Nikita Chickita USA 2010 went down on Saturday February 20th at Brighton, Utah. What lay ahead was a super fun day and everyone who made it had a great time. A total of 46 girls showed up to be part of this year's event and some amazing riding led to the following shredsters making the finals:

Top ten AMs:

Jessica Jensen
Midori Oatari
Anouck Gran
Lauren Weibert
Ariel Freidman
Renae Palma
Halo Wilson
Jessi Higgi
Kirra Kotsenburg
Oliyvia Weston

Top ten PROs:

Lynn Niell
Colleen Quigley (Nikita)
Steph Luxton
Lajawn Allen
Ashley Thornton (Nikita)
Kaitlyn Farrington (Nikita)
Gabby Maiden (Nikita)
Kara Rennie (Nikita)
Paige Rainear
Sandra Hillen

The surprise of the day was seeing winner of the AM division, 17 year old Jessica Jensen go on to win the PRO category as well!! This has never happened before and Jessica is definitely going to be a name to watch. She was hucking some super clean back 5's which earned her the win and becomes a proud member of the Nikita Team with a one-year sponsorship deal. She totally rocked it! The Brighton staff did justice providing a great course. It had a variety of five different rails and boxes at the start leading to two 20 foot kickers in a row on to a wall ride finish. Long and challenging, but super fun!

Nikita Team rider and NC USA regular Colleen Quigley took 3rd again in the PROs category, consistently throwing huge back flips throughout the day. Another highlight was Paige Rainear getting tech on the rails with front board back one's and gnarly nollie back tails.

Thanks to the judges on the day, including Madison Blackley (Nikita Team rider), Ana Van Pelt (Niche Snowboards), Kory (Arkade Magazine) and Marty (Park Digger at Brighton). Each judged a particular category either looking at Style, Technicality, Amplitude or Landing. Madison "had a blast judging. It was very fun being on this side of the competition. I got to see really rad tricks that I normally don't see being so focused on the competition.”

Well done to all competitors that took part in Nikita Chickita 2010. Here are the results: Winner AMs:

1st Place - Jessica Jensen, Idaho
2nd Place - Midori Oatari, Japan
3rd Place - Ranae Palma, Massachusetts

Winner Pros:

1st Place - Jessica Jensen, Idaho
2nd Place - Lynn Neill, Utah
3rd Place – Colleen Quigley, Massachusetts

Following her win, this is what Jessica had to say; "It was my first all-girl event and I had so much fun! The jam format took all the stress away from the comp and that was great.”

Other riders included Alice Gong (Winner Nikita Chickita USA 2008), Gabby Maiden, Kaitlyn Farrington, Kara Rennie plus Ashley Thornton who commented that "All in all it was an amazing contest!” and Colleen Quigley, "You guys killed it, the event was awesome and super fun.” The youngest competitor on the day was Kirra Kostenburg, just 13 years of age and tearing the bag!!

Following on from the day's contest, everyone got loose at the Canyon Inn. A whole bunch of dancing and drinking took place in true Nikita fashion. A bunch of prizes were given away in a dance-off which led to some pretty impressive moves on the floor!

Hope to see you all again next year!!

Source: www.nikitaclothing.com

With just over a month to go, we're already looking forward to Nikita Chickita Europe 2010. The date was set a while back now and lest you forget, make sure the 10th April 2010 is fully penned in your diaries! Last year's event was rocking thanks to an assortment of characters and nationalities who made the trip to compete, judge, ride and made it what it was.

Nikita Chickita is a chilled out and friendly all-girls slopestyle snowboard contest. An open invitation allowing both unknown and established riders of all ages to bust out their moves on the mountain during the day and party like there's no tomorrow at night!

The contest is split into womens and juniors who compete in qualifying rounds before the best are chosen to battle it out in the finals. Juniors placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd will be awarded with a full to the brim goodie bag, whilst in the womens contest, the winner rides away with a one-year Nikita sponsorship. Stuffed goodie bags along with €1000 for 1st, €500 for 2nd and €250 for 3rd also await the top three women. Last year Sweden's Cecilia Larsen had a triumphant win at the first Nikita Chickita Norway event, which meant as part of her prize she got to compete at Nikita Chickita Europe – she succeeded there too and victory was hers along with a one-year sponsorship with Nikita.

