Battle of the Babes Jibfest
Check out the recap of the Nikita Battle Of The Babes Event that Osiris Girls team rider and Nikita team rider Vera Janssen helped to put together:
The Battle Of The Babes that took place last saturday, October 11th, 2008, in front of the Skihall in Neuss, Germany, was everything but your conventional competition. Bt with such a non-conventional group of organizers as a snowshop, an Icelandic Outerwear company, and a professional snowboarder from Germany’s Lower Rhine Area, you would not expect less. The Battle Of The Babes is an Open-Air Ladies-Snowboard-Session - most unconventional considering it happens in North-Rhine Westphalia in October….
The saturday presented itself in its most beautiful, cloudless bluebird and the sun shone onto the three meter high drop-in ramp as well as the 12 cubic meters of snow, that had been supplied by the Jever Skihall. Two boxes in a row were the obstacles on which the ladies could try out and show their slides and spins. For this they had travelled to Neuss from Belgium, the Netherlands and of course from all over North-Rhine Westphalia. All 17 of them are die-hard indoor snowboard chicas that were incredibly happy to be able to ride outdoors for a change without having to do the eight-hour drive into the Alps.
Accordingly, the mood among the riders was as bright as the sky. Laughter, singing, and chatting were heard all afternoon together with the musical impressions that had been carefully mixed together by DJ Dado. The ladies cheered for each other, gave tips and shared insight into their bags of tricks.
And thats just how it was planned. Joy in the female indoor snowboard world was huge when Dado from the snowshop in Neuss ordered the popular icelandic snowboard brand NIKITA’s winter collection for the first time. To celebrate this accordingly, he suggested to Vera Janssen to take this opportunity to create an event for the girl snowboarders. Vera Janssen is one of NIKITA’s pro snowboarders out of Kempen, which is only 30km away from Neuss,
Vera Janssen: “The idea of taking snow out of the ski hall and having a session outside has always intrigued me. There would not have been a better opportunity to celebrate NIKITA’s entry into the snowshop than by showing why all of us are in this industry: the fun of snowboarding!”
And fun was supposed to be the main focus of the event rather than competition. To fairly distribute the numerous prizes though, Vera suggested to play the game SKATE, that comes from skateboarding: One rider shows a trick and all others need to copy it. Whoever does not land the trick, gains a letter. First an S, then a K, A, T, and finally an E. Each girl who has the word SKATE complete gets eliminated - the last lady standing wins.
Even though the Jam-Session began at 1pm, it was 4 o’clock before the first girl got eliminated. The male snowboard population sighed under the false hope that the game would be over soon so that they, too, would be able to ride the box in the sunshine. But the girls took their sweet time and visibly enjoyed to try out tricks they have never done before, watch each other ride, cheer one another on, and meet girls with the same interests.
The session would last until 6pm when the last four girls decided they were finally tired. Mandy Longbroek out of The Netherlands only had two letters, which made her the clear winner of the first ever NIKITA Battle Of The Babes. The other three girls each had four letters and shared the second place. 3rd place went to Pia Gaertner, who had just been eliminated during the previous round.
Just as unconventional as the entire afternoon was the prize giving. NIKITA, Ogio, Nixon, Deeluxe and Osiris supplied prizes that had been propped up on a big table. Mandy, the winner, got to pick something out first and decided for a sick NIKITA winter jacket. Next, the three second places got to take their pick, then the third, the fourth, and so on, until every girl held something in her hand. Because the table still wasn’t empty, everyone even got to go again.
When the Skihall filled itself for its typical saturday night Apres-Ski-Party, you could see a variation of content and happy faces, tanned from the sun and visibly tired, start their long trip home…
Hope to see you again next year!!!
BIG THANKS to Dado from the snowshop, Mossi and Timo from NIKITA Germany, and media partner sport2, that kept Germany up to date with its features on sport2.de and sport1.de.
RESULTS:
1. Mandy Longbroek - Niederlande
2. Andrea Lucht - Deutschland
Laurence Destrooper - Belgien
Elke Cogghe - Belgien
3. Pia Gaertner - Deutschland
