[GDT] Men's Ski Slopestyle 11:15PM - Sport FAQ

[19Yzerman19]

As discussed in the Feb 12 thread, here's a separate thread to discuss the sport of slopestyle - who's favoured, what to watch for, what the tricks that are being described actually ARE, what judges are usually looking for and what they might be looking for now, Canadian odds, and so forth.

To start with, if you've never seen a ski slope comp before, here's a complete video of the finals from the X Games a few weeks ago.



FAQ

1. Who Are the Favourites?
The Americans are favoured to win this event, and podium. They have an extremely deep roster of talent, including Nick Goepper, who is the prohibitive favourite. Bobby Brown is also in the running. A strong dark horse candidate for gold is Henrik Harlaut of Sweden, who's known for his unique approach to slopestyle competitions (he's usually doing very different tricks than the other contenders). A decent bet to podium is Andreas Hatveit, who doesn't quite have the top level tricks the U.S. riders do, but is the most experienced guy in the field and one of the most consistent.

2. What about Canada?
Canada only sent one rider to men's ski slope, but he's a good one: Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, nicknamed ABM. He recently placed 2nd at one of the major competitions leading up to the olympics; here's his run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJmUWgPYBTw
He also has a triple in his bag of tricks, and is rumored to be one of maybe three guys with a switch triple. He's never done it in a competition, though.

3. What tricks should we be looking for?
Lots to talk about on the tricks side, and people are sure to have questions about them. But the main trick in slope skiing right now is the double or triple cork spins. A "cork" spin means that the rider is inverted - his skis are above his head. A "double cork" means that the skis go above the head twice, and in a "triple cork", three times. Only a handful of riders have landed triple corks in competition. This is much the same as snowboarding, which brings up a caveat - in order to win gold at X Games, you basically had to be able to land a triple. In snowboard slope, Mark McMorris and Max Parrot both had triples, and were both beaten by runs with no triples in them. So the judging here may be different.

4. What are the judges looking for?
The general judging criteria is summed up by the acronym "PAVED" - Progression, Amplitude, Variety, Execution and Difficulty. Progression refers to doing things that haven't been done before or doing them differently than they've been done in the past. Amplitude means going higher and further off the jumps. Variety means switching tricks up - you'll hear a lot about "left side" or "right side", depending on which way the rider is spinning, and the different grabs that are executed, as well as different tricks done on the rails. Execution is a matter of landing jumps clean and without wobbling, holding grabs for as long as possible, generally making the trick look good. And difficulty, obviously, refers to the difficulty of the trick - a double cork 1080 is harder than a cork 1080, a nose mute grab is harder than a safety grab.

[19Yzerman19]

Glossary of Terms

Will probably add to this as we go, especially during the event if people have questions about something one of the announcers says.

I'll also try to throw some links to youtube videos in in case the descriptions don't make sense; if you want a picture or vid of something, ask.

180 thru 1620: Refers to degrees of rotation in a spin. Note that it includes both horizontal and vertical rotations - a rodeo 540, for example, looks a lot like a backflip 180. Also refers to spins onto and off of rails, but because you're facing sideways, they'll be off by 90 degrees - a 270 onto or off of a rail is the smallest spin you'll see, followed by a 450, and possibly a 630.

Zero Spin: You probably won't see this but just to explain the bronze from Women's, this refers to taking off and landing switch. Quite tough when done properly, because the idea is to not move at all in the air, but not anywhere near as difficult as the tricks these guys will be doing.

Cork: In reference to a spin, refers to spinning off-axis such that the skier's skis end up higher than his head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owQ9###luAU ... You may hear the word "bio", i.e. a "bio 1260", which is like a cork, but the skier is leaning forward: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_MS1oCeNhI

Double Flip: Generally used to refer to any trick where the rider's skis go above his head twice (including doublecork, double bio, double flatspin, etc).

Flatspin: Essentially an off-axis backflip. The first widely used double flip, called the "Kangaroo Flip" by Jon Olsson, was a double flatspin 900.

Rodeo: An off axis trick involving an invert where the skier is angled backwards. Basically, a backflip combined with a spin.

Misty: The opposite of a rodeo - a frontflip combined with a spin. One of Bobby Brown's signature tricks is a double misty 1440 - essentially he's flipping forward twice and spinning two and a half rotations. Here it is from a couple of years ago, regular and switch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMb4TspHkUQ

Switch: Skiing backwards. No, this is not some sort of crazy revelation; people have been doing this for fifteen years. Skiing forward is usually called "regular".

Butter: Refers to putting the skier's weight on either the nose or tail of his skis (nose butter / tail butter) and reverting around PRIOR to takeoff. Henrik Harlaut's signature tricks are butter doubles - he's the only one in the field doing tail butter double corks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRA7275dpTE

Jib / Jibbing: Skiing on anything other than snow. Rails, boxes, wall rides, the russian nesting doll thingy in the course, whatever. The broadcast refers to them as "Jib features", so if you're wondering what that means, it means everything the skiers are doing tricks on besides the jumps.