Pre-registration for Nikita Chickita Europe 2010 can be made by e-mailing michelle@nikitaclothing.com – please supply your full name, age and date of birth, contact telephone number, address and e-mail. Any riders with sponsors please state who they are. You will also need to confirm your registration on-site at the Serfaus ticket office with the Nikita ladies either Friday 9th from 15:00 – 17:00pm or on Saturday 10th April from 08:00 – 09:00am where you will collect your lift pass and participant goodie bag. Event schedule

08:00 – 09:00 – Registration at Serfaus Ticket Office
09:00 – 10:30 – Open practice on the slopestyle course
10:30 – Riders meeting on the mountain at the Chill Out area next to the course
11:00 – Qualifying Heats (Womens and Juniors)
12:30 – 13:00 – Lunch break and course re-shape
13:00 – 13:50 – Juniors Finals
13:50 – 14:00 – Course re-shape
14:00 – 15:30 – Womens Final
21:00 – Prize Giving and party begins!! The Patschi Bar

Source: www.nikitaclothing.com

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Job Description
The Messaging Platform Engineer will be responsible for actively monitoring, designing and maintaining all aspects of the mail delivery infrastructure using tools such as C++, complex data structure and graphs to continue to optimize mail campaign and delivery tools. The ideal candidate will be responsible to tune our delivery engine by modifying UNIX kernel parameters, and compiling or editing production ready codes to enhance delivery statistics. The position also requires participation in the development of reporting tools and frameworks.

Education
BS in Computer Science, Mathematics or Computer Engineering preferred.

Skills
• 4+ years of experience as an email Programmer/Developer (PHP, MySQL, C, C++, SQL or PL/SQL).
• Expert understanding of UNIX, UNIX-based systems and UNIX systems administration
• Experience writing or customizing code for mail systems such as (MS Exchange, Message Systems, Postfix, Sendmail, Qmail, Strongmail, PowerMTA, or others).
• Expert understanding of HTML coding, Javascript and related web technologies, and cross-browser compatibility testing.
• Strong ability to develop algorithms for optimized searching, sorting, string matching, graphing, or reporting in a database driven environment.
• Familiarity with how to performance tune Windows and Linux-based operating systems, including 64-Bit OS, to increase efficiency of resource-intensive (CPU, RAM, I/O) applications and databases.
• Familiarity with mail server configuration and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
• Substantial networking experience and understanding of TCP/IP.
• Experience with SDLC, Agile, or other related software engineering frameworks.
• Eagerness to learn and solve problems in a dynamic field with complex interrelated business and technical aspects.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to manage numerous tasks efficiently with little supervision.
• Ability to work under pressure and multi-task are necessary.
• Project management experience is a plus and excellent communication and organizational skills needed.
• Must be willing to respond to emergencies at any time of day and provide normal and emergency production support.
• Knowledge of best practices for implementation and application of mass email marketing appliance (preferably the PowerMTA Email Platform).
• Advanced knowledge of email appliance and systems operation, including support and maintenance.
• Advanced knowledge of email appliance hardware: ability to maintain and support our PowerMTA and Message Systems email servers.
• Advanced knowledge of email appliance software platform.
• Ability to perform with a team as well as individually.

Responsibilities
Will include but are not limited to the following
• Coordinate, develop and define specifications for new tools for managing email marketing operations. Assist in garthering requirements from non-technical members of the email marketing team.
• Develop web-based reporting tools for analyzing and comparing mail statistics from various campaigns comprising millions of emails and integrate with current database model
• Design and create new databases and processes, including storing reputation histories and other statistics on IP blocks
• Develop UNIX application to test IP resources after configuration changes
• Develop processes to test for IP reputation within mailing IPs and surrounding IP space
• Develop reports on revenue, mail delivery, IP reputation, and offer exposure
• Understand the relationship between complaint rates, offers, sending times, delivery, revenue, and recipient data age and activity
• Use complex SQL queries to segment and compile lists
• Define and write scripts to configure mail server settings for throttling, backoff, etc, and analyze SMTP data to enhance mail server settings and shape mailing best practices
• Contribute to the formulation of ideas or tools for enhancing delivery statistics and reputation of mailing IP space
• Have a solid background in bulk/mass marketing email systems and configurations.
• Be instrumental in the analysis and/or design activities requiring in-depth knowledge of MTA configuration.
• Aid in our email systems operation, maintenance, support, upgrades, implementations, and troubleshooting.
• Have experience with high-volume MTA server clusters
• Work diligently to offer support to and working closely with our Sales, Engineering, and Marketing teams.
• Recommend system improvements as needed and implement changes as approved.
• Comply with all policies and procedures, and enforces all established security procedures.
• Show continuous review of overall infrastructure performance.
• Ensure high deliverability rates, and manages reputations and relationships with larger ISP's.
• Document and verify relevant processing procedures, system documentation and training of data processing and employees on system usage

Please email your resume to: mesg-eng@tactara.com

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