Rob Stevens Posted February 16, 2006 Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 Close... it would be hard to say what the U.S. riders in this forum would have been happier to see... The plate rider win, or Seth W. Watched the races this morning at 7 am. No Canadians in the big final which is too bad. Jasey looked as though he was trying to avoid colliding with the rider who moved in front of him, but had less speed and becase of his "fending off" move, was disqualified. It creates an interesting situation. Unlike BMX or 4x MTB where a rider can brake in a straight line, in SBX you have 4 choices: 1. Do what Jasey did. 2. Just run into the rider with your hands down. 3. Throw it sideways, tangle with the other rider and both go down, or 4. Go over the berm. In snowboarding, you can't brake in a straight line. This creates an issue when your line gets scooped by someone going outside / inside / outside at a slower speed. When they get in front of you, you'll still be going faster and if you have no place to go, you're up against the above senario. Oh well... that's racing for ya. As for the pass at the end for the win by Westcott, it was brilliant. He was far more prescise when it came to keeping his board on the ground. His ability to "squash" the faces of jumps was unmatched by the plate rider who had speed in the corners, wether he was on the panel, or up the berm through the turn, but was unable to tame the rebound he was getting from his boot shells. The plate rider just couldn't be as supple as the soft booter on the jump faces and couldn't get the base back on the snow fast enough. Lesson: For SBX, plate riders should think about soft boot freeride angles, so the boot can "roll" in the binding, side to side, rather than take the hit toe to heel without much ability to flex the ankles to absorb the kick. Lates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tick Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 O.k., I'm not into competition much (my only competition on the mountain is myself), but I was absolutely amazed at how many hard booters were in Boarder Cross! Is this commonplace now? I can remember just a few years ago, there were no hardboot setups in the X games. The commentators did a fair job of talking about the differences between hard and soft setups. Way cool! Go hardbooters, whatever country you're from! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philfell Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Hardboots have been common place for many riders in FIS competitions since the beginning of SBX. It was the ISF hold out events that did their best to limit hardboots, by banning speed suits, and race boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quest4powder Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 1. Are speed suits banned in FIS events too? I know they might not look as cool to some riders as the 'baggy pajama' suits--but they undeniably would reduce wind resistance and might make the difference in a close heat, yes? 2. In Winter X, the heats had six riders, in the Olympics, four. Is a four man heat the FIS standard? Other than Winter X, do other events have six/other # of riders in a heat? Thanks. ________ Buy vaporgenie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Seth is a friend of mine from Sugarloaf. This is a huge day for Seth, CVA, Sugarloaf, and Maine!! It's CVA's and Sugarloaf's first Olympic gold, and Maine's first Winter Olympic gold!! Seth is a great guy, really gracious and down to earth. This couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I can't wait to congratulate him in person. I agree with the above comments about Seth's technique. He is ultra smooth and when riding with him it is obvious he is a professional and a natural. I'd put his freeriding skills and style up there with the late great Craig Kelly. As far as at least Maine is concerned, tonight Seth has achieved immortality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skategoat Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 CBC interviewed Jasey Jay after the race. Jasey said he was DQ'd for missing a gate, not for interference. He got up after the crash and continued on but the judges ruled that he did not make the gate. His response - "Oh well, that's bordercross." Drew Nielson had the same sort of response. Very cool about it even though in his case, the guy behind him clipped his tail and took him out hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumpyride Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Personal opinion. As I've commented before, I ride the bumps and the steeps. The only way that I've been able to do it, is to ride with my "Soft Raichle 123 Hardboots" in the walk mode. They're duct-taped in the walk position. That coupled with flex-bindings (Burton Carrier step-ins), allows me to flex and absorb bumps and landings. I can go from a carving stance to butt on the board as fast as needed. As I watched the Hardbooters, they all seemed way to ridgid. I'm in no way comparing myself to them, it's just an observation from someone who rides in as variable terrain as possible. As soon as I get too locked in to the boots, that is in the ride mode, everything is transmitted from the board to the knee, to the waist, to the back. I figured after I quit skiing that I wanted to make snow as fun as possible, and ended up in hardboots that had some attributes of hardboots, but still had almost as much freedom as softboots. Of course this doesn't hold true when strictly carving in Minnesota, but in Seattle, I don't want to do much except off-piste and bumps, and that would seem to be mimicing boardercross to some extent. I've also adusted stance width lately, spreading it out a bit, and that tends to add more control to variable conditions, especially going from Cascade Concrete to skied out bumps and going to hard-pack bumps. Anyway, just a thought. Try everything and don't be afraid to experiment. I'm having the best year hitting the bumps so far, because I've screwed up some settings on my boards, and got out there and boarded before I realized what had happened, and it has changed my style, and performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Jack, did you notice in the interview with Seth when they showed his Mom and Sister? His sister had a Sugarloaf flag she was waving. Enjoy the moment. Awesome race! What a blast to watch all the coverage they had today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NateW Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 SBX Heat 2: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/5111590/detail.html Seth cleans up: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/5113178/detail.html Helmetcam SBX, but with districting crappy video editing: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/5111590/detail.html Anyone know of sites with good olympic coverage other than NBC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Everyone at work this morning talking about how cool Snowboard X was on TV last night. Great to see such interest from the "masses". