After Women’s Superpipe last night, there was the Big Air contest. Only one American made it to the finals, but the foreigners definitely held it down for their respective countries.
Big Air works like this: Riders hit one big jump and are scored out of 50 on a single trick. They can hit the jump as many times as possible in 20 minutes, and their two best scores count.
The obvious highlight of last night was Halldor Helgason from Iceland. He got a perfect score of 50 on his very first 2 runs, with a total score of 100 before the event was even half over.
I FINALLY found some video! Check it out:
Catch Some Air January 31, 2010
Women’s Snowboarding
Well, I’m watching the replay of the Women’s Finals and so far, it’s been CRAZY! After watching most of the girls mess up their scores by falling during the 1st round, Gretchen Bleiler came out with an incredible 1st run, throwing a 900 right off the bat and boosting the halfpipe over 13 feet. She scored a 90.00, which put her in the lead by roughly 50 points.
Kelly Clark’s run came immediately after, and was even more impressive. She threw some really clean tricks and was airing higher than anyone: 15 above the top of the quarter. That is HUGE! Kelly’s run earned a 94.66, but she wasn’t in the lead for long. In the 2nd heat, Gretchen pulled off a super clean and unique run, fitting in a 900 and a 720, and she wound up in the lead by 2 points. Kelly’s second run didn’t go as well…. She tried a 900 and ended up falling.
Gretchen Bleiler’s signature trick, the Crippler
Kelly Clark
Note: These pictures of Kelly and Gretchen are not from Winter X this year
This time around, Gretchen Bleiler won the Gold in her hometown. But, we’ll still see these ladies in the Olympics and I can’t wait to see what they come up with 🙂
X Games 14, cont. January 30, 2010
Well, unfortunately I was unable to catch most of the X Games last night because a much more important athlete was undergoing surgery yesterday (more about stuff like that later…) and needed help recovering. BUT, thankfully because of the invention of the Internet, I can still fill you in on what happened 🙂
Not surprisingly, Shaun White in Men’s Superpipe took the gold medal… again. They score the runs out of 100, each rider gets 3 runs and your best score is what counts:
Final | |||||
RANK | NAME | RUN 1 | RUN 2 | RUN 3 | SCORE |
1 | Shaun White | 95.33 | 31.66 | 58.00 | 95.33 |
2 | Iouri Podladtchikov | 50.00 | 93.00 | 93.66 | 93.66 |
3 | Kazuhiro Kokubo | 78.33 | 91.00 | 38.00 | 91.00 |
4 | Greg Bretz | 10.33 | 87.66 | 89.66 | 89.66 |
5 | JJ Thomas | 42.00 | 82.33 | 34.33 | 82.33 |
6 | Steve Fisher | 70.00 | 74.66 | 42.00 | 74.66 |
7 | Luke Mitrani | 57.00 | 56.00 | 36.66 | 57.00 |
8 | Louie Vito | 40.00 | 46.66 | 35.66 | 46.66 |
I was a little bummed that Louie Vito did so poorly… I ❤ that guy!
Tonight there’s the Women Superpipe Finals which is always good… A lot of the competitors are on the US Olympic Snowboarding Team for this year’s games, including Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler (my fav!), Lindsay Jacobellis and Hannah Teter.
There’s also Snowboard Big Air, which is also a great event to check out. If you don’t have access to a television, you can go to ESPN360.com and watch it live. It’s even free if you get cable from an ESPN affiliated company 🙂
I’m going to try to catch some replays to report further on the Men’s Superpipe Finals, and write more tomorrow about what happened with the gals.
Winter X!!! January 28, 2010
I have a lot of fond memories of the Winter X Games… Since I used to live in Colorado I got to experience the action firsthand year after year. But now that 1,000 miles separates me from my favorite action sports event of the year, the best I can do is watch it on TV and tell you about the coolest parts 🙂
The 14th annual Winter Games started today, January 28. Right now, they’re fusing footage from the snowmobilers and the male snowboarders. One of my favorite tricks I’ve seen so far (even though I’ve only seen a few) was done by Joe Parsons. It was so cool, I’m not even sure what to call it (you know those are always the best tricks 🙂 . It involved some sort of body varial type of thing involving him landing while he was sitting the wrong way on his snowmobile. I’m looking for footage but… Not available yet.
