Westbound Boarder

The Winter X Games is one of the largest annual contests of the year and is notorious for pushing its competitors to the next level and raising industry standards year after year.  This year was no exception, especially since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver B.C. are right around the corner. The X Games are a great opportunity for women snowboarders to showcase their skills, while raising the bar for womens snowboarding. There were three female snowboard competitions during this past weekend’s event.  Snowboard Cross, a treacherous, windy, and super fast, five person race, the Slopestyle park comp, and of course the 22′ Super Pipe. The super pipe contest was awesome this year, and the U.S. girls ripped it up. In fact, the girls who podiumed where all on the U.S. woman’s Olympic team. First place went to Gretchen Bleiler, a Colorado local, second was Kelly Clark, and third was Hannah Teeter. Kelly was the only girl to do a 900 and absolutely popped the highest out of the pipe, but it was Gretchen Bleiler who had her trademarked crippler 720, which is sort of like a rodeo, but more inverted and stylish. Hannah Teeter had a great bag of tricks with perfect 540’s as well. Unfortunately, one of my favorite riders, Elena Hight, didn’t medal, though she did kill the Dew tour stop at Snow Basin (Ogden, UT), getting first in the woman’s Super Pipe.

Slopestyle was impressive this year, with a few different riders than the Super Pipe and plenty of tricks to go with them. The slopestyle course was made up of a rail garden and three giant jumps, stretching from 50′ to almost 70′ to finish off the run. Jenny Jones from Great Brittan won the Gold, Jamie Anderson won the Silver, and Janna Meyen-Weatherby won Bronze. Janna has been tearing up contests for years - she’s 32 years old and making it look effortless over the jumps. She was also the only girl to stick a 900. Jamie Anderson was great on the rails, doing a 360 nose bonk, and she killed it on the jumps with clean 7’s all around. It was Jones, though, with her perfect run with big air and style over all of the jumps pulling the consecutive 540’s with no sketchy landings, who conquered. Also have to give credit to Eero Ettala for the mens, stomping the best run I’ve ever seen in a contest. His first slopestyle run consisted of the double cork 1080, double backside rodeo 900, and then a double back flip. I knew this guy was good, but wow, taking a safe gold with no one even coming close to his score.

Once again, our favorite “must reads” from around the Web.  Make sure you check out the ESPN X Games going on right now and through the weekend in Aspen!  Oh, and if you haven’t already entered our socks giveaway, make sure you do so!

• 15-Year-Old Snowboarder Named to Austrailian Olympic Team: I love seeing and meeting young shredders, but this is unreal!  In Austrailia, a 15-year-old snowboarder was named to the Aussie Olympic Team.  Rad!
• Teter for Haiti: We all know Hannah Teter is an awesome snowboarder, but she’s also an awesome person.  She typically donates all of her prize money to a clean water charity, however, this year she donated her winnings from the US Snowboarding Grand Prix to Haiti.
• Preparation is key to ski trip success: Great advice from the New York Times on taking family ski trips.  Key theme?  Efficiency!
• Snowboarding Postage Stamp Revealed: Wow.  You know snowboarding has made an impact when they release a postage stamp with a snowboarder on the face.  Very cool!  Bummer that it is only available at Park City post office locations, though.
• Will Bright be the First Female to Crack The Double Cork Code? Well, I can’t exactly answer that question, but she sure does hope so!  FYI, love her training schedule - eat, sleep, and snowboard.

This Friday, “X-Games 3D: The Movie” will debut in theaters nationwide (on the big screen for one week only), and the film sounds pretty rad.  Here’s a full synopsis:

“X Games 3D: The Movie” captures the drama and spectacle that play out every year at the X Games events, highlighting the behind-the-scenes stories of the featured athletes and the sacrifices they make in pursuit of glory and the advancement of their sports on the biggest stage in action sports. The full-length feature film uses groundbreaking digital 3D techniques to provide an unprecedented all-access pass to the X Games, and it contains more than 90 percent native 3D content which vividly documents the dedication of these athletes as they pursue glory and progression on the ultimate stage in action sports.”

Advance tickets can be purchased here.

For those of you who missed Levi LaVallee’s Snowmobile Freestyle Winter X double back flip - this video is a must see. Despite the fact that he didn’t take home the gold, LaVallee’sperformance was absolutely one to remember. Before Saturday, no one had ever attempted this trick in the snow and LeVallee came pretty darn close to landing (LaVallee had only successfully landed this trick in his foam pit). LeVallee rotated his 450 pound sled twice and simply didn’t land because he went too big, overshooting the transition and slamming into the flat, but worry not!

LeVallee ran away with his arms raised and gave the crowd more thrill than they had bargained for. The best man may not always win, which is why my money is on LeVallee and his double back flip for next years Winter X Fourteen!

Shaun White has finally broken the curse that historically consumed the Winter X games defending champion. That’s right, history was made as the 2009 Winter X Thirteen came to an end last night in Aspen, CO. Shawn White is the first competitor to ever win a back to back gold medal - in any of the X Games competitions. You think that’s cool? White now also holds the most Winter X gold medals - a record nine, to be exact.

Despite the contrary expectation, it didn’t come easy for White last night. He went into his third and final run in 7^th place and really needed to stomp his last run to even have a chance for the podium.  As White admits, it’s the last run pressure that does it for him, so it’s no surprise that his final run was of gold standard.

White’s winning run included quite the combo - soaring more than 20 feet out of the pipe, he pulled his signature backside rodeo, a backside 900, a frontside 1080, followed by a backside 1080 (a popular combo of the evening), a frontside 900, then sealed the deal with a McTwist.  This run earned him a score of 91.66, just barely enough to bump him past Kevin Pearce’s 90.66. As White was recently defeated by Pearce earlier this month at the Burton European Open in Laax, Switzerland, last night was quite the redemption. Even though they are competitors, Pearce gave White a pound…

No matter who you were cheering for, White deserves some major props as he made Winter X history! Earning back to back gold medals in the Superpipe and achieving the unprecedented 8^th (White also took Gold in Slopestyle on Saturday night) and 9^th gold medals in the 2009 Winter X games.

What exactly drives Shawn White to go so big? From the Flying Tomato himself…”The Amazing Crowd!