to choose her dream skis.She went with the TSTw – EXCELLENT CHOICE!. 

Open Women's Snowboard Podium

Other prizes included a Roxy Magne-Traction snowboard, with Roxy bindings, Dragon sunnies and goggles, Shafted ski poles, Dalbello jackets, and heaps and heaps of Roxy and Dragon beanies, tees, hoods, scarfs, buffs, and stickers. To cap off the presentations Merrin got each and every girl that was in Swindlers off their chairs, and up and dancing for a “shuffle off”.

I always get such a buzz from holding Chicks with Stix events. There is so much positive energy between participants, coaches and volunteers. It’s a real team effort to get these events off the ground.

CWS has an amazing group of coaches!

I would like to say a big thank you to Mt Hotham for having us come and visit twice throughout the 2012 season. Claire from Marketing, Koppa from the Park Crew and Scotti in Events were all so patient and supportive of our program which has lead to its success.

Thanks so much for everybody who was involved in this years event. I look forward to seeing you all again in 2013 for another awesome season of Chicks with Stix.

Check out the awesome edit of the event from Mt Hotham!