Sunday, February 24

The World Snowboarding Championships 2002

By Dave Finger
EXPN.com

Full Results

This past weekend the World Snowboarding Championship took place for the first time in it's new location - that sunny, flashy, fur and jewel laiden neo-village that we know as Vail, Colorado. But the event itself couldn't have been more different than the town it was held in. It seems that with the Olympics just ending competitive halfpipe snowboarding is in the limest of lights, but the vibe of this event couldn't have been further from the recent hype. Even though the sponsors were big and the terrain was legit the competitive field was more like a group of friends sessioning on any other day than any other sport with the words "world championship" attached to it. And the chill vibe certainly wasn't because the stakes weren't high, $20,000 cash prizes were awarded for men's first in pipe, big air and slopestyle - $225,000 in all. Yes sir that's right, cash money.

So the first event to go saw a well groomed and well dyed pipe take on the skill sets of the world's finest riders, minus the US Olympic team (they had to stay in Salt Lake for more drug testing and suspicious looks from the IOC). The jam format let the riders session in whatever order they felt was right with little pressure from the judges to perform in any particular run. The women's field was tight but Nicola Thost was truly the dominating female with solid as hell big-ass airs and a powerful style that boosted above the heads of all watching and impressed the judges enough to award her the first.

Andy Finch was leading the pack with big inverted airs until the comp stepped it up and bumped him to third.

"I hadn't ridden such a good pipe in a long time. The last time I've ridden and had so much fun in a competition was two years ago, I've been hurt though. But it was the best ever." - Nicola Thost

"As far as competitions go this is a good one because it's just so laid back. It's just like coming up to ride with your friends. You can pretend you're not even being judged." - Barrett Christy

The men saw a juggling of first place during their all out dude tube ripathon. Andy Finch was looking like he had it with a stomping of the elusive crippler 1080 but the vibe was too much and Shaun White stepped it up with an ill run including a mega stylee alley oop backside rodeo 720 and an oh so clean frontside nine. But not to be denied the crazy Canadian Mike Michalchuck threw together a run that included a big and clean double michalchuck (double back 180) and then another one! Damn, eh. The judges recognized his illness and the fact that no one else can even do a double michalchuck by giving him the first place standing and that 20K case. What's next for Mike?

"I don't know, have to turn something into a triple now, maybe. We'll have to see." - Mike Michalchuck

"Of course. It's so much better than two runs (the jam format). Just cuz you get an hour to have fun, session, fall, whatever. It's Cool just to compete with your friends." - Shaun White

The Slopestyle course had it's fair share of rails, hips, rainbows and a super-booter at the bottom lending itself to crowd pleasing hucks from the field. The light was flat and the modus of the day seemed to be booter huck rather than tech rail dog. That lil' rascal Shaun White seemed to be too much for the comp, taking the men's heat with rodeo spins and front boards on the C-rail. Las chicas saw Hana Beaman flow like buttah and stomp her backside fives, going above and beyond the call of duty and landing her in first. Another chick who rips.

Shaun White frontside nosing the C-rail during his winning slopestyle run.

"I think it's the Best I've ridden in a contest all year. I haven't been landing my backside 5 lately but for some reason this past week I've been doing good." - Hana

Big money in snowboarding?

"I like it. I'm pretty into it you know. Getting money to have fun... It's a dream come true." - Hana Beaman

So right after slopestyle practice began on the extra special big scare nighttime kicker. Being able to see the action from the base lodge made this the most well attended of all the events with all the locals hooting and hollering while trying to keep their beers from freezing. All the lights and all the cheers brought the stoke to the field of riders but the competition was pretty much sealed after the first huck by young gun Josh Feliciano. His backside rodeo nine brought the noise and stood the nerves of all the boys up there waiting to drop. Other standouts of the night were Ben Hinkley's double front flip attempt, Travis Parker's all-white stormtrooper outfit and Jussi spinnin to win, even though he took third. The women saw lucky lady Hana Beaman take it again with big style and big backside rotations. What amazed the hell out of me however was 15 year old Torah Bright going as big as some of the men with her backside threes and stomping them down like a seasoned pro.

15 year old Torah Bright going as large as some menfolk on her way to second in Big Air at the WSC in Vail.

"I've never had a big air at night. That was probably the funnest thing, and the crowd was super big."

"Actually two weeks ago at the van's triple crown was the first time I landed it (the backside rodeo nine) and I won that competition. So I came to this one super pumped up to do that again and it's pretty amazing I beat all those other guys because I look up to all those guys. " - Josh Feliciano

The crowd was bigger than anything most of the locals had seen and the night ended with Ludacris taking the main stage and bumpin all them heads while the winners got loose and boogied it up with the rest of the celebrating masses. Beers, bumps and cashflow made everybody all warm and fuzzy, blurring big stories of the comp late into the night with nothing ahead of anybody but good times, a late morning and great memories of a fun event.

Related Photos:
World Championships Mens Pipe Photos
World Championships Women's Pipe Photos
World Championships Pipe Awards Photos
World Championships SlopeStyle Photos
World Championships Big Air Photos