Shaun White "Halfpipe Machine" & more Olympic snowboarding updates

Okay, it may not all be about “the flying tomato” (man I hate that over-used nick-name), but the ginger spinner made us believe the hype with his display at Cyprus Mountain on Wednesday night. It’s staggering how much of a competition machine that boy is. He fully deserved his gold medal by going so much bigger and technical than the rest of the, very talented, field.

He’s so smooth and soaks everything up like it’s nothing, it would be amazing to know how much time he’s spent practicing pipe over (the relatively few) years. I picturing him having the desire of a young David Beckham, hitting free-kick after free-kick at an open goal, long after training had finished. To illustrate this point, check out the video below of one of Shaun White’s practice runs at the recent Winter X-Games, where he smashed his face on the side of the pipe so hard his helmet flew off. He just got up and walked away with a little huff and a puff... and went on to win Gold, of course. There’s a man who’s used to pushing himself to the limit and living with the consequences!

YOUTUBE[6tsnST3sv08]

I’d love to sit here and recount the in’s and out’s of Wednesday night, but to be honest it’s already  been done over and over (I found Whitelines’ coverage particularly good here), but I’ve got to mention Kazuhiro’s mahoosive display. He proved that there’s far more to snowboarding than being a “competition machine”, and that individual style get’s our fires burning just as much as a double McTwist 12.

Like the men’s event, there weren’t any real surprises for the ladies, with double-corking (apparently) Torah Bright impressing the judges with her smooth and technical second run comprising BS360, switch McTwist 7, BS540, air to fakie and Cab 720. Bam! Even though the other big guns, Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark, were busting out 9s, they didn’t match up to Torah’s clinical run.

Oh... and the boarder cross. Without doubt, the best spectator sport at the Winter Olympics! Who can forget Lyndsey Jacobellis crashing out of Torino ’96 as she failed to land a method off the final kicker (especially when it’s been replayed again... and again... and again on the run up to this year’s event)? Seriously, it always brings an evil smile to my face... (you’ve got to admit, that’s a neutral spectator’s dream). Unfortunately her luck hadn’t changed as she lost control and hit a marker in the semis. It’s a shame, I really wanted to see if she’d have thrown down that method again if she’d have got to the final, throwing two fingers up to people like me. I like to think she would have done. However, it was a beautiful moment to see Maelle Ricker earning Canada’s second gold of the games in front of her home crowd. Which made up for the bitter disappointment her team mate Mike Robertson felt the previous day, after being passed by the US’s Seth Westcott in the last couple corners. I may not be Canadian, but I spent a got 30 seconds huffing and puffing around the pub like the best of them.

Anyway, that’s enough ranting for one day...

Remember, if y’all want to be kicking Shaun out the pipe, NONSTOP’s Freestyle camps are a great place to start.