Shaun White scored a perfect 100 points on his final superpipe run during Winter X Games 2012 at Buttermilk Mountain on January 29, 2012 in Aspen, Colorado. And won his fifth consecutive gold medal in the event. Which never happened before. Not the 5th gold medal, I’m not sure about that. But never had and athlete scored a perfect 100 points in X Games.
Which made some grumpy Internet users and trolls come out with the idea that he ruined the sport. That there is nowhere else to go, nothing to improve. Or to blame the judges that yada, yada…
Which is of course bullshit. You could win a snowboard big air with a nice 360 melon grab back in the days. And you were number one. Today you can’t. Today you have to do something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y43FolFlY78
And in a few years you’ll have to do something completely different. Before I extend this rant of mine I think I should mention 2nd and 3rd place:
2. Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland
3. Ryo Aono of Japan
Oh…and one more photo of Shaun White…
(Photos by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images North America)
…and of his tight white animal printed pants. WTF is up with that :)? And a leather jacket like looking jacket. Shaun White has some weird styles and together with his hair I almost thought I was looking at young Axl Rose bombing down the pipe. If you are the best snowboarder in the world, you probably don’t give a f..k. But I sure hope that his style doesn’t catch on. Yuck.
And when it comes to style there is something else that’s bothering me… I really thing the the progress of snowboarding is ruining it’s style. No matter how good you are and how much style you have… to me today top pushing the envelope snowboard tricks look ugly. Even when Shaun White makes them. I am not saying today top snowboarders lack style…hell no. But even the most stylish snowboarder performing a double something… they look more and more like they are performing some gymnastic elements and less and less like they are snowboarding. And snowboarding is not gymnastics. At least it shouldn’t be. This is why I call all the rotations above 720 – FUGLY.