Another Winter Olympics thread . . .
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Another Winter Olympics thread . . .
. . . but this one actually has something to do with mountain biking.
I've been particularly enjoying the whole snowboarding scene of these Olympics. It was especially driven home last night watching the men's half-pipe competition.
I guess one reason I like it so much is that they speak the same language: talk of dropping in, commitment (commiting to a stunt or trick), progression - - all stuff I can relate to and parallel to some of my own experieces on a bike. It's just been cool to see another sport and in some small way 'get it' because they share a common language and motivation.
I've been particularly enjoying the whole snowboarding scene of these Olympics. It was especially driven home last night watching the men's half-pipe competition.
I guess one reason I like it so much is that they speak the same language: talk of dropping in, commitment (commiting to a stunt or trick), progression - - all stuff I can relate to and parallel to some of my own experieces on a bike. It's just been cool to see another sport and in some small way 'get it' because they share a common language and motivation.
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Yeah man...I was glued. Pretty-much mirrored last Olympic's run b/c Shaun won with his first run. Last Olympic's victory run was just some straight up Method Air / Indy Air stuff with no rotations. This year, he threw down the "crowd pleaser" with the double Mc at the end at an impossible speed...though he still did it.
So now my question is...why the crap don't they have skateboarding in the summer Olympics? They need to throw in some street trials and bike "park" disciplines and just about every TV in America would be suckin' the life out of the cable company. Shaun White has become so incredibly popular to even the Yuppie crowd that can't even relate to this group of people. People in vert / park sk8 / bike could win the support of many just the same.
And don't get me started on the necessity for 4-cross, Super-D, and DH racing in the summer Olympics. It will get there...snowboarding will make sure of it. It will just take some time.
Seriously man???@!@!@ Why the frick would somebody watch flamboyant Fred doing dippy twirls when he can watch Devastating D-Minor ripping the mountain and new black hole??!!
To be fair to the Japanese guy who doesn't know how to wear a suit:
That single McTwist by the Japanese guy was more pleasing to my eye than Shauns double Mc. It was really nicely inverted, slow enough to show some nice control, and landed well...at least once.
I'm sure Shauns double Mc looks nice when he's going fast enough not to squeak the last 180 out at the last nanosecond, but once you throw in a bunch of flips and turns...it just starts to look like a bunch of flips and turns.
I think this is why I really like the looks of a straight up 360 on a MTB versus all this backflip double tailwhip crap. Once you whip it once...adding more whips just starts to look kinda desperate. Though the inverted 3 looks pretty dang sweet...all "nose-down" and stuff.
Like...Andreu Lacondeguy and Travis Pastrana roll out a nice double backflips...it's an impressive feat, but it brings me back to the days of the Dogtown boyz doing street skating competitions and doing triple kickflips. It's like they ran out of ideas, so they just add flips. Then Rodney Mullen came along and started incorporating his silly-but-difficult freestyle skinny-board skating into "street skating"...he whips out stuff like the dark slide and the 360-flip which gave birth to the coolest looking flip trick ever (if it's done inverted)...the hardflip. It's only one flip and one rotation...but the way it's done just makes it so RAWK!
So now my question is...why the crap don't they have skateboarding in the summer Olympics? They need to throw in some street trials and bike "park" disciplines and just about every TV in America would be suckin' the life out of the cable company. Shaun White has become so incredibly popular to even the Yuppie crowd that can't even relate to this group of people. People in vert / park sk8 / bike could win the support of many just the same.
And don't get me started on the necessity for 4-cross, Super-D, and DH racing in the summer Olympics. It will get there...snowboarding will make sure of it. It will just take some time.
Seriously man???@!@!@ Why the frick would somebody watch flamboyant Fred doing dippy twirls when he can watch Devastating D-Minor ripping the mountain and new black hole??!!
To be fair to the Japanese guy who doesn't know how to wear a suit:
That single McTwist by the Japanese guy was more pleasing to my eye than Shauns double Mc. It was really nicely inverted, slow enough to show some nice control, and landed well...at least once.
