A few things to say about the X Games…
I guess the X Games always throws a few surprises our way, but this year it seemed to chuck a few more than usual. I’m not talking about Shaun White showing us he was human after all by placing in 3rd place again in the slopestyle . (Well, semi- human that is as he did have to replace his broken board between runs and still scored 3rd place, as well as nailing 1st in the pipe contest).
No, I am talking, amongst other things, about the ladies, and how you suddenly felt like you were watching 10 years of progression rather than just one. Jamie Anderson was incredible to watch in the slopestyle, and the girls half pipe contest was, dare I say, even more interesting to watch than the men’s. I do believe there are not many men out there who would want to go up against Torah, Kelly or Gretchen in an icy pipe today…
But talking of the men, who would have thought we would have been watching Torstein and Travis battle it out in the Big Air over no less than a switch bs 1280 and a bs double cork 1080? Even the commentators took a moment to realize just how many times Torstein had spun himself around stupid. Maybe it was because he made it look effortless, that they were taken by surprise. Either way, that was a tough judging call as Travis’s run was equally mad.
My only disappointment was that they broadcast the men’s slopestyle so late in the day, leaving the entire course in the shade and the riders without their best advantage on a dark and fast course. Anyone who had watched the qualifiers the day before on the internet would have seen what was probably the most insane slopestyle contest to date. Virtually all the riders stomped every run and it was just one killer run after another. But the finals were filled with riders falling and sketching out where they couldn’t see the terrain, which was a shame for them and for the ‘TV effect’.
Oh, and then there was Heikki’s one footer not getting him on the podium when it was the most mental thing anyone has done over a 60 foot gap in a slopestyle contest in a long time! But that’s a whole other blog right there…
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