by Kathleen Gasperini
(January 5, 1998)

Girls' Gospel Archive: Check out previous sermons of the Girls' Gospel

We've got some powder here, ladies! El Nino has come to Utah, and I must say, it is a grand feeling. Just got off the phone with Tina B. and Jeff Curtes, who are meeting me at Snowbird just as soon as I finish chatting with you grrls, for a quick powder session.

Got the scoop from Ms. Basich about her sick, I mean SICK, 720 she pulled at the ESPN/Airwalk Freeride Snowboarding Championships, December 6. So, she won the Big Air event in case you're behind. But what will go down in herstory is how she won this Big Air. It was so big, the Apollo 13 could have a used a dose of her booster rockets, not to mention the guys. (She probably would have won that division as well.) It went like this: Competitors had three jumps with each jump acting as the qualifying jump for the next. After Tina's first jump (which she stuck), she was told that she hadn't qualified. So she headed to the audience to watch. While the girl's were finishing up, the audience was telling her how much her first jump ruled, so she decided to double check the dork's word who told her she was axed. Indeed, he'd made a mistake (one of many this weekend, by the way), and she had made it to the next round, but would need to go right then because the guys were already up and waiting. And of course we don't want to keep the boys at bay. So without any hesitation or time for stretching, she launched her second and pulled a lofty 360, which landed her into the finals.

Megan Pischke (left) and Tina B. at the ESPN/Airwalk FreeRide in Aspen.

"I decided to do a 720," Tina says about her last jump. "It was the first time I'd ever done it, but I stuck the landing. But I had laid back so far on the landing, I hit the [finish] banner 'cause I couldn't hold on. I was exhausted after that. I still hadn't seen it so I didn't know it was sooo big. I pretty much closed my eyes and hucked one." Indeed.

Michele Taggart also pulled off an exceptional couple of runs in the halfpipe to take home the winning trophy, along with Barrett Christy and Aurelie Sayers second and third, respectively. Michele, never one to hold back her true feelings, told me she was stoked on her success, but how "ironic that there's still no snowboarding allowed at Aspen Mountain. I felt like a clown." No doubt.

Speaking of No Doubt, rumor has it Gwen Stefani and her posse are looking at Boarding for Breast Cancer as their do-good event this year. Since I've got the insight and cred for such info (I'm on the board of directors), I'll be sure to let ya'll know the scoop as soon as things are confirmed. But back at you: Whom do you think would make the best and most appropriate headliner for the BBC event this April 18 at Sierra-at-Tahoe? Email me at: Wigmag.com., or www.wigmag.com-our new website extraordinaire. I'll take your thoughts into consideration. Personally, I have a feeling Gwen would make a great snowboarder, what with that buff little body of hers. Am I the only one that thinks she looks like Shannon Dunn with a dot?

Michele Taggart in the Aspen Pipe.

You know, Shannon won the first FIS World Cup halfpipe event of the season at Whistler, December 14. Tina told me that she and Michele didn't do so well at that event and that, as a matter of fact, the whole event blew her away. "[Snowboarding] has changed without me noticing. I showed up and had no idea what had happened," explains Tina. Guess she was one of a handful of grrls without team-USA uniforms, or Chevy Truck, Nike, and Panasonic logos tattooed all over their bodies. "And the Canadian Team, wow... they had prep talks and rub downs..." They had it goin' on.

I just had a premonition. Well, it's not quite a premonition considering I've been staring at footage of women riders for my BBC movie (which will be released in January) and thought of Griselda Gonzales. Bear with me here. As I watched the halfpipe footage from last year's BBC event over and over, I noticed Griselda skying about as high as Tina, Shannon, Michele, and Stine. Know what? Not only that, she just placed 8th in this FIS World Cup. If you ask me, I think Griselda just may be our dark horse of Olympic Hopefuls for the U.S. of A. Let's take bets: [email protected]

Too bad the Olympic snowboard events weren't Big Air and Big Mountain Freeriding, rather than GS and halfpipe. If so, the medal winners would probably look something like:
Freeriding:
Gold-Victoria Jealouse
Silver-Morgan LaFonte
Bronze-Athena or Marguerite Cossettini

Big Air:
Gold-Tina Basich
Silver-Morgan LaFonte (if shirtless, she'd have the gold)
Bronze-Shannon Dunn

Maybe someday the Olympics will truly reflect the essence of the sports they hype.

Back to reality, this just in from my email: Mary Simmons (sorry I goofed up last Gospel and called her by her maiden name, Seibert) the director of the Wild Women's Snowboard Camp, says the first sesh of theWWSC, December 10-14, was a hit thanks to "strong wills and good attitudes." Guess the temps were like, negative 100 and that's not counting the windchill factor. Next WWSC, which so far has up to 30 campers confirmed, will be held January 14-18. Formerly for advanced riders only, they've opened it up for all levels since some of you princesses said you were too busy for basic training in December only. Cost: $500; call (307) 739-2740; email: [email protected].

Oh, and lest I forget, thank you for all the witty, kooky, and bizarre responses I've received regarding our own chick flick, which you may remember I wrote about in Gospel's VII and VI as a course of action against the tiny token female segments in guy flicks. Of course I still need all of your help, film, cameras, riding talent, etc. to make this thing a reality, but at least I've settled on the name: Let's call it, "The Girl's Gospel."

OK, I'm Audi, got a tram to catch. Happy Holidays! [email protected] or www.wigmag.com

Girls' Gospel Archive: Check out previous sermons of the Girls' Gospel