As I said in my last post, I have some video of Shaun White’s “secret halfpipe” (somewhere in quaint little Silverton, CO…. I ❤ it!) and him learning many of the tricks we saw him do during his Olympic run. It doesn't say anywhere that this is where he learned the 1260 double McTwist, but I'm willing to bet that it is. The thing that’s really unique about this halfpipe is the gigantic foam pit at the end. While the use of foam pits has previously been reserved for things like motocross and BMX, it seems that the level of progression in the sport of snowboarding is demanding it. While the standard tricks for the halfpipe were once 720’s and rodeos, riders quickly saw that doing these tricks would not guarantee them a good score for long. The new standard rotation became 1080 (3 full spins), and that was a couple of years ago. Judges are looking for something fresh. Now, as the stakes rise in competitive snowboarding, the pro’s have to figure out how to deliver new, exciting runs without killing themselves trying. And voila, Red Bull built a halfpipe leading into a foam pit. Needless to say, practicing a new trick into foam is a little less nerve-racking than practicing with a very good chance you’ll fall into hard packed icy snow. Here is the video I have as a little intro to the project: Here you can see White really employing the use of his new foam pit. The following two tricks are ones he did in his winning Olympic run… and now you can see how one might learn something like that 😛 And here’s the double McTwist, the variation of which he did at the Olympics to blow everyone’s mind. (Even though the title of the video is double McTwist 1260, it doesn’t really seem like he completes the 1260 in most of these hits. A regular McTwist is an off-axis 540, meaning a double would only be 1080 degrees of rotation. The last 180 degrees is what he adds to this in the final video to make it a ground-breaking trick.) …… And just in case you can’t picture what an actual 1260 double McTwist looks like (landed in the halfpipe rather than foam), here’s one more video for you: I have to say, he pulled it a lot cleaner there than he did at the Olympics. For more stuff about Project X and the secret halfpipe, check out the official site. And now I’m done posting about Shaun White for quite a while…. He gets quite enough coverage as it is! And I think he makes everyone forget about all the other great snowboarders out there… I’ll pay them some tribute next time.
Xtremethings 