The 2010 Olympic Halfpipe Test Event Goes Poorly
anniefast
- February 16 2009
- 5,135 views
- 41 comments
The 22-footer. PHOTO: Annie Fast
I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats waiting for the results of the FIS Snowboard World Cup this weekend … or not. In what we can only hope isn’t an ominous foreshadowing of 2010, the Saturday pipe contest was about half of what the X Games and Dew Tour series have been this winter, with no fault going to the riders themselves. There was alot of mumbling about the pipe being under vert, too short, and chewed up, which might not have totally been the fault of the pipe crew from Arena Snowparks—the same crew that builds the Whistler Pipe and the epic Camp Of Champions summer park. The crew got all of three days to fashion the pipe in the shorter-than-it-should-be dirt shell. The under-vertness made for some harsh deck outs especially on day one practice. The pipe crew also hopefully wasn’t responsible for the location. No Vancouver skyline, no ocean backdrops, just some dark trees. Blah.
Cypress Mountain has been taking some major PR hits recently starting with last weekends Freestyle Ski World Cup where the resort threatened to tow competitors cars and put signs up at the main lodge saying “No Access For Athletes.” Believe it or not. In what is becoming an Olympic locations trend, local riders considered the two other local mountains, Seymour and Grouse, better options for boarders and were pretty surprised when Cypress was selected to host all of the snowboard events.
The women’s podium. PHOTO: Annie Fast
To give you the short of it, in the women’s pipe, Torah Bright made it through her first air-to-fakie before crashing on her cab 700 on her first run—an easy combo for her that won her X Games gold a few weeks ago. Gretchen never really got the hang of this pipe, either, not finding the speed she needed. The always positive and upbeat Torah summed up the scene: “This should have been the best pipe of the season and it was probably the worst.” Ouch. Kelly Clark won the whole things on her first run and 18-year-old Chinese dynamo Jiayu Liu came in second on the podium with Hannah in third. Jiayu looks to be a potential threat for another women’s Olympic sweep.
The men’s podium. PHOTO: Annie Fast
(Shaun had his hand and wrist wrapped up in the finals.)
In the men’s pipe, the Canadians had two riders in finals including Brad Martin, who stuck the only 12 of the day on his last hit, and newcomer Jeff Batchelor—a crowd favorite and definitely one to watch. Scotty Lago also had some great effortless runs, getting the height and finesse as far as I could tell—he just didn’t stick his run in the finals. On their second practice runs Shaun White peeled back his thumb and Iouri Podladtchikov painfully scorpioned, but both came back for victory. Shaun took the lead with a mandatory straight air (FIS rules—more on that later), a back 9, back-to-back 10s and an alley-oop rodeo on his first run and held onto it despite a solid surge from Japan’s Ryoh Aono. Iouri charged from sixth into third on his second run. All three riders stuck back to back 1080s, which is interesting insight into next year’s Olympic judging. In some more Olympic foreshadowing, the mainstream media is trying out some new nicknames for Shaun including “The Robot,” “The Animal” (You heard it here first!) and believe it or not, they seem to still be hanging onto the flying tomato. Brace yourself for it.
While the pipe was hurting, the GS racers (yes, snowboard racing) had it the worst of all. The plan of mowing down the boardercross course and setting up a racecourse in a day didn’t work. The sugary snow didn’t set up, so the hardbooters went home without a race and I’m pretty sure the riders were the ones who made the call to cancel the race, not the officials—an embarrassing situation for the race organizers.
Not to go into details on a situation that has been going on since snowboarding first slammed into the FIS, I’ll just note that the first stop in the long road to the Olympics are everything you could hope they wouldn’t be. I could go on, but I won’t …
Women’s Halfpipe Results
1. Kelly Clark (USA)
2. Jiayu Liu (CHN)
3. Hannah Teter (USA)
Men’s Halfpipe Results
1. Shaun White (USA)
2. Ryoh Aono (JPN)
3. Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI)
Women’s Snowboardcross Results
1. Lindsey Jacobellis (USA)
2. Olivia Nobs (SUI)
3. Helene Olafsen (NOR)
4. Maelle Ricker (CAN)
Men’s Snowboardcross Results
1. Markus Schairer (AUT)
2. Mike Robertson (CAN)
3. Seth Wescott (USA)
4. Francois Boivin (CAN)
»
February 16th, 2009 at 1:23 am
I always crash when I do cab 700s…
February 16th, 2009 at 2:42 am
i heard shaun almost broke his board practicing butters on the drop in and might have had to ride a new board. that would have been terrible for his standings.
hate hate hate.
February 16th, 2009 at 5:32 am
is ipod still on Santa Cruz???
