I guess I’ll start by stating the obvious and say that Torah Bright is good at halfpipe. And when I say good, I mean really, really good. She consistently went bigger than anyone else, and had some of the highest, smoothest spins I’ve ever seen from a girl. Kjersti Buass and relative unknown Sarah Conrad were also showing some talent in the amplitude department, and there was an array of crippler seven attempts from multiple girls—albeit ninety percent of them were three feet below the lip—but the point is that new things were tried. Speaking of new things—Cheryl Maas nearly landed a Haakonflip, which is pretty much unheard-of in women’s halfpipe. Also on the firsts front was a back-to-back seven combo by Manuela Pesko, and while the announcers claimed it was the first time a girl had ever landed it in a contest, there’s been some speculation that it was maybe not, in fact, the first time ever.
When it came down to podium time, there was the general milling about as Paulina Ligocka was called for third place, and then a sort of awkward silence as Torah was called to second. Wait, but if Torah’s second…who…is… “and in first place we have Manuela Pesko!. Huh? Well, judges are mysterious beings, and sometimes we all just need to accept that. But in the end, it was a fun day, a fun contest, and on top of that, we all got to learn what it feels like to be in love from 15-year-old girls who write into teen magazines. And personally, I think the most important thing to take away from this whole experience is that love feels like floating and sometimes My Chemical Romance is too hardcore when you have a boyfriend.
