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RSS/XMLThird Day At Telus - Superpipe finals
2009-04-25 04:06:06
Friday was my third day at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. I managed to convince my friends to lift my riding suspension so I would be able to snowboard. To sweeten the pot even more, Friday was the superpipe finals of the Grenade Games.
Wyatt Caldwell reping MTN OPS at the Grenade Games.
We woke up to bluebird skies and good riding temperatures on Friday. Kendra, Shay, and I were psyched about checking out the superpipe finals. Shay decided to head up a bit earlier than the rest of us to demo a few boards on Whistler mountain before the games started. Meanwhile, Mike, Kendra, and myself decided to get a few runs in before heading to the pipe.
On the way up, Kendra and I shared a chair with TJ Schneider who was on his way up to the contest. We got to talking about the Snowboard Realms and he was gracious enough to give us some stickers. He headed off to the halfpipe while Kendra and I decided to do some laps on Solar Coaster.
I was happy to find that my knee was feeling a lot less sore than it had on Wednesday. Part of the reason was that on Wednesday, I was wearing a tensor on my knee as a precaution. Something that I opted not to do on Friday. It turns out that the pressure of the tensor was what was causing most of my pain.
TJ Schneider! Pick a winner.
After a few runs, we headed over to the halfpipe to set up to take photos of the event. This being the Grenade Games, this was going to be a bit more than a simple pipe competition. Obstacles such as boxes and log jibs were set up along the edges of the halfpipe to add an element of difficulty and entertainment. There was also a grenade shaped pinata set up near the bottom which Bobby Meeks spent most of the even trying to hit. Unlike the Dual Slalom Moguls, however, there would be no snowball throwing yahoos at this event.
The contest got started around one o'clock. The competition was pretty free form and it was difficult to tell whether or not the competition had actually started. In fact there was a crew in the media area from Bite TV who were asking around to find out if the riders were actually being judged or if it was still the warm up. To me, it didn't really matter because whether they were warming up or putting down judged runs, the riders were sending it. TJ in particular was killing it which is impressive for a guy who hasn't competed in the halfpipe in two years or so. In the end, TJ Schneider came out on top and $5000 richer. Guillaume Morriset came in second, and Dustin Craven came in third. Dennis Bannock won the award for the best bail and Louie Vito won the award for the best trick.
I ended the day with a few more runs on the Jersey Cream chair on Blackcomb peak and got to work on my goggle tan. I also ended up taking 449 photos of the superpipe competition. A few of the good ones have been uploaded to my flickr photo album of the event. Tomorrow will be my last day of riding here in Whistler so I hope to make the best of it, possibly even demo a few of next year's boards. I also hope to check out the Big Air contest which will be taking place tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have more pictures to share with you all as well.
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