2008 Woodie Awards
Life with Jordy
Contestants must go big or go home at Winter X Games
Jordan Chittley
Issue date: 2/8/05 Section: Sports
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Go big. That was the name of the game last week in Aspen as contestants at Winter X Games nine soared out of the Super Pipe, performed sick moves on the big air jumps, and shot down the race courses. But why do people, especially students our age, flock to such events to watch these insane tricks?
Just for that reason alone. They are insane, but make it look so easy.
"It's the coolest thing ever," said Serge Wenzel, a freshman who drove to Aspen to take in some of the weekend events. "I've been watching it on TV with my brother since it started and we both finally have time to go up."
"Its an amazing thing to watch," said Wenzel. "Even my mom went and she found it incredible, none of her friends had even heard of it."
With contestants having an average age in the early 20s, I can see why this event is attracting so many young people.
The contestants are young, some as young as 17 and do impossible tricks that just seem to keep getting better.
In 1992, Canadian Jean-Luc Bassard won the moguls competition at the Olympics in Albertville, France, with a iron-cross back-scratcher into a kosak off one of the airs. It was a never before seen jump, one that caused my jaw to drop. At that time it was amazing. So I set out to duplicate that jump. Done.
But you will never see a jump like that by amateurs in a terrain park today.
Competitors at the X Games are pulling corked 1080s (that is three full rotations done off axis) and laying out iron-cross backflips with some sort of rotation. Now these are not your average mogul jumps from over a decade ago, these jumps are getting bigger and consequently so are the tricks. Each year the people go and are amazed with what new tricks have been invented.
"I'm surprised they could do a backflip with a 540," said Wenzel. "That was sick."
And if the new and improved tricks aren't enough, you have the added bonus of trying to duplicate the tricks and keep up with some of the skiing greats such as Tanner Hall or Simon Dumont.
Just for that reason alone. They are insane, but make it look so easy.
"It's the coolest thing ever," said Serge Wenzel, a freshman who drove to Aspen to take in some of the weekend events. "I've been watching it on TV with my brother since it started and we both finally have time to go up."
"Its an amazing thing to watch," said Wenzel. "Even my mom went and she found it incredible, none of her friends had even heard of it."
With contestants having an average age in the early 20s, I can see why this event is attracting so many young people.
The contestants are young, some as young as 17 and do impossible tricks that just seem to keep getting better.
In 1992, Canadian Jean-Luc Bassard won the moguls competition at the Olympics in Albertville, France, with a iron-cross back-scratcher into a kosak off one of the airs. It was a never before seen jump, one that caused my jaw to drop. At that time it was amazing. So I set out to duplicate that jump. Done.
But you will never see a jump like that by amateurs in a terrain park today.
Competitors at the X Games are pulling corked 1080s (that is three full rotations done off axis) and laying out iron-cross backflips with some sort of rotation. Now these are not your average mogul jumps from over a decade ago, these jumps are getting bigger and consequently so are the tricks. Each year the people go and are amazed with what new tricks have been invented.
"I'm surprised they could do a backflip with a 540," said Wenzel. "That was sick."
And if the new and improved tricks aren't enough, you have the added bonus of trying to duplicate the tricks and keep up with some of the skiing greats such as Tanner Hall or Simon Dumont.