NEWS: BIG AIR: Tina Basich Lands Gold by Shanti Sosienski It's not uncommon for big air to be the final competition in an event, and the X Games was no exception to the rule. On Sunday afternoon after everything else was finished the masses that had gathered at Crested Butte for the last day of the games were herded to the big air jump on the far left of the X playground. Big air is undoubtedly one of the more dangerous contests that snowboarders do, and so snowboarders are usually required to have a pretty extensive resume before they can enter. Sunday's huckfest was filled with some of the biggest names in snowboarding. Peter Line, the Leines brothers, Tina Basich, Kevin Jones, Jason Borgstede, Barrett Christy, and more. In the women's division it was Tina Basich's day from her first jump. After recently winning another contest with a backside 720, Tina decided that this would be her air of choice for this competition as well. The first seven she pulled she landed a bit in the backseat, but was otherwise totally smooth. A lot of the girls seemed to be having some difficulty in their landings, especially after April Lawyer hucked a 360 and landed on her back. April was knocked out and carried away on a stretcher. Hillary Maybery, Lizzy Walker, and Jessica Delpiaz all seemed to be getting some height, but no one was stomping their landings. Perhaps it was because the landing was too soft. A lot of the riders felt that the inconsistency in snow from top to bottom was sketchy, and chose to play it safe. Katrina Warnick opted to just perform floaty, big straight airs, and that was all she needed to get herself in a fourth place spot. Tara Zwink was busting out with some solid spins, but seemed to be a little wary of the landing. Barrett Christy had a nice backside 360 with a grab for one of her jumps, but nothing seemed to stand out next to Tina's spin. "This is the second time I have ever tried pulling a seven," said Tina. "It's so fun. I like jumps like this cause you have time to think. Also because the weather is better and I can see, it makes it all a lot different." Basich said she came into this competition rested because after Thursday's slopestyle she was pretty beat up and didn't ride again until the big air on Sunday. OTHER NEWS HALFPIPE: Powers Slides Away With Cash And Car Tue. (Jan. 20 @ 3:21:AM est) BIG AIR: April Lawyer Injured Tue. (Jan. 20 @ 2:19:AM est) HALFPIPE: Burnside Is Back And Better Than Ever Mon. (Jan. 19 @ 10:29:PM est) BX: Dixon Takes Women's Boarder X Sun. (Jan. 18 @ 2:33:PM est) BX: Palm Takes Boarder X Again Sat. (Jan. 17 @ 10:39:AM est) THE X FILES--Special ESPN Edition of the Snowblower. Fri. (Jan. 16 @ 5:15:PM est) SLOPESTYLE: Powers And Waara Mine Gold Fri. (Jan. 16 @ 5:13:PM est) What's Happening? Thu. (Jan. 15 @ 10:24:AM est) What's Extreme Anyway? Thu. (Jan. 15 @ 10:22:AM est) WINTER X MESSAGE BOARDS: Your area to say anything you want about the Winter X Games. '97 WINTER X GAMES: Remember the '97 Winter X Games? Here's last year's coverage in case you don't. SOL NAVIGATION: SOL | Scoop | Hardware | Industry | Circleplus | Push | Travel | Interact | School | Weather | Terrain | Compete | Mediator © 1997, InterZine Productions. All rights reserved.