posted Feb 22, 2009 3:12 PM by Hans Hibbard
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updated Feb 24, 2009 9:02 AM
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Slopestyle today! We all love slopestyle! Check out the video of Ashley hitting the course below:
Katie, unable to see anything, took a fall on a frontside 360 over the first jump. Oliver was looking for a backside 720 followed by a frontside 720 but, found a backside 540, revert, to a frontside 360. He didn't fall though! A large portion of the field did fall. JD landed a very clean backside 720 followed by a frontside 720. He earned a 2nd place finish for his effort. We're at the lodge at Meadows waiting for the awards ceremony to take place before we make the drive back to Bend. It's snowing hard here but, I'm thinking we'll encounter mostly rain on the way back. I was disappointed to miss the Development competition today. I heard it went off well. I'm hoping we'll get some photos and a write up on the site soon.
Here are some additional details on this slope day now that I have a moment. As you can see from the video of Ashely, the fog was almost as thick as you can get. I say "almost" because we had several course-holds due to visibility so, this was one of the better moments. There were judges on each of the 2 jumps as well as at the top rail feature. The course-holds came at times when the judges, who were on the jumps, couldn't see the competitors go by.
At the Team Captains Meeting, the night before the slopestyle event, it was known that weather would likely be an issue the next day. The expectation was that snow would be falling at a rate that would make the jumps very difficult to clear. There was discussion of changing the usual 2-run qualifiers to a single run qualifier (men and women) to ensure that the event was accomplished. It was put to a vote and the decision was made to go with the single run qualifier rather than risk having to cancel the event if weather were to become too big of an issue. There was the further stipulation by the Technical Delegate that there would be the possibility of having no finals at all and instead using the qualifying run scores to decide the competition results.
This type of situation really puts the riders on the line. Having a single run qualifying round means the riders must be conservative enough to be sure their runs are landed while still aggressive enough to be competitive with the field. Pile on the chance of that single qualifying run earning your score for the final results and you have a lot of pressure loaded on one run. This is a situation that is seldom seen in snowboarding. However, after the cancellation of the slopestyle event in Boreal earlier this month, the results were needed in order to legitimize the overall results of the Tour following the final event at Sugarloaf, ME in March.
JD's 3rd place finish in slopestyle at Copper, CO in February, along with this 2nd place finish, puts him in a very good position to podium, or even win, the overall title in slopestyle for the Revolution Tour this season.
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posted Feb 21, 2009 5:57 PM by Hans Hibbard
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updated Feb 24, 2009 10:11 AM
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Today felt long. I'm not sure why but, it did. Everyone struggled to get up this morning even after a good night's sleep. We woke to another beautiful day not knowing how long the weather would hold before the forecasted clouds moved in. The temp was much warmer than forecasted. The women's qualifier went first with Katie and Ashley competing. Both landed good runs. Neither was particularly happy with their runs though. Ashley had a mid-field finish. Katie placed 2nd in qualifiers allowing her to move on to finals at the end of the day. JD was in the first heat today and landed a great first run. In his 2nd run, JD took a fall on a nearly-landed switch (cab) 720 at the bottom of the pipe. Landed, his run would have likely placed him in finals for his heat. Oliver had a great 2nd run going...one of his best HP runs. He landed his front 5, followed by a 2nd 5 but couldn't hold things together for his toeside wall straight air. Oliver was stunned but, after a short period of frustration, bounced back to his normal, happy self. Just as Finals approached, a solid cover of high clouds and cooler temperatures rolled in. Katie didn't get her best run accomplished but, still earned a respectable 4th place finish.
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posted Feb 20, 2009 7:57 AM by Hans Hibbard
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updated Feb 24, 2009 10:14 AM
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We're a little late for an early start this morning. Thirty minutes to get to Meadows to begin the BX, for Ashley, and another practice day for the rest. It looks like another gorgeous day on the South-facing Mt. Hood Meadows!
Today was warmer than yesterday...it was a scorcher; a great day of training. Ashley competed in BX today while the rest of the crew trained in pipe and slope. I'll have some video of Ashley's BX runs posted later this evening. We finally left the mountain around 3:15 this afternoon. I shuttled our competitors down to the condo in Govy and then ran back up to the Meadows for the coaches meeting...which is where I now sit. At the coaches' meeting, I represent our athletes at the events, get bibs, start lists for the next day, weather forecast for waxing purposes, and lift tickets for the next day.
I'll get some media loaded once I get back down to condo...just after dinner.
Last night was a tough night to render video apparently. It took until this evening (Sat) to get the video rendered for uploading.
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posted Feb 19, 2009 8:12 AM by Hans Hibbard
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updated Feb 19, 2009 8:32 PM
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No method of getting photos off of the cameras until we get home today. We'll still be blogging from the mountain with text and as much video as possible.
This is Cath Jett (Race Admin.) and Nick Alexakos (Event Director). These 2 are at every Rev Tour and, in Nick's case, dang near every event happening this season (Rev Tours, Grand Prixs, and X-Games). These are likely the two nicest people in the business. They are absolutely a pleasure to work with. I'll post a photo or video of Bill VanGilder later. Bill is a really great guy too and fills the position of something like an Event Coordinator.
Here is a short vid of the comp big dogs: Chris Kastner, Jeff Grell, and Bill VanGilder (BVG)
Today was very sunny and lots
of fun, we lucked today and got lots of sun which was really awesome for
training. We started the day at
5:45 am to get up to the mountain early to be first on the waitlists. This
morning I was really tired and still sick. On the way up to the mountain the
sunrise was very beautiful it had all sorts of shades of pink. 
At the mountain
we waited for about 2 hours for the registration to open. During that time all
of us slept on the ground while Hans was on his computer doing coach stuff. When
we finally got on the slopes only the half-pipe was open in the morning and the
slope style didn’t open until around lunch time. I thought the half-pipe course
was really good because I had been used to a 22 ft pipe in boreal and this one
was only 18 ft tall. Katie took a heavy slam in pipe and hit her head really
hard, but luckily no concussion. By that time the half-pipe was all tracked out
and it was time to hit slope style. I thought the slope course was really fun,
probably one of the more fun courses I have every hit.
After we had all
practiced slope, Hans had to stay for a riders meeting, so Katie, Ashley,
Oliver and I sat around until Hans was done. After a long day of hiking the
pipe and hitting the jumps I was really hungry, so when we got home Oliver and
I made hamburger helper, which was really good. Now we are sitting at home about to go in the hot tub.
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posted Feb 19, 2009 7:36 AM by Hans Hibbard
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updated Feb 24, 2009 10:13 AM
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Day 1
On
the drive up to Mt. Hood, Ashley, Katie, and JD entertained ourselves by
playing Hangaroo and text twist. We made a quick stop for a shot with Hood in the background:
A couple hours after, we made it to our
awesome condo in Collins Lake at Government Camp. The first thing we discovered
was a 4 bed high bunk bed in the boys’ room, it’s pretty amazing.
We all ate
dinner and had homework power hour (except JD, who put in well over an hour). JD made the mistake of pushing the start button on the dishwasher, there’s no
“off” button, and now it won’t stop beeping. Hans had a minor panic attack when
he couldn’t find the internet modem, but now the problem is resolved thanks Hans’
diligent searching. After waxing our snowboards JD Oliver and Katie went to the
hottub and pool where they chilled out and played colors with Max W. Now we’re of to bed; we have to wake up early so Katie and
JD can be first on the wait list.
By, Ashley and Katie
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