David Mitchell On Climate Change
Just a quick update and a few news articles on Kevin Pearce’s condition. First up, it appears that Pearce was wearing a helmet when the accident happened. He caught his toe side edge while landing a double cork and hit the snow with his forehead just above his eyes. The latest release from Pearce’s publicist quotes Holly Ledyard, M.D., a Neurointensivist at University of Utah Health Care who said, “Kevin sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. He is currently in intensive care and in critical condition, but stable and has not needed to undergo surgery at this time. He is intubated and being kept sedated. The focus over the next week will be watching for any swelling in his brain and keeping his brain pressure normal. Kevin has a long recovery ahead of him.” An update yesterday by Pearce’s brother Adam on the Well Wishes Facebook page that has been setup said, “Kev continues to take small positive steps forward…overall a good day.” So it looks like things are moving in a positive direction for him.
Interestingly, mainstream media have taken a very active interest in the story – one of the best articles I’ve read was in the New York Times (check it out here) by John Branch who interviewed Kevin for an article in early December. It’s a pretty sad read. Then there is the US’s ABC news story (check it out here) which has sports columnist, Christine Brennan, claiming that snowboarding has become too ‘extreme’ and there should be trick limits placed on the Olympics.
Anyway, here’s hoping for more positive news from Pearce’s people in the coming days.
I had an interesting conversation with Chris over the Christmas break about double corks. Could this be the year snowboard progression slows down? Double corks aren’t easy, if you look at the Friends website there’s a video of all those dudes getting worked trying them. Maybe this is the upper limit for snowboard progression?
I’ve been thinking the same thing as well. I don’t think it’s peaked, probably plateaued for a while. What would be the next step though? Will we see the world’s first 1620 spin? Or a triple backflip landed at a big air comp? There’ll be a lot of broken bodies on the road there…
1620 has already been done, Euro rider Ulrik Badertcher did a back 1620 last year. check the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp6JMccvtlI, I think the next step has to be actually doing double corks smoothly as opposed to simply hucking them. Then linking numerous double corks i.e. regular to switch smoothly together will prob be the next step, for pipe riders anyway. Shaun White, Louie Vito and Danny Davis are really the only few doing back to back double corks. Personally though I’d rather see jumps get larger and people doing huge floating tricks as opposed to spinning like a top. A 100ft front 3 grabbed the whole way or a back rodeo like the ones Mikkel Bang does looks alot better than a front 12 on a 50 footer.
Cheers for the link, I gotta agree with you on the big floating tricks, which is why a big floating 5 or a 7 is the way to go. And my favourite piece of footage from all time is HC Bergheimer’s laid out backflip in teenage love graffiti, best shot!
It’s funny, the back to back double corks has kind of brought attention back to the halfpipe again, but if everyone starts doing double corks flawlessly it’ll almost be a bit much… A shame the judging is so reliant on technicality and difficulty of tricks, as opposed to a ridiculously stylish grab :/
Dcorks are well on their way to main stream, and are a LONG way from the trick ceiling.
Think FMX a few years ago. Here’s a quick quote from Wikipedia “The Backflip was once considered the “holy grail of FMX”. It was a trick that most riders considered impossible and was considered more appropriate in video games than in real life.”
Nowadays you don’t even get entry into a comp if you can’t do a back flip. TPastrana started doing hand-stands off backflips mid flight, and has now landed double backflips…. on a 100kg chunk of metal. I Think the risk factor is right up there with Dcorks personally, if not a little higher (not trying to start any comparison war) and I can see so much progression to come for snowboarding.
As the pipes go more super (nokia air and style) the riders will naturally fill the airtime with more complicated manoeuvres.
This has been a good opportunity for christine whatever her name is to fluff her feathers and get some attention. Watch her interview with the abc and the footage they use. She should stfu.
ps: Love the long floaters. The footage from Stylewars o7 with that massive 150ft kicker was full of some of the best i’ve seen.