Back
02 April 2008
Billabong Pushes Jamie To Victory!
Congratulations are in order. Billabong’s very own Jamie Anderson has become the youngest ever snowboarder to win the TTR Women’s World Championship – one of the most prestigious championships in the history of snowsports.
She was just 17½ years old at the beginning of April when she claimed her historic win; and it wasn’t easy for her. She’s quite new to Billabong - in fact at 17, she’s quite new to everything – and her competitors weren’t about to make it easy for her. She was up against such boarding luminaries as Kelly Clarke, Torah Bright and Kjersti Buaas, amongst hundreds of others, and the season hadn’t exactly been kind either. The location of the Austrian leg of the TTR tour had to be changed at the last moment, due to some dangerous weather conditions, but Jamie kept her head and proved that she was as versatile as she was talented; she managed a 2nd place finish there.
Jamie performed consistently well in her favourite slopestyle events; finishing on the podium in almost every leg. She performed well enough to support her through her less-impressive (but still pretty amazing, by most people’s standards) half-pipe events, maintaining enough momentum and entering enough events to boost her quickly up the rankings. On the last day of the tour, it was still anybody’s title. Jamie, clad head to toe in Billabong board gear and looking every part the champion, put in her strongest pipe performance of her season to keep her in contention, pulling out the goods when she really needed to, and then linking up a virtually flawless slopestyle run. The championship was hers. Still breathless from her run and with cameras and microphones thrust in front of her, she managed to say in her quite Californian accent ‘I’m stoked… just so stoked’. Teenagers…
A Victory for Billabong
It was a great day; a perfect and fitting way to end a sensationally tense, exciting season. Everyone on the tour was happy for Jamie. She’s a popular and stylish young woman who manages to transcend the pretentiousness of the stereotypical professional boarder. But the celebrations don’t end there. There were two other Billabong riders in the top ten this season; Austrian Claudia Fliri finished 8th overall and the British Jenny Jones finished in 7th. This rocketed Billabong to the top spot in the Women’s Brand Rankings – a feat of which they should be intensely proud.
Finishing as the world’s number 1 snowboarding clothing brand is really something to scream about; they had to overcome veterans of the boarding world like Quiksilver, Roxy, Burton, DC and Flow. So what makes Billabong so successful? It’s pretty simple, in theory at least. They make clothes their riders want to wear, because of the maneuverability they offer and the style they exude.
In short, the 2007/2008 Winter season was Billabong’s season. Congratulations Billabong, Jamie, Jenny, Claudia and the rest of the team!