Related Photos: Men's Snowboard Pipe Gallery

The crazy thing about this event is that Aspen Mountain didn't even allow snowboarding until last April, and today the town blew up with the energy and vibe of a real snowboard halfpipe event. I mean here you are in Aspen and there's this big monster of a SuperPipe (380 feet long with 17 foot transitions) smack dab at the base of Buttermilk Mountain. Then you have all these Aspen people in their cowboy hats, super tech mountaineering gear, expensive sunglasses and too-white teeth, mixed with all the personalities of the shred industry gathered at the bottom for one purpose - to watch the best pipe riders in the world battle it out for a chance at that Winter X podium.

And to tell you the truth, it was funny and cool and exciting all at the same time to see these Aspen guys in their late 30's and early 40's throwing the horns and screaming support for the U-Jump blasters.

J.J. Thomas and a mighty McTwist.

I mean many in the crowd might not have known really how hard it is to even ride this type of snow obstacle well. Or for that matter, how fantastic it was to see Terje back in the mix with the new stock of rulers. Or how crazy high Shaun White was throwing his alley-oop McTwists. Or that Keir Dillon rocks mad bass in his ears when he throws back-to-back inverted 720's. Or that J.J. Thomas is sitting on the fence for the US Olympic team, even though he took gold.

But one thing is for sure, despite who knew what about the nuances of the riders and the skills they displayed - everybody was riding tight, like that underwear you had in fourth grade.

Keir rode super well and threw together some big and solid lines that included back to back off axis 7's and a big and bad McTwist. Personally, I thought it was a toss up for bronze between him and long timer Daniel Franck. I mean not a lot of guys are doing lines like backside alley-oop to McTwist to frontside lein 720 to inverted 1080 to air to fakie to Haakon Flip. And all of them were clean. Maybe Salt Lake will have a different outcome for the Norwegian snow sledder.

Shaun White pulling in a lien high overhead.

Future Boy Shaun White was proudly rockin his PS2 stickers on the helmet while going bigger than I think I've ever seen him, or almost anyone go, and all with mucho styleo. When I caught up with him after taking the silver he basically broke it all down for me, as far as Winter X is concerned.

"Yeah, I'm pretty stoked you know. Hopefully everybody agrees, it felt good, whatever. Gotta' come back next year and win this piece."

And when I prompted him about his skateboarding skills and maybe going to Summer X...

"Um, yeah for sure, I'm going to try to find Tony and those guys and go ride."

Daniel Franck riding well with a McTwist of his own.

J.J. was really stoked after realizing that his first run (where he almost broke an ear drum on his McTwist, air to fakie and then switch McTwist) got him the gold against all these other badasses.

"Yeah, I'm stoked. I had so much fun today. I liked that first run I did, it was fun. The rest was kind of wild. It's one of the best pipes I've ever ridden, Frank Wells is like the master of making pipes good and this one was perfect."

Shaun White, J.J. Thomas and Keir Dillon. Looking good, feeling good.

The run down would be pretty simple - a good pipe, a day with nothing but blue in the sky, the best riders in the world and an event that keeps getting better year after year. Next stop, Salt Lake.

Related Photos:
Men's Snowboard Pipe Gallery

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