Greetings from Vancouver! Just returned to my hotel room from the men's halfpipe comp and thought I'd share a few quick thoughts on what went down. Here goes: 1. Canada and logistics don't mix, 2. The Flying Tomato is a force of nature, and 3. Get well soon, Kevin and Danny.

Photo: Steve Mazzucchi
1. Canada and logistics don't mix.

Just to get from downtown Vancouver to the local hill, Cypress, where the halfpipe event was held, I had to walk five blocks, ride a subway, catch a ferry, and board a bus. Canada's volunteers are exceedingly nice and helpful, but it's still a two-hour trip. Add in the fact that snow instability has caused the cancellation of some 20,000 general admission tickets to snowboarding events, and the Great White North's opening ceremony torch troubles appear to be the least of their worries. Still, the ticket issue didn't stop one determined San Diegan from living the dream. Kid next to me on the bus had one of the canceled tickets, but rather than buying one from a scalper (he told me they were going for a grand), he simply cruised right past one of the ticket checkers while the guy was scanning another attendee's ticket. Two hours later, I spotted him on the JumboTron screaming and waving his US flag from a seat right behind Shaun White's dad. If there's a gold medal for ballsiness, it's his.

Photo: Steve Mazzucchi
2. The Flying Tomato is a force of nature.

The first time I saw Shaun White at this Olympics, he was jumping out of a snowcat to make a surprise appearance at an Oakley press event last Thursday night. During the 15 minutes he chatted with Oakley team manager Matty Swanson before a small Grouse Mountain crowd, he was as laidback and loose as a 23-year-old can be on the eve of competing as the favorite in what is now the Olympics most popular event. Screw the haters I think it's pretty cool that the face of snowboarding is a geeky-cool redhead who trains diligently to master the Double McTwist 1260, shakes off a nasty Winter X training accident (seriously, how does he still have teeth after bouncing his face off the lip of the pipe?), and brings his best in the biggest moments. He was so good tonight that even the lower of his two finals scores was high enough to top the podium.

Photo: monocera.com
3. Get well soon, Kevin and Danny.

White's winning margin (his victory lap 48.4 easily topped Peetu Piironen's 45.0 and Scotty Lago's 42.8) might have been smaller had two of America's other great halfpipe hopes, Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis, not been injured in the past few months. As exciting as it was to watch him dominate, the comp didn't have the same drama as, say, the men's moguls final a few days ago, which truly wasn't decided until the final few runs. White is hardly to blame for this. Or maybe he is. As the guy next to me in the grandstand, Men's Journal's Gordy Megroz, pointed out, his first-run 46.8 forced anyone serious about gold to go for broke on their second run. And more than half of them scrubbed out trying to go bigger than White. Which is, until further notice, a helluva lot harder than sneaking into an Olympic halfpipe final.

Words by Steve Mazzucchi

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