Chicks With Stix Hits Thredbo for Some Girls Freestyle Coaching
Chicks With Stix | Words and Images by Ben Hansen
Starting in 2010 and progressing into 2011 Chicks with Stix is a girls only ski program running throughout the season in the Australian ski resorts. Six weekends have been planned this season taking in the different terrain from Mt Buller, Thredbo, Perisher, Mt Baw Baw and Mt Hotham. The idea behind Chicks with Stix is to Supply the fundamentals of freeskiing, creating a grassroots entry point for women’s freesking in Australia. This program goes out to any girls, any age, and any level of skiing. With the support of Roxy and Armada, the free coaching sessions are a stomping ground for any female skier looking to better themselves and progress into the professional side of the sport.
Zoe Jaboor one of Australia’s leading female freeskiers, who’s also a coach and international freestyle judge, started the program in 2010. With the combined help from Anna Segal (world slopestlye champion) , Katya Crema ( skier cros Olympian), Nat Segal (big mountain skier) , Katie Blamey and Nicole Lewis (international mogul skiing athletes) it is shaping up to be the best progressive programs for women’s skiing in Australia.
Australia’s female competitive skiing is a little harder to come by than on the international circuit, one of the goals for CWS is to motivate and teach other girls new skills in a friendly and fun environment. CWS coaches bring a lot to the table, constructing an all girls coaching criteria which covers all types of skiing – whatever the path young females would like to persist with – and helping all girl skiers build confidence in terrain parks and on the hill.
“our plan is for CWS to be a feeder into the Olympic and FIS world cup pathway and it’s my desire to help channel girls into that, if that’s where they want to go,” says Zoe Jaboor.
This weekend just gone 13th – 14th of August, Zoe, Anna and guest coaches Hanna Fisher and Karinya Turnbull took to the slopes of Thredbo with the young, excited girls for the one of the NSW stops of the CWS tour. The girls started the day warming up for a few runs down Merrits while coaches learnt a little about the girls and the standard of skiing and also what each of the participants wanted out of the program. Breaking up into groups the girls were given coaching in everything from proper warming up before hitting the slopes, switch skiing, popping off jumps, spinning 180s and 360s, hitting boxes and being safe on the mountain.
The coaches inspired the girls by displaying the correct ways to try new tricks and how to progress skiing abilities in a safe way, using the Merrits park for most of the afternoon, with the many features available it was the perfect place for everyone involved to learn, be safe and have a great girls day out skiing.
The CWS program includes encouragement awards, prizes and a major sponsorship for one of the girls, also at the start of September their will be a “chicks only” Throwdown competition at Mt Buller for the riders participating in the CWS this year.
If any girls are interested in CWS go onto http://chickswithstix-skiing.blogspot.com and get involved.
Anna Segal demonstrates box technique
Working on 360s
Having a great time!
Thredbo forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