February 16th, 2009 at 9:07 am
this is lame…
February 16th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Way to go Cypress, you are an embarrassment to the sport of snowboarding and all of Canada. Hopefully VANOC can pull their heads out of their asses and move this event to Whistler-Cypress had their chance and they blew it-BIG TIME!
February 16th, 2009 at 11:24 am
you should go on. that situation doesn’t make any sense. would ice hockey be regulated by figure skating?!!!?
February 16th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
ohh and it’s vancouver……. warm as fuck. that event will be a joke.
February 16th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
we went to watch it and maybe paparazzi a couple vid shots and we got kicked off the hill. apparently you needed VIP tickets to watch the event………..awesome
February 16th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Buncha’ whiny bitches…
February 16th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
whos the idiot who decided to have the olympics in Vancouver anyway. It rains there all winter…
February 16th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
where did that term come from? you sound like a dumbass when you use it.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Don’t know why anyone was suprised it was Cypress instead of the other two. Cypress is lame. Seymour and Grouse have more love in the community and for good reason. But there were no options in the vancouver area for the olympics - Grouse only has the tram to get to and from = logistic impossibility for Olympics and the ginormous load ins required. Seymour too old, no infrastructure. Had to be Cypress. If it were in Whistler, there would be no transport/beds for spectators and that’s where all the alpine had to be - they need more vert. A little more complex than who is cool and who is not. Unfortunately.
February 16th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
yaa mon, gots his own pro model now
February 16th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
actually it has nothing to do with beds/transport, it has to do with spectators, both superpipes on blackcomb offer very little coverage for fans and filming as trees are on both sides, and it makes it hard to actually get to the pipe. as you have to go up the mountain to actually get to either.
February 16th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
all the dudes that hate on pipe riding cant ride it?
i wonder why they hate it..
February 16th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
pipe is pretty dope. they get grarly as hell so why all the hate?
February 17th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Well written Sasha. I feel satisfied now I know the deal between the three local Van resorts.
Mandatory straight airs should not be a part of any snowboard competition. Why can’t a body of professional modern day and old school riders approach the FIS with their own Views and Ideas?
There needs to be a Snowboard Governing body within the FIS. something that is true to Snowboarding and makes those FIS nerds happy at the same time. Until something similar happens follow Terje, Boycott. Of course that will never happen cause all the riders are in it for the money now anyway.
We haven’t had a good dump out here in 3 weeks so you would think that the authorities would of planned ahead for the boarder cross????
F-u**ing I-gnorant S-kiers
February 17th, 2009 at 1:43 am
that’s because his board sucks balls. I’ve seen 5 shaun white pro models snap in half this season
February 17th, 2009 at 9:16 am
haha yea FIS is such a joke
hahahahahhahha
February 17th, 2009 at 11:09 am
cypress is the worst place to have it. the pipe is not on the fall line of the hill so u go bigger on one wall. one wall is bigger than the other it is ridiculously undervert and no sun ever hits the pipe
they should move it to whistle, grouse, or seymour all better that cypress
February 17th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I’d rather ride chairlift on whistler for 10 minutes than get routed around Cypress for a walk that should take 5 minutes. The geniuses at Cypress made the walking route 45 minutes to the pipe. Also Cypress has the shitty trees on the one side and the whole pipe slope is almost completely north facing which mean next february the pipe will have no sun making for a dark and dismal event. Cypress is more concerned with stealing some limelight than actually having a good event. VANOC is more about money and the olympics is now more a corporate event tan anything else.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
This whole thing is a joke, I don’t understand how skiers are still so involved, well I guess it doesn’t help to have our very own National Team coach being a skier. And why the hell do spectators have to pay? Is Canada so desperate to make a couple more coins??
February 17th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
WOW! What a disapointment.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Put a mandotary standard air ( less than 360° rotation) make people bitching, remove it and riders look like fuckin’ dancers or/and gymnast from top to bottom. Air to fakie, alley oop, switch air and handplant are fuckin’ rad. Don’t see why this bother you all. Unless spin to win is your motto you can’t seriously think it’s lame to have variation and style in a pipe run. progression is not only about spinning more if you happen to know what’s up.
This might as well help the kid to find a single trick they might be able to do if they want to try out their idols style.
As for the pipe, it seems like VANOC got some serious trouble, It just sucks that snowboarding will look silly in a year from now. Hopefully things will change.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
You can say and speculate all you want. The pipe is not that sweet. The skiers right deck has a huge bow in it, the left wall is higher than the other. The walls look super Icy, and who dyed this thing? It looks like a smurf. An olympic halfpipe should be superior to anything out there. This is not olympic standards at all. This is why halfpipes are loosing there flavor. Who wants to go huge in a Icy, shady, halfpipe? Not me!