The snowmobile finals are being held tonight and women’s slopestyle skiing is over, but the fun has only just begun 🙂 We still have all kinds of events ahead, including skiing superpipe, snowboard slopestyle and men and women’s snowboard superpipe. The complete schedule is as follows:
Thursday, January 28
10 am- 12 pm | Skiing SuperPipe Men’s & Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
10 am- 12 am | Skiing Slopestyle Men’s Elimination | Aspen, CO |
11:30 am- 1 pm | Snowmobile Freestyle Elimination | Aspen, CO |
12:00 am- 3:00 pm | Skiing Skier X Men’s & Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
1:00 pm- 2:30 pm | Skiing Slopestyle Women’s Final | Aspen, CO |
2 pm- 3 pm | Snowmobile Best Trick Practice | Aspen, CO |
2:45 pm- 4 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Men’s & Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
3 pm- 4 pm | Mono Skier X Practice | Aspen, CO |
4:30 pm- 6 pm | Snowboard SuperPipe Women’s Elimination | Aspen, CO |
6 pm- 7 pm | Snowboard SuperPipe Men’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
6 pm- 7 pm | Snowboard Big Air Practice | Aspen, CO |
7 pm- 9 pm | Skiing Big Air Practice | Aspen, CO |
7 pm- 8:30 pm | Snowboard SuperPipe Men’s Elimination | Aspen, CO |
7 pm- 9 pm | Snowmobile Freestyle Final |
Friday, January 29th
10 am- 11 am | Snowboard Snowboarder X Men’s & Womens’ Qualifying | Aspen, CO |
10 am- 12 pm | Skiing SuperPipe Men’s & Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
10 am- 12 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Men’s Elimination | Aspen, CO |
12 pm- 2 pm | Snowmobile Best Trick Practice | Aspen, CO |
12 – 1:30 pm | Skiing Skier X Men’s & Women’s Qualifying | Aspen, CO |
12:15 pm- 2 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
1:30 pm- 3 pm | Mono Skier X Practice | Aspen, CO |
2:15 pm- 4 pm | Skiing Slopestyle Men’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
4 pm- 5 pm | Snowmobile Best Trick Practice | Aspen, CO |
4:30 pm- 5:30 pm | Skiing SuperPipe Women’s Final | Aspen, CO |
5:30 pm- 7:15 pm | Snowboard SuperPipe Men’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
5:30 pm- 6 pm | Skiing Big Air Elimination | Aspen, CO |
6 pm- 7 pm | Snowmobile Best Trick Final | Aspen, CO |
7 pm- 7:30 pm | Skiing Big Air Final | Aspen, CO |
7:30 pm- 9 pm | Snowboard SuperPipe Men’s Final | Aspen, CO |
7:45 pm- 9 pm | Snowboard Big Air Practice |
Saturday, January 30th
10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m | Snowboard SuperPipe Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
10 a.m. – 12 p.m | Snowmobile SnoCross Practice | Aspen, CO |
10:00 am- 11:00 am | Mono Skier X Qualifying | Aspen, CO |
10:00 am- 12:00 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Women’s Elimination | Aspen, CO |
10:30 am- 12 pm | Skiing SuperPipe Men’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
12 pm- 1:45 pm | Snowboard Snowboarder X Men’s & Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
12:15 pm- 1:15 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Men’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
1 pm- 1:30 pm | Adaptive Snowmobile Practice | Aspen, CO |
1:30 pm- 3 pm | Snowmobile SnoCross Practice | Aspen, CO |
2 pm- 3:30 pm | Snowboard Snowboarder X Men’s & Women’s Final | Aspen, CO |
2:30 pm- 4 pm | Skiing Slopestyle Men’s Final | Aspen, CO |
5 pm- 6:30 pm | Skiing SuperPipe Men’s Elimination | Aspen, CO |
5:30 pm- 6:45 pm | Snowboard Big Air Practice | Aspen, CO |
5:30 pm- 7:30 pm | Snowmobile Knock Out Practice | Aspen, CO |
6:30 pm- 7:15 pm | Snowboard SuperPipe Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
7 pm- 7:30 pm | Snowboard Big Air Elimination | Aspen, CO |
7:30pm- 8:30 pm | Snowboard SuperPipe Women’s Final | Aspen, CO |
8:30 pm- 9 pm | Snowboard Big Air Final |
Sunday, January 31st
10 am- 11 am | Skiing SuperPipe Practice | Aspen, CO |
10 am- 12:15 am | Skiing Skiier X Men’s & Women’s Final | Aspen, CO |
10:15 am- 11:15 am | Snowmobile SnoCross Round 1 | Aspen, CO |
10:30 am- 11:45 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Women’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
11:45 am- 12 pm | Snowmobile SnoCross Last Chance Qualifying | Aspen, CO |
12 pm- 1 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Women’s Final | Aspen, CO |
12:15 pm- 12:30 pm | Adaptive SnoCross | Aspen, CO |
1 pm- 1:45 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Men’s Practice | Aspen, CO |
1 pm- 1:30 pm | Snowmobile SnoCross Final | Aspen, CO |
1:30 pm- 2:45 pm | Mono Skier X Final | Aspen, CO |
2 pm- 3:30 pm | Snowboard Slopestyle Men’s Final | Aspen, CO |
5 pm- 6 pm | Snowmobile Knock Out Practice | Aspen, CO |
5 pm- 6:30 pm | Skiing SuperPipe Men’s Final | Aspen, CO |
6:30 pm- 7:30 pm | Snowmobile Knock Out Final | Aspen, CO |
7:30 pm- 8 pm | Skiing SuperPipe High Air Final |
I’ll be following the events as closely as possible… And I’ll probably post some profiles of my favorite athletes involved this year. Stay tuned 🙂