Does anyone else think the Snowboard Cross is insane?

[OWC Jamie]

BernDog wrote:
I really like it. Much more entertaining than watching someone race a clock. Can you imagine watching a car race run one car at a time?

Craig Breedlove has had some interesting runs at Bonneville salt flats

[DavidS]

It's been an event in the Winter X Games for quite a while. The Olympics is trying to be more "hip" with these new events. I look forward to Snowmobile Freestyle in 2018.

[Kraniac]

Yes. It has Snowboarders in, it so it's insane by content.

The entire Snowboard thing is just sloppy. Everything about it..there is almost zero grace. Sloppy clothes, clunky look and the tricks just aren't up to snuff. The Cross feels the same way to me..like the wheels are coming off. I want SOME tidbit of beauty or some kind of grace. GRACE!!

Look at most sports in a broad view. Basketball, baseball, football, ski jumping, Alpine skiing, track, swimming, ..the list goes on..There is a very CERTAIN element of grace and beauty in these sports..something that makes you say WOW, that was incredible. Almost none of this comes across in Snowboarding for me..it's sloppy.

Maybe..maybe, if they made these folks wear a form fitting suit..something that demanded super tight discipline in terms of FORM..it would bring this to another level. It doesn't belong in the Olympics..the post up there of the Snowmobile flip is APROPO..it has the same clunky thing going on.

[OWC Jamie]

Course needs to be longer and more physical contact
http://www.hitslongboarding.com/video/2-...1596c.html

[NewtonMP2100]

yes, CROSS my heart.....and hope to die.......

[Schpark]

It is like a "Chinese Downhill" on snowboards.

[M A V I C]

I've been snowboarding for over 20 years, and that course makes me cringe. The snow is fake, and has been treated with chemicals. The boarders were saying the snow was soft. That mess can't be a whole lot like the real thing.

If the course was in good shape, was able to be well maintained... six people flying down the hill wouldn't be so insane.

Kraniac wrote:
The entire Snowboard thing is just sloppy. Everything about it..there is almost zero grace. Sloppy clothes, clunky look and the tricks just aren't up to snuff. The Cross feels the same way to me..like the wheels are coming off. I want SOME tidbit of beauty or some kind of grace. GRACE!!

There is tons of grace in snowboarding. The tricks aren't up to snuff? Have you ever given even a few of them a try? Snowboarders pushed the sport pretty far, and skiers started copying them. You also have to realize the conditions of the courses there are terrible. A lot of it is just the riders trying to stay alive.

In boarder cross, the way the riders work their legs to absorb the bumps and just get over the first jump is full of grace. In the halfpipe, there's no way to get those sorts of rotations or height without grace. Without it, they can't get the speed they need.

[Kraniac]

M A V I C wrote:
I've been snowboarding for over 20 years, and that course makes me cringe. The snow is fake, and has been treated with chemicals. The boarders were saying the snow was soft. That mess can't be a whole lot like the real thing.

If the course was in good shape, was able to be well maintained... six people flying down the hill wouldn't be so insane.

[quote=Kraniac]
The entire Snowboard thing is just sloppy. Everything about it..there is almost zero grace. Sloppy clothes, clunky look and the tricks just aren't up to snuff. The Cross feels the same way to me..like the wheels are coming off. I want SOME tidbit of beauty or some kind of grace. GRACE!!

There is tons of grace in snowboarding. The tricks aren't up to snuff? Have you ever given even a few of them a try? Snowboarders pushed the sport pretty far, and skiers started copying them. You also have to realize the conditions of the courses there are terrible. A lot of it is just the riders trying to stay alive.

In boarder cross, the way the riders work their legs to absorb the bumps and just get over the first jump is full of grace. In the halfpipe, there's no way to get those sorts of rotations or height without grace. Without it, they can't get the speed they need.
Sorry, you are wrong and biased because you are of the same lot....

By the way.."grace" does not transfer through the baggy sloppy jumping clothes they wear in the Giant Latrine event..I'll repeat..they look like crumpled up paper towels being thrown across a room.

: )

[M A V I C]

Kraniac wrote:
Sorry, you are wrong and biased because you are of the same lot....

By the way.."grace" does not transfer through the baggy sloppy jumping clothes they wear in the Giant Latrine event..I'll repeat..they look like crumpled up paper towels being thrown across a room.

: )

Have you ever snowboarded? Do you know anything about the physics of the matter? It's interesting that you assume since I snowboard, I wear baggy clothes and am "of the same lot"... that just makes you prejudice.

[Kraniac]

Yes, I have Snowboarded. My kids are avid Snowboarders. After a long period of physical constraint and being burned with toasted pop tarts, they agree with me on this and several other points...Snowboarding should not be in the Olympics.

I'm firm believer in the idea of the Olympics sports having a historical antecedent of some sort. hunting, transportation, war, package delivery in record time. Ice Dancing is a good example of a sport that qualifies nicely. Snowboarding isn't.