Indigo Monk Lands Best Trick

What's a Frontside 540 Stalefish?

Well, the one that 17-year-old snowboarder Indigo Monk landed off an 80-foot jump at Mammoth Mountain last Friday earned her first place and $10,000 in the Best Trick category at the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix.

The Manhattan Beach resident also took second place in SlopeStyle behind Joanna Dzierzawski, 27, of South Lake Tahoe, earning $5,000 for the accomplishment on Saturday.

Said Indigo of her U.S. Grand Prix performance [this was the third time she's competed in the event], "It was absolutely fantastic to podium at such an amazing event. I can't even explain it in words. It was amazing!

"I was speechless and so happy that I landed my run," she said.

Her goal for her Best Trick run?

"It wasn't something that I was trying to win," she said. "I just wanted to land my run. When I saw the huge check with my name on it, I was in a state of shock." 

Indigo entered the competition with the intention of qualifying for the Jr. Worlds and to "possibly get noticed for the U.S. team" as she moves closer to her Olympic goal.

The up-and-coming snowboarder has been competing since she was 7 and today is in qualifying rounds of the 30th anniversary 2012 Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships, the who's who in snowboarding, in Stratton, VT. 

The Mammoth Grand Prix event followed three other 2012 events for Indigo: the Copper Mountain Revolution Tour, the inaugural Youth Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and the Burton Canadian Open in Canada. Her best finish was fifth place in the Youth Olympics.

In 2011 and 2010, she performed in six major events each year and now that Slopestyle snowboarding is an Olympic event [it was added last July], Indigo has her aim on the Olympics.

She says she has always loved SlopeStyle, focusing on it before she was "double digits." She won Nationals when she was 10 "and there was never any looking back," she says.  

She's stoked about SlopeStyle's upcoming Olympic debut in the 2014 Winter Games.

"After SlopeStyle debuts in Sochi [Russia], the general public will know more names in snowboarding than just the name Shaun White," she said.

"I want to qualify for the Olympics in Sochi. I got a taste of the Olympics at the Youth Olympics in Austria this past January and it was amazing. I plan to work hard and see how it all turns out."

Indeed, a look at her online results record highlights how far she has come in the sport and how serious she is about it.

In fact, her U.S. Grand Prix performance ranks up there with her best [first place at the Billabong Juniors event in New Zealand in 2011).

Still, Indigo is in it to beat her own records and achieve personal bests. 

"I love snowboarding and I don't really pay too close attention to that stuff. I usually have these personal goals that I try to achieve and the rest is just a bonus. Snowboarding is an amazing sport. I couldn't live without it," she told Manhattan Beach Patch.  

The lifelong MB native who is ranked 17th internationally in women's SlopeStyle began snowboarding at the age of two.

Stay tuned to Manhattan Beach Patch for more on Indigo Monk.