This weekend, Jibba Jabba returned to the streets of downtown Houghton for the third year in a row since its hiatus. Jibba Jabba was brought back in 2023 by Jenn Reed, who at the time was working for Rhythm Bike & Board Co., and through her passion for winter sports, she teamed up with the City of Houghton to bring back the competition after almost ten years. Since its comeback in 2023, Jibba Jabba has been a staple in the winter culture of Houghton and has been a major draw for tourism. Event coordinator Reed said, “An event like this brings a lot of much-needed business to the city of Houghton. Everything from hotel business to local shops. It brings new people to the area that may have never been here before, so we see quite a boom in tourism.”
Jibba Jabba is a “rail jam” style snowboard competition. A rail jam is a type of competition that primarily focuses on snowboard maneuvers that involve handrails. This year, participants competed on a course designed by Dustin Reed. The course was designed with two main sections of rails: an upper section containing one flat rail and two down rails, and a lower section containing a down rail and a side-by-side down rail. This year’s course design paid homage to Houghton’s rich history of mining through the use of a snow tunnel lit up by gas lanterns that competitors could go through during their runs.
The competition had four categories to compete in: best overall men’s, best overall women’s, “best stomp” on section one, and “best stomp” on section two. The “best stomp” category was new this year and was sponsored by Red Bull. The concept of the “best stomp” category is whoever can lay down the smoothest, cleanest trick with the best style in each of the two sections wins.
The overall men’s winner was Nate Bujarski of Duluth, MN, and the overall women’s winner was Jayva Jordan of Superior, WI. This is Jordan’s second year in a row taking the women’s first place overall victory. The winners of the two “best stomp” categories were Gabe Gilbertson on the first section, and Houghton’s very own Charlie VanDemark on the second section. VanDemark is the head of terrain park operations at Mont Ripley and a staple in the Keweenaw snowboarding scene. Overall, winners took home a prize of $1,000, and “best stomp” winners took home a prize of $750.
