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OK, So How About Red(mond) Gerard and his Gold!


boarderboy

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Yea I thought Parrot’s run was the best. And not a fan of the format in the finals, honestly three runs is too much and then selecting the highest obtained score and not an average is kinda meh. So the rider that performs three exeptional runs can still lose out to the guy that wipes out twice bit luckily nails the last run with some dumb luck.

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I missed men's slopestyle, but watched women's slopestyle, and I strongly felt that when the athletes used sideways skidding to control their speed in the rail portion of the course, it really detracted from the event. Am I just too carve-centric? I would have guessed that you would lose style points for throwing an ugly skid before jumping onto a rail. Why not a series of carved turns...? Just sayin'

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1 hour ago, Dan said:

Am I just too carve-centric?

Yes.  There is not enough space there to control the speed with a carved turn, and I don't believe they could get the speed as finely tuned as they need and get squared up with the feature using a carved turn.  When it is possible to carve, they do so.  There was that one feature with 2 quarter pipes at right angles and a rail on top.  Red transferred from one quarter to the next over the rail, then made a carved turn at the bottom to get to the next rail.  Super-cool, a very skate-park sort of line. See at around 3:08 here.

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Keep in mind this, though; Redmond trained for a good four seasons by using a snow-blower to create his own 'backyard' course, from the house roof on one season! I think that's why he had the 'unique' line, he 'played' with variations a-lot! His big airs were graceful, but not 'flawless', though his choice-of-line made up for the 'generic' 4+3 spin/twists (which are hard enough!). I only saw a lack of amplitude, and slight scuff on landing the bigger jumps. I'm not sure he Won outright, but, the last run was 'sweet'!

 

Edited by Eric Brammer aka PSR
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The kid's got some talent and a long career ahead of him. Loved the transfers he did be over the rail. 

Just watched Shaun White win gold in half-pipe a few minutes ago. At 31, White has got the world at his feet. And at 17, Gerard has a great start with that gold medal around his neck. 

Mark

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  • 2 weeks later...

Every 'Big Air' rider I saw was ill equipped with really way-too-soft boards. Not for the Launch, but, the Landings! Again, and again, I saw riders 'touch down', yet watched the boards just 'Fold up' upon impact. BTW, I liked Red's narrower stance (22" or so), in that he could tuck the nose in nicely, and the opposite 'bone-out' didn't cause a multi-axis rotational issue; ie, he was centered upon his 'gimbal-point' better than if he had needed to 'reach-out' for a board-end grab. But his amplitude was too little, and his rotations rushed, a sign that the Olympics Park is bigger than he trains on (or set up too steeply in Vert down+up). Everyone (except the guy who nabbed Gold) seemed to be skidding hard on landing, with their boards bending way-too-far. 

Edited by Eric Brammer aka PSR
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