R E T N WI S E M A XG 1 1 0 . L VO THE CHANGING FACE OF SNOWBOARDING CONTESTS Aspen: home to billionaires and private jets, posh women and poodles and, of course, the Winter X Games. The X Games are more than a mere contest. They are an institution in the world of action sports. From their early years in the mid-nineties, when they showcased sports as random as bungee jumping and in-line skating, to the mega event we know today, the X Games are where athletes go to make their name. We’re talking names that are now as familiar as Tony Hawk, Shaun White and Travis Pastrana. As far as snowboarding is concerned, the Winter X Games has long been the most prestigious arena in which to compete. Only the very top pros in the world are invited while the rest of us sit back and watch the show. And what a show it is. The 2006 X Games were viewed by a whopping 38.6 million viewers. Broadcast live on ABC Sports and ESPN, the contest and its players enter the homes of fans the world over. And with on-site spectator numbers at around 70,000 in 2006, Aspen is the place to be come January. As the eleventh Winter X Games approached, a change was in the air. Since its roots, snowboarding has been devoid of the usual accoutrements of a professional sport. The majority of riders who compete in slopestyle
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would turn up fresh from a couple of months of filming in the back country, without much thought of actually practising for the contest. They would pull off the best tricks they knew they could safely land and leave for another few months of filming. It’s not that training wasn’t cool; it simply wasn’t necessary in an industry where your video part primarily defined who you were as a rider. But in 2007 the tide turned. As early as two months before, top filming riders were seen hitting the parks hard, trying brand-new tricks and honing their winning runs for the X Games finals. Andreas Wiig was dialing 1260s, and Jussi Oksanen admitted to training for the contest for the first time ever. Newcomers such as Danny Davis were practising every trick in the book, and just a few weeks before at the Honda Vail Sessions, the podium was dominated by riders such as David Benedek, who laid down out-of-control tricks such as frontside double corked 1260s. All of a sudden, riders decided they wanted a piece of the Shaun White pie and upped the ante to the point of pushing him right off the podium for the first time in years. Do this at the X Games and you are suddenly playing your game at an entirely different level. And that is exactly what happened this year. Andreas Wiig stormed the slopestyle gold with a pair of cab 900s, mute grab 7, backside rodeo 9 and a frontside 1080 indy, while Jussi Oksanen laid down a run full of nines bursting with technical perfection for silver, edging Shaun White into third place. The half pipe was a similar story, with Steve Fischer taking gold busting airs off the richter, while Shaun followed closely behind in second place. The X Games don’t offer the best prize money – far from it. But they do offer a portal into the world of mass media and recognition and, for many, it seems that survival in the world of professional snowboarding is becoming increasingly dependent on just that. Good for the sport? Bad for the sport? Who knows for sure, but for us mere mortals, it does mean an insane level of snowboarding that is increasing at a rate we never thought possible, even a year ago. I, for one, am enjoying the show. Zoe Oksanen