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Sochi - Women's Slopestyle too aggressive?

Nick

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I was watching women's snowboarding slopestyle on DVR last night and a couple things came to mind.

First off - does anyone else feel like the jumps are just too big for the women? The only tricks they are willing to do is a 360 and in many cases only a straight 180. And even then they just look so uncomfortable with the gap. Should they have a separate women's course?

I was also wondering then, what it is about slopestyle that the women aren't able to compete at the same level as men. I realize in most sports, generally speaking, men will be stronger than women, so for things like tennis or basketball or whatever it's just not possible to compete against each other. But snowboarding or skiing tricks aren't as much about strength, is it? I don't see any physical reason why a women couldn't perform the exact same trick as a man. It just looks like a confidence thing. The men tear down after the jump to the next jump, but the women largely make a few turns to just slightly check their speed ahead of the launch.

Just some random thoughts. I haven't really followed slopestyle other than the olympics so maybe someone more informed could shed some light on this.
 

Smellytele

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They do have the option for the smaller jumps off to the side but they try to push to get a better score. Then it back fires on 2/3rds of them.
 

timm

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There was a big article about this very subject in Freestyle recently I believe. I'm no scientist and I really don't know anything about going off of slopestyle jumps but I'm sure being a lot bigger and stronger means you can go faster and launch yourself a lot further, same as in any other sport.
 

Glenn

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The guys seems more controlled and composed in the air. It's above my pay grade to figure out the physics and anatomy behind it. Those are some seriously big kickers; guys or girls have to have some nerves to boot off those.

I'd almost rather see less "big air" and more technical/clean tricks.
 

Nick

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I'd almost rather see less "big air" and more technical/clean tricks.

Yeah that's basically exactly my point. i'd rather the women have a scaled down course so they could do more than a simple 180 or 360. Even on the rail slides they just point down and go.
 

Mapnut

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I don't know whether it's the clothes, but some of those girls looked particularly little.

Did anybody else think the judging was pretty random? If they didn't fall, I had no idea what score they were going to get.
 

twinplanx

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Sure. A separate course for women... And sean white lol

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C-Rex

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It has a lot to do with their weight. They don't get enough speed and momentum to carry them off the jumps the same way. I saw a video where a little kid was riding with some of the big boys. He wanted to hit this one huge back country booter but couldn't get up enough speed to carry him over the table. They evern taped his clothes down to give him less drag on the approach but it wasn't enough.

I would like to see style get more weight in the scoring. The rails are basically pointless. No one does anything particularly hard on them because they just need speed for a triple cork. I'd like to see a slower rail section with more emphasis on technicality and style. More presses and what not. The jumps are all about how many spins and corks you can do. I think a nice slowly spun 540 with a tweaked out grab looks better than some of that other stuff. There's not much room for creativity on the course either.

The course should be more like Redbull's Supernatural setup. One big face with a ton of hits on it. Choose your own adventure.
 

frapcap

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I would like to see style get more weight in the scoring. The rails are basically pointless. No one does anything particularly hard on them because they just need speed for a triple cork. I'd like to see a slower rail section with more emphasis on technicality and style. More presses and what not. The jumps are all about how many spins and corks you can do. I think a nice slowly spun 540 with a tweaked out grab looks better than some of that other stuff. There's not much room for creativity on the course either.

This. The guy with the 900 (I think?) nose grab looked amazing on Friday night.
 

tnt

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My question is, why did everyone have such heavy coats on? Wasn't it like 40-45 degrees there?

Also - the top section was fairly pointless.
 

timm

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My question is, why did everyone have such heavy coats on? Wasn't it like 40-45 degrees there?

This has been one of my favorites part of watching this Olympics. Half the background crowd is dressed for the arctic in huge parkas, the other