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayj Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Looked like the leader in the final race got too much air on that jump right before Seth took the lead. Isn't that the rule of downhill racing, always lift off before you hit the jump to minimize air time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pnut Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 it was great to see the coverage and the two styles of riding together. And yes they gave hardboots a fair descrption. Was glad to see Seth take it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Morales Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Anyone have a list of rules for boarder cross? As far as checking or a elbow in the mug. Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex1230 Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Front Page NY Times sports section has Wescott & Delarue - Who woulda thunk a hardbooter on the front of the NY Times? I'm not even sure Klug got that years ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 1. Are speed suits banned in FIS events too? I know they might not look as cool to some riders as the 'baggy pajama' suits--but they undeniably would reduce wind resistance and might make the difference in a close heat, yes? I don't know what the rules are, but it appears that speed suits are banned, because if not everyone would be wearing them. Seems like a hard rule to hold up, how long before someone protests because they think someone else's clothing was "too tight"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trailertrash Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 did anybody notice what the riders were using? i couldnt get enough of a look to recognize any of the boards or bindings. at the finish they didnt show the boards like the skiers do, probably to not show the labels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Seth is on Dynastar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrCR Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 One guy was riding a black topsheeted Colier. I noticed the circled logo between the bindings (i.e.) when he took the board off. Don't remember who it was. The Helmet/Boardcam footage they showed had a logo, but I couldn't quite make it out. What kind of boots were they all riding? I'm unfamiliar with any black ones, except those Japanese ones. Perhaps they were just dark blue Suzukas though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 One guy was riding a black topsheeted Colier. I noticed the circled logo between the bindings (i.e.) when he took the board off. Don't remember who it was. That would be Jasey-Jay Anderson. Lots of talk on here about him. Lots of other riders on F2 Gear (especially the Austrians). Seth Wescott was on a Dynastar snowboard. It was interesting how the IOC must prohibit logos on stuff. In earlier footage Seth had a big Dynastar logo on the top of his board. In comp, it wasn't there. Same with helmets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trailertrash Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 It was interesting how the IOC must prohibit logos on stuff. In earlier footage Seth had a big Dynastar logo on the top of his board. In comp, it wasn't there. Same with helmets. i think logos have to be on the official sponsor list to be shown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zcarver Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 That was a good race to get the gold! I like how Seth look back as he knew Zidek could over take with the alpine board. If Zidek had another 60 feet of flat, he might of. Congratulations to Seth Wescott! Some info here for those who are interested: Check out the photo gallery of the event. http://www.newsday.com/sports/olympics/ny-spocross0217,0,5899522.story?coll=ny-sports-olympics-headlines Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dudleydudley Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 I went home for lunch today because I sold one of my old boards with freestyle bindings on it and when he was checking out the one I was selling, he saw my Doneks on the wall in the other room and said, "Cool! Are you selling those?" Then he went and inspected the Incline (mounted with Catek SIs) and saw the Axis (mounted with TD2 SIs) and said, "This is really cool. These are snowboard cross boards, right?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 The fat chick in my office was talking about SBX today! We'd never discussed boarding before but I was able to communicate in 10 seconds the kind of board I ride. First time for that! This weekend we're all going to get lift line comments about "hey, that's one of those Snowboardcross boards isn't it?" Fin better get back to the shop from SES soon because this is the only place around where people can actually buy stuff. That TV coverage will likely do more for getting new people into our sport than all our efforts combined. I'd have rooted for the hardbooter to win if he hadn't been racing against Seth. Did you see the interview with him? I love when nice guys finish first and make us look good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philfell Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/icr2004.pdf Here is a link to the FIS rule book SBX rules are section 2700. There is no rule about athletes attire, other than helmets being mandatiory and it talks about rule pertaining to contact. USASA and the old ISF has stupid rules about clothing and tail specs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Morales Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 I was screaming late last night you know like people during the super bowl. When all the bars are packed and all you hear in the neighborhood are sreams.My wife even got fired up. Philfell Thanks for the rules everyones asking me like if I should know. Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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