Beware: Watching men's SuperPipe finals may make you dizzy.
The old snowboarding cliché, "spin to win," has officially become an understatement. As of Monday's men's SuperPipe final, you've got to multiply that spin times eight, because the back-to-back 1080 is the combination of the moment.
And we have a hunch that 1200s are right around the corner.
The back-to-back 1080 was in fact the winning combo Monday for Shaun White, who had to sweat out his lead through three nail-biting rounds. Even in this best-run-out-of-three format, there was no room for error—a hand drag, skid, butt check or slightest bobble was enough to knock a rider out of contention. And it wasn't just about spinning. It was about spinning big, grabbing tail and holding on for a clean landing. Corkscrews and inverts were all fine and good, but the X Games judges showed in Sunday's first round that they preferred back-to-back combos no lower than midway down the pipe.
10 X medals is quite enough. Mind your manners, share, and stop these shenanigans right there, tomate volando.
Considering the mind-blowing level of riding displayed by all 10 riders, Monday's final was one of the most competitive 10-man fields in a decade of Winter X.
Just ask defending champion Antti Autti, who threw one of the biggest 1080s of the night early on in what looked like a medal-worthy first run. But the Fin dragged his hand mid-pipe, losing his speed and his mojo and he was never able to make up for the mistake. A visibly frustrated Autti ended up in sixth.
In the end it was an 18-and-under show, with a teen-only podium that included X Games vet White (19), silver medalist Mason Aguirre (18) and bronze medalist Scotty Lago (18). With the win, White's sixth gold medal, he ties Shaun Palmer for the most gold medals in Winter X history.
It wasn't the first time the youth group has hung together at an event. White, Aguirre, Lago and 17-year-old Louis Vito (who ended up in 5th) have been pushing each other since they were seven-year old grommets on the USASA circuit.
"It's so funny because all those guys were with me from the beginning," White said. "We all competed against each other when we were super young. I took the early route and started doing all the contests and getting in the scene and then those guys started popping up out of nowhere and I was like, 'I know you guys, where have you been?' It's just awesome to see these guys up here now. It's so cool. I'm like, 'Man, I've got friends now!'"
The win was special for White, who won the event previously in 2004 but was shut out of the podium last year.
"I've been working so hard since I hurt my knee [in 2004,] he said. "Last year Antti Autti beat me, so I was totally bent on winning this thing. I was like, 'I want double gold again like when I was 16.' and tonight was the night."
Can you imagine doing a cork 1080 a hundred feet out of the pipe? Neither can Lago, so he subtracted 81 feet and decided that was the next best thing.
White's winning run started with a 20-foot-plus backside air into back-to-back 900s and then his version of the combo of the moment: a frontside 1080 into a cab 1080. He finished things off with a straight air and another backside 1080. With a grand total of 5,040 degrees of rotation in the run, it's amazing the kid can walk a straight line.
Aguirre's turn as the newest best thing was the biggest surprise of the night. The Minnesota native moved to Mammoth Lakes, Calif. midway through eighth grade to focus on snowboarding. Lago, his best friend and roommate, moved in with him and the two have logged serious hours in the pipe honing their runs and trying out explosive new tricks. But it wasn't until this year that the duo was able to polish up their riding enough to make it X Games podium-worthy.
Aguirre, who'll be heading to Torino as part of the US Snowboarding Team, put everything together on his first run. He nailed back-to-back 1080s and rode big and clean, something he'll need to do in Italy if he wants to revisit the podium in the Olympics.
"I've worked hard but I've been in the shadows the last couple years," he says. "I needed to step it up. I was looking at the X Games as a warm up for Torino because I had two really big threats with Antti and Risto. It was good to get a feel for how they were riding and how that was going to play out."
Lago, Aguirre's roommate and best friend, was happy just to be along for the ride. "It's by far the best run I've ever done," Aguirre, the Minnesota native, said of his third-place finish. "I knew medaling was possible if I landed my run, but I just can't believe it really. I think I'm still in shock."
That Antti Autti would flow over backwards to get himself on the jumbotron.
NOTES and QUOTES
A giant bunny was kicked out of the front row for blocking the White family's view.
Mike "Goldy" Goldschmidt isn't afraid of a little bling-bling, sporting Smith's new rhinestone-studded goggles.
"Shaun White? Who's that? I've never heard of him." At 18, Scotty Lago already knows how to handle the press.
Judging by the reaction of the crowd, the judges underscored Aguirre's first run. Everyone booed the 88.6 score after the 18-year-old stomped big back-to-back 10s in the midst of a super-charged, clean, technical run.
Cheering on the tribe: a Goldschmidt fan held a "Shalom Bitches" sign for the Jewish rider, adding, "Louis Vito is Italian. I guess that's close enough."
The higher you go, the farther you fall: JJ Thomas got hung up on the coping on his heelside edge during his first run and was spitting blood after biting his tongue.
Shaun White's sister, Carrie, cheered for her little bro from the bottom of the pipe. The 21-year-old is a blonde-haired blue-eyed version of her brother.
Designer duds: Louis Vito sported a Louis Vuitton tie in lieu of a belt. Has he been in Aspen for too long?
"Guess what!? I learned backside 12's tonight," Shaun White was overheard telling his mom. Could it be true? Guess we'll have to wait for Torino.
Andy Finch's ankle can't be hurting too bad. The US Olympic team rider stood at the bottom of the pipe for the entire duration of the two-hour contest. Finch says an X-ray earlier in the week gave him a scare, showing what the docs thought were bone breaks, but a follow-up MRI turned up negative. "It's all good," he says. Next stop: Torino.