February 17th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
nice honest article, looks like I am glad I stayed to home to go for a walk with my dog and ride pow in LA instead.
All runs should be exactly the same, whoever does the run most like everybody elses wins. Straight airs should be thrown out because you have to have style to make them rad
February 17th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
BRING BACK THE STRAIGHT AIR HELL YEAH THATS CONTROL!!!!!!!!
February 17th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Nope it had everything to do with bed and transport overload at whistler - as you can see from the view-ability at Cypress, that is not a big concern for organizers - if it was, they would have the pipe on the other face with the behind rider camera shot showing the water/city. And yes, it’s cypress who had spectators hike the ho chi minh trail to get to the pipe. I gotta say it’s hilarious when people complain about the olympics being corporate though - biggest sporting event in the world, no one wants the govt paying anything, how are they supposed to get paid for? a fking bake sale? name a big event that’s not corporate and if you say the x games I’ll barf. X games - better for snowboarding, but trust me, they’re corporate. There are so many great events that aren’t corporate yet, but NBC ain’t picking them up. Which is fine - why not have them all.
And YES - FIS should absolutely have a division for snowboarding like they do for Nordic. The comment about ISU governing hockey is right on - figure skating and hockey are both on ice, so why not? same logic.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
They had to keep the pipe in Vancouver, otherwise with one more event up north, Whistler would have become the hosting olympic city. i heard about some contingency plans to run the event in whis if the snow if lacking next year. Regarless, the cypress location is tragic.
The FIS is a Joke, ISF was the shit. Terje was right but also the only one who could afford it.
straight airs will always be the best moves.
batchelor rocked it solid, glad to see we have some canadians who can throw descent runs, brad martin is also solid. lamoureux (5th) got hooked up by the judges. 4′ straight air, swith 5 cab 9 and swith bs 7. highest air 4,5 ‘. got fifth? snowboad halfpipe is dead, the fis will kill it like they killed hot dog skiing.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Nope. for this season youri is riding with volcom boards.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:45 am
the olympics need some big air or slopestyle
February 18th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
like last year too at the x games. if there was a news station there they were probably like stop that we dont want to get sued because of you again you stupid ginger
February 18th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
why is everyone mad at shaun white? hes an asskicker props to him. but yes it would be nice to see another rider (preferebly kevin pearce) upset him and take his place. white’s a good rider dont hate him for that.
pipe is awesome. slopestyle is more fun to see though, more variety of tricks.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Get Frank and the SPT crew there. Frank Wells can cut a goddam pipe.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Hey Sasha- the only people paying for the Canadian damn Olympics are the Canadian tax payers-not bloody NBC. Montreal is still paying their Olympic Debt off from decades ago. I don’t see any corporate sponsors helping them with that. Let me guess a bake sale right! What about the stupid bobsled track in Whistler to the tune of $25 million- is NBC paying for that too or let me guess-Monster energy drink. So for us (the Canadian Taxpayers) to have a problem with how our money is being spent we can voice our opinions without having some self proclaimed expert pretending to know how it all works. I agree with “Vanoc Blows”. Obviously the more people that watch the events then the better it will be for the corporate sponsors but as far as halfpipe snowboarding goes for 2010- the corporate sponsors will be the only ones to benefit and snowboarding will look like a total joke. How does snowboarding stand to benefit from a sub par event in a warped, shady and under vert pipe that the whole world will see? Cypress and VANOC are 100% to blame. I hope the snowboarders boycott this event!!!!
February 18th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Even Frank Wells couldn’t fix this pile of crap. The location and the people running this location are the biggest problem. Cypress management should be ashamed of themselves.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
It’s all a conspiracy to eliminate snowboarding from the Olympics. Let it happen!! hahahaha!
February 20th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I agree that FIS could suck the life out of anything. I think the problem with halfpipes right now is that its not easy. It takes a great athlete, and a good rider or skier. You can’t Put on your tall tee and seven rags hanging off you and fake the pipe! We are getting into a bad trend for riding. I wish more skiers were like Bobby Brown, and more snowboarders were like Kevin Pearce. But Its going the other way. Its more of a fashion contest than pure riding. I lived in Alta for 5yrs and now reside at Breck, cutting and building the half pipes here. Things have changed alot in the last three years, I hope it’s a Phase. I need a job to support my baby girl!!!! Please keep riding the pipe. When lived in Alta is was all about Freedom, skiing every day and not who’s who, It worries me that this has gone!!!!!
February 27th, 2009 at 9:57 am
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March 2nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
well said, finally a good report on this stuff
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