MOUNT SNOW, Vt.-- The men's Snowboarder X finals on Thursday proved to be an exciting race, even without its most notable stars. Neither Drew Neilson nor Shaun Palmer, both of which have combined to win the last four Winter X gold medals in this event, reached the finals. But their absence was hardly missed.

Scott Gaffney leads the pack to the finish line.

Scott Gaffney won gold, after placing second and third the last two years respectively, just edging out Mark Schulz.

"My run went pretty good. I got a good start out of the gate and I was able to hold down the lead the whole way down," said the 25-year-old from Alberta, Canada. "I had some guys close behind me there, but luckily I was able to hold them off."

Seth Wescott, who took bronze, was just happy to be participating. Wescott was in a car accident 12 days earlier and had been riding for only two days.

"I got the hole shot out of the start," said Wescott. "They didn't go a great job grooming the new snow so I actually hit some soft snow and I got set back a little bit. It was good all in all. I'm just psyched to be here, to be having fun and to be riding with everyone."

But not everyone was having as much fun as Wescott. Neilson and Palmer both crashed on their semifinal runs finishing last in their brackets.

"I landed on my Austrian friend (Gernot Raitmair), on his back. (I) came down, snapped my board and couldn't make it over the next jump," said Neilson. "We just went into it a little too fast. We were in the lead (and) wanted to go down first, obviously we just didn't slow down enough."

Palmer also was in the lead during his run, but went down and was soon passed by the other riders. Palmer did not race in the consolation round.

Besides battling each other, riders had to battle the elements for two days. Heavy rains on Wednesday made the course a little soft and snowfall on Thursday impaired visibility at times, but the riders were able to overcome Mother Nature.

"The weather conditions weren't too bad, they changed so much throughout," said Gaffney, "Yesterday it was raining and this morning it was snow and right now it's kind of partly cloudy. It would have been nice to have something consistent, but we dealt with it and it went alright."

The course itself was also a concern for some of the athletes.

"It was pretty good, there wasn't much very technical about it. They could of used some turns sections or utilized the flat sections better with more varied terrain," said Wescott. "But they did a pretty good job. Last year and this year have been the best two courses I've been in the finals for four years running now and they are getting better at it all the time."

Neilson wasn't quite as forgiving.

"I think it was really boring, unfortunately. I hate to say it. I'm a really bad critic, but I'm really disappointed again with the course this year. I hope that once we have a new mountain that they will have a better run for us to do this event on."

Until next year.

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