Olympic Snowboard Men's Halfpipe

So that was the big day: the men's pipe event. I went up to the venue early to see the training. After a bus, boat and another bus ride I arrived in Cypress, bluebird and spring like temperatures. It was a long day for everyone who has arrived early and especially for the riders who hadn't had time to get out their boots for the entire day. It took until 8pm for the final to start (prime time on TV).

Vancouver, early morning

The pipe.

Fans; Tony Hawk was there too (bottom left)

Yep, Shaun stood up to the expectations and won.

What a week for the riders. Instead of getting 5 hours training for 5 days, they ended up having 3 days and 1,5 hours each max. Just 3 days before the event the pipe got rebuilt entirely. It was amazing to see how the guys flipped the switch to contest mode and went big regardless the little training time. Completely unacceptable was the TV coverage. Amplitude is a major judging criteria, the framing and the camera angels that were going on didn't help anyone watching to get an idea of what was happening exactly.

For me it was a great experience being at the games. I'm super stoked for Peetu winning silver.
Over and out for now, I'm heading on to the next trip.

arrived in Vancouver

After a 30h+ trip that included a lot of hanging at airports, I finally arrived in Vancouver at 3 at night. I took it easy and cruised town today. The entire city is like one giant event, banners and people everywhere.

Some street scenes from today...

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