US Open

This year, marked the first time for the US Open to be in Vail, and in its 31st year the first time outside of Burtons home of Vermont.  Now for those of you who have been to Stratton Mountain you will know why they relocated, because the snow is way more reliable here, and its very accessible, but now with all 3 major US events being in Colorado, you do feel its a big shame for the east coast events.

So what went down this week?  Well Scotty Lago as always showed he has style till the cows come home.  The camera guys on the deck just love getting the guy in the sky shot.

He has been doing a run with front 9 double nose this week, which to me just seems insane.  I have trouble grabbing nose with one hand, in fact i remember for a good two years trying backside 5 nose grabs before I could do them properly.  Such a nice trick, and way easier than a front 9 in an icy pipe with both hands driving the ship.

Mr, Sir Louie Vito was in the house, riding good as always, and trying to avoid having to hug any trees with Henry Jackson and Doom, the legend that he is.  Henry is quickly building himself a name as the voice of snowboarding, but the good news is that if it all falls through, at some point with his side parting, mustache and school uniform, he could quite easily get a job on local TV presenting the days news about lost cats and dogs.  Keep it up Henry you and Doom are crushing it.

In the pipe Louie got on the podium with a solid 3rd place, with a great run, and you can really see that he has been adding a lot of amplitude to his riding this season.  He is such a crowd favorite too with the assembled masses, they love him.

In the women's there was a snowstorm, and the ladies got to use their semi final results, meaning that Spencer took the win.  That meant that I needed one of those classic TM pose photos which I hoped I would never ask for.

 But hey, she is a winner, and I'm merely here to get the dinner and make her look young and vibrant whilst I look a bit as the mrs would say "used".  Thats what a week with Doom will do for you.  I need some sun.  Spencer has again this season been a huge inspiration to the whole crew as she just goes on even in rough conditions and if she isn't at 100% she keeps on trucking and brings it home.

 Meanwhile.  Christian Haller decided that he should use his first hit to let Shaun know how Methods are supposed to be tweaked.

 Doesn't matter if your not winning Hitch as we all appreciate your style.

Vail has a pretty all time park with about a million features throughout the run to the slope style course, so Jamie Nicholls was lapping as hard as humanly possible.  He also rode amazing in the main event, with a great run including back 12 to cab 10 to make it into 5th finally.

Thats all he has to say about it.  Oh that and "why do i have to spend 10% on the bar tab?".  I guess you can take the boy of the north but you cant take the northern out of the boy.

La Machina, also known as Mr Peetu was at it again, getting to finals in both slope and pipe, which meant a couple weeks later he would take the TTR title.  Its insane because Peetu hasn't ridden pipe this season hardly at all, and in practice here, he slammed 4 times in a row, but in his runs, he stomped the best runs of his season in pipe including the biggest cab 10 double on the last hit you'll see.  He is so good its insane, board control, pop, style, all those knee grabbing kids should watch and learn because you are seeing one of the best most well rounded technically gifted snowboarders of a generation.

Thats it?  I know, not the greatest conclusion, but what can I say?  Oh yes, we had a powder day, but being a desk jock, I enjoyed those runs for all they were worth and so don't have any evidence of said event.