I told you Shaun was going to silence the critics. He was dominant in slope style, airing the channel and hitting the cannon. Todd Richards who is a great analyst, by the way, agreed with the judges on this one unlike Shaun’s halfpipe win. I am not knowledgeable enough to call the difference between Kevin Pearce’s run and Shaun’s so I will go with Richards on this one with one caveat. Shaun qualified first giving him the final run of the night and it is a fact in judged sports that judges cannot help giving out the bigger scores at the end and everyone knows this. In big events you pretty much have to win both runs period. In some sick way it my be the organic way to compensate for the extra pressure involved with running last versus the “got nothing to lose “ attitude of running early.
Also- The Loved Ones (punk) has a new ep out called Distractions
With regards to Simon and Jon in the Big Air obviously Jon’s DJ flip or whatever he calls it, a switch double rodeo, is way harder to learn and probably something Simon does not even do. That being said a double front flip is no fun to land either and most people, despite what they say have not done any of those either. For aerialists the double or trip front flip is the most consistently difficult to land and most dangerous trick in the book because it is blind (meaning you can’t see the landing between 180 and 270 degrees, the most critical time) and the consequences of over rotating are usually disastrous, like a broken neck bad. Jon should clearly be the winner in that contest but I think keeping the crowd involved with text judging is a good idea but there needs to be a panel similar to AI where experts weigh in on the performance before the vote. However, you will never get around the fact that Jon is Swedish which has been something he has lamented about for years. I have a dream, maybe with our new president there will be less prejudice against Swedish skiers in America. BTW if a double front flip won big air and they don’t change the format imagine if they invited a real aerialist off the world cup tour who could easily throw a triple front with multiple twists, or a triple back or even a quad back. Funny how the sport is rocketing towards a sport that already exists.
The Riverboat Gamblers (punk) are dropping a new cd in March
On to Skicross. Canadien Stanley Hayer won. Rahlves who had a great start which is unusual for him was in second in the beginning and clearly had slow skis, there is no question about it. The sticky snow created a tricky situation. For Daron to fall behind in the rhythm section can only be explained by wax. I read that Daron switched up skis with Puckett before the final for some reason which is unclear to me. Apparently he won all his heats before that on one pair of skis and then decided to make a change to another. What pisses me off about that is it is the same reason Daron lost the Olympics in Torino. The story I know is that Daron smoked the field in Qualifications and then decided to ski on some special skis that Bode had made for the final which Daron had tested only by freeskiing around the mountain. This decision making by Daron must keep him up at night, I know it makes me mad so it must really piss him off. Hopefully he will get it right for Vancouver.
Atmosphere- Re-released his first LP (God Loves Ugly) indie hip hop
The double backflip on the snowmobile may prove the point that it does not matter who wins and who loses, what matter is what they did. No one cares about anything in the Snow X contest this year besides Levi’s double back. No one could tell you who won the thing, This is what happened for me at both Olympics and it proves both ways how important what you do is in the context of going for the win.
And B Real from Cypress Hill has a new solo song called “Fire”
I was at Sundance during X Games . I skied Deer valley in the pouring sleet. I skied with the Mahre brothers and met Michael Phelps and Dara Torres because I was hanging out with some people from HP who are sponsors of the two athletes. I saw a good movie called “In the Loop” about the back and forth between the US and British goverment in the lead up to the Iraq invasion. I tried to see the band “ Nerd” at Harry O’s in Park City but hey were so obnoxiously loud that I had to leave, I guess I am getting old.
Also Rise Against
What else, I was in LA as a judge on a reality show which I can’t talk about because I will have to pay them a trillion dollars if I do but I met Sasha Cohen the figure skater who won a silver in Torino but is more famous because Shaun White had a severe crush on her which was made public. I asked her about it, here she is:
I wanted to ask her if she regretted now that he is such a big balller, I mean he is on the cover of Fast Company for crying out loud. I did not have the balls though. Same story as always in Fast Company, how he turns everything down blah blah. There was absolutely nothing interesting in the article. No numbers stats or figures. I don’t care about knowing how much Shaun makes but it is a biz mag and I would think they could provide some insight if only in percentages of Shaun’s impact. BS mag, I won’t buy it again.