Mute: The most common grab you'll see. Involves crossing the skis and grabbing the opposite ski in front of the binding. The further toward the nose of the ski the rider grabs, the better, generally - a "nose mute" would be grabbing the very front tip of the ski and pulling it back so that the skis cross. http://www.gotahoenorth.com/blog/wp-...te-grab025.jpg

Tweak: refers to a really aggressively executed grab (i.e. "tweaked out"). For example, if you tweak out a mute enough you pull the ski far enough back that it almost looks like a tail grab: http://www.salomongromcamps.co.uk/up...te%20grab4.jpg

Safety: Simplest possible grab - refers to reaching down and grabbing the same side ski next to the binding. So, reach down with your right hand and grab. http://media.nscdn.com/uploads/membe...2ski_grab1.jpg

Japan: One of the more popular grabs, refers to reaching behind your near leg and grabbing the inside of the opposite ski near the binding. https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/D...S8QeyA/convert

Double Grab: This can be a bit confusing because it refers to two different things sometimes. Usually, what it means is you're doing the grab with both hands. A double mute means you're doing a mute, but grabbing both hands on the same ski. http://cdn1.coresites.mpora.com/skiu...09/andreus.jpg However, sometimes it's used to refer to doing two separate grabs in the same trick - i.e., I start with a mute, but halfway through my spin I switch to a japan grab. Russ Henshaw used to do this all the time; he'll be a contender for a medal.

Octograb: Popularized by quebec riders, this is a double grab that involves grabbing the nose of one ski and the tail of the other with the skis crossed. http://media.newschoolers.com/uploads/images/17/00/10/78/14/107814.jpeg&size=600x564

Screamin Seamen / Genie Grab: Only reason I'm adding this is because Goepper has been doing them with his double corks. This is an old school trick invented by a guy named Chris Seamen, which involves crossing your LEGS, rather than your skis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84YCUKx0eqk A genie is a screamin seamen where you grab your ski after crossing your legs: http://skipass.fr/p/news/72338/115636.jpg

Pretzel: Refers to the practice of spinning one direction coming onto a rail, then spinning the opposite way coming off. So, a 270 pretzel 450, for example, would mean spinning 270 degrees in one direction, landing on the rail, then spinning 450 degrees the other way coming off. Difficult because you have to stop your momentum and reverse it, and rail features don't have a lot of traction. Popularized by Tom Wallisch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m58hBjiupcs

Switch-up: Refers to changing directions while on a rail - i.e., you start with your right ski facing downhill, and turn while still on the rail so that your left ski faces downhill. There's also a 360 switch up, which involves hopping off the rail, doing a 360 and landing back on the rail. Sometimes referred to as a "swap" or "changeup". Can be done "frontside" or "backside", which just refers to the direction the rider is spinning when doing the switch-up.
NOTE: During women's ski slopestyle, the announcers were incorrectly referring to switch ups as "flatspins".

Natural / Unnatural: This refers to whether a rider is spinning right or left, but it's based on what side they normally spin to. Different people spin more easily in one direction or another, so the direction that might be "natural" for one rider may be "unnatural" for another. Most people spin left naturally, but, for example, James Woods of GBR spins right naturally. Unnatural spins are considered much more difficult, to the extent that Joss Christensen became the first rider to ever land an unnatural triplecork earlier this week during practice.

[19Yzerman19]

Here's the startlist for tonight.

[19Yzerman19]

40 minutes to go!

[Bunk]

God damn, that first guy was impressive.

[19Yzerman19]

[19Yzerman19]

ABM down on run 1 after a 900 nose tap on the russian doll. Sketched out at the top anyway so it was mostly a throw away. Got to put one down on run 2...

[19Yzerman19]

Oh my god Jesper is so god damn sick. Switch backie off the wall? That should be mid 80s at least.

Edit: Wow. That makes zero sense. Judges apparently waiting for the spin to win. Super, super disappointing.

[browna]

Night and day compared to the women, and that's after just 3 of the men.
Some of the women had no business being out on this course yesterday, and even the ones that had the skills and weren't petrified, it was still not a guarantee they were going to land cleanly, especially the last jump.

The guys are nailing everything, much more elaborate maneuvers on the rails up top and on the jumps, and most every landing is smooth and effortless.

Having watched it first yesterday, I was expecting a lot more...after watching the men though, this was more than I was expecting...pretty cool.

[19Yzerman19]

The announcer clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. Keeps calling the spins wrong on the rails - it's a 270, not 250, and a 450, not a 430.

Here's Bobby. WOW! Can't believe that, he'll be angry at himself. That never happens. Must be some jitters. Puts down a triple just to show he's got it.

[19Yzerman19]

Announcer didn't notice but Russ's last trick was a nose butter double.

Andreas is in finals with that. Solid rail section up top technically, nose butter double on the first hit, spinning both directions.

So should Gus be, landings were perfect.

[trackercowe]

Man the Canadian judge is a jerk. Always the lowest scoring of the bunch.

[19Yzerman19]

Ouch, Henrik goes down hard on the last jump. Great run until then but needed to carry a bit more speed into the last jump I think.

What an awesome shot of the nose tap on the russian doll.

[corporatejay]

That swede looks ridiculous

[Shawnski]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

That swede looks ridiculous

[Top Shelf]

Is "stomp" the word of the day?

[19Yzerman19]

I keep getting chains of 8 - EIGHT - ads on the cbc stream. Pretty ridiculous.

[DOOM]

What channel is this on?

Edit - Just online?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by DOOM

What channel is this on?

Edit - Just online?

Sportsnet

[19Yzerman19]

I wonder if it's a different commentator than the online stream because this guy's an aerialist and doesn't know anything... wish they'd just used McMorris for this as well as snowboard.