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NEWS:
There were 20 men and 15 women in the preliminaries. Of those ten men and ten women would advance to the finals. It was obvious early on that in the men's division US Snowboard teamster Ross Powers and Rob Kingwill were both having good days.
The course consisted of a handrail at the top, a few spines, a couple table tops, one with a mail box that was a complete pain-in-the-ass to hit because it was in the slow, flat section the course, and at the bottom there were two large last chance hucks.
Surprisingly, in the men's division the top contenders weren't necessarily the hugest trick dogs. According to competitors it was because there were too many hang ups that could affect the run if you fell.
The air of the day was the 720's for men. No one seemed to make it to the finals without throwing in a few. The crowd pleasers were of course the backside rodeos, the switch backside fives and the variations on the mailbox and handrail.
Peter Line pulled a few of his mysto-what-the-hell-was-that tricks and following close behind with the tricky tricks was Chad Otterstrom, a Breckenridge local who you will be hearing about in the magazines next year. Skateboarders were able to pull some street style and did. Bryan Iguchi showed off the perfect textbook 50/50 grinds and Devun Walsh slid the handrail like a champ.
In the end Ross Powers took first with Kevin Jones and Rob Kingwill tying for second. Judges went back and looked at Kevin and Rob's throw away runs and ended up giving second to the Kev-dog because he had a higher throw away score.
"I already have one of those," said Kevin upon hearing he had second. "I wanted a different one to add to my collection."
Ross seemed as surprised as everyone else that he got the gold, but these days that shouldn't surprise any of us. Powers has been ruling it in halfpipe this season and says that this contest was just fun for him. "I felt no pressure, like I was riding a big park."
In the women's division Jennie Waara was strong from the prelims to the finals, although she must have felt some heat from Barrett Christy. Both seemed right at home with the course and consistently nailed hits on the entire run. Especially notable was their high flying threes and fives off of the bottom two kickers. A lot of the female competitors were passing the first jump of the two and just going for the second.
Aurelie Sayres looked strong as well, but couldn't quite take down Barrett or Jennie. Perhaps it was all of the switch and spins that Jennie was pulling or the incredibly solid height and confident line that Barrett seemed to be picking all day.
Nicola Thost was looking good for much of the day, but then in one pf her runs in the finals she pulled a huge 360 to her back and rode away in pain. She decided not to continue with the competition leaving space for other competitors like Katrina Warnick to place a little higher up in the slopestyle. Katrina was riding super strong and pulled an amazing 540 on her final run at the bottom. Unfortunately she lay her hand down ever so slightly, but it was still impressive.
Overall the second day of the X Games seemed good. Riders appeared to be pleased with the event, in spite of the fact that many were mourning J.P. Walker's absence. Now, if only the next few days could run like today. Let the Games continue.
OTHER NEWS What's Extreme Anyway? Thu. (Jan. 15 @ 10:22:AM est)
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