like snow when the cold wind blow

more than a thousand times one
snatch up my styles get done

Even though I call people ‘dude’ I know not much about snowboarding other than it kicked my ass when I tried to do it and that snowboardcross kicks ass as a sport to watch. I saw it for the first time on the Olympic broadcast last night and even in its “watered-down-X-games” form it was most excellent. It doesn’t have the chilled-out mellow emphasis on style that the half-pipe events have but it’s not just a cold ‘speed’ event. Some of the short-track strategy is there in that dudes draft each other and then try to overtake the leader at turns (no Ohno). Crashes occur often so someone trailing in fourth place can actually zoom past the wreckage to place or even win. It debuted as an Olympic event this year and promoters of the sort couldn’t have asked for a better photo finish.

But what sealed the deal was a quick glance at the graphics describing the course…
Check out the shaded box on the left of this NYTimes graphic called “Glossary of Jumps.”


a wu-banger

And from an ‘official snowboard manual’

Boardercross items for TD/TS evaluation:…
Passing zones…you need some
No gap jumps
Separation zones for speed
In the beginning… separate riders…I like the Wu-tang feature...

Can I get a ‘suuuuu…’?