I'm sure Shauns double Mc looks nice when he's going fast enough not to squeak the last 180 out at the last nanosecond, but once you throw in a bunch of flips and turns...it just starts to look like a bunch of flips and turns.
I think this is why I really like the looks of a straight up 360 on a MTB versus all this backflip double tailwhip crap. Once you whip it once...adding more whips just starts to look kinda desperate. Though the inverted 3 looks pretty dang sweet...all "nose-down" and stuff.
Like...Andreu Lacondeguy and Travis Pastrana roll out a nice double backflips...it's an impressive feat, but it brings me back to the days of the Dogtown boyz doing street skating competitions and doing triple kickflips. It's like they ran out of ideas, so they just add flips. Then Rodney Mullen came along and started incorporating his silly-but-difficult freestyle skinny-board skating into "street skating"...he whips out stuff like the dark slide and the 360-flip which gave birth to the coolest looking flip trick ever (if it's done inverted)...the hardflip. It's only one flip and one rotation...but the way it's done just makes it so RAWK!
Last edited by ed; 02-18-10 at 11:25 AM.
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Snowboarding culture is pretty similar to mountain biking, in my experience. The sports seems to attract similar types of people and the atmosphere has more in common than it does with many other sports. I'm sure that helps too.
I've wondered why some sports that seem like no-brainers aren't included in the Olympics. The main argument I usually hear is it's too much of a niche sport and not popular enough around the world. Uh...because trampolining and curling are really popular sports, I guess. I think that snowboarding (as of '98) and BMX racing (as of '08) were steps in the right direction, and we'll someday see some form of mountain biking other than XC in the Olympics (my bet would be on DH).
There has been talk for a while about including skateboarding in the Olympics. One of the main obstacles they had was there's no single governing body for skateboarding like there is for other sports (e.g. UCI for cycling, IAAF for T&F, ITU for tri, and everyone's favorite, WTF for taekwondo). There's also plenty of skaters resisting the movement. If you remember, back in '98, a lot of snowboarders weren't happy about the inclusion of the sport in the Games, as they saw it as selling out, and for a while, it was less popular than comps like Winter X and Vans Triple Crown.
I've wondered why some sports that seem like no-brainers aren't included in the Olympics. The main argument I usually hear is it's too much of a niche sport and not popular enough around the world. Uh...because trampolining and curling are really popular sports, I guess. I think that snowboarding (as of '98) and BMX racing (as of '08) were steps in the right direction, and we'll someday see some form of mountain biking other than XC in the Olympics (my bet would be on DH).
There has been talk for a while about including skateboarding in the Olympics. One of the main obstacles they had was there's no single governing body for skateboarding like there is for other sports (e.g. UCI for cycling, IAAF for T&F, ITU for tri, and everyone's favorite, WTF for taekwondo). There's also plenty of skaters resisting the movement. If you remember, back in '98, a lot of snowboarders weren't happy about the inclusion of the sport in the Games, as they saw it as selling out, and for a while, it was less popular than comps like Winter X and Vans Triple Crown.
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I agree. But the chances of a sport that IOC hasn't already decided on getting included in 2012 is practically zilch. Hope for '16 or '20.
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One more reason for the gravity disciplines to divorce themselves from USA Cycling and align with the ABA.
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For what it's worth, UCI recognizes DH and 4X (and trials too actually). For the Olympics, USA Cycling or ABA won't matter so much since they need an international committee. They would just help to elect who would go to represent the States.
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can you ride a studded MTB down a half pipe?
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Tribute band came and played a concert in Spokane last year - - as if it wasn't all insipid enough the first time around .
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I'm still waiting for the Canadian team to pwn the odium.
Other than the part where we take it away and put it in storage after folks from other countries are done standing on it.
Other than the part where we take it away and put it in storage after folks from other countries are done standing on it.
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You haven't been paying attention. More later.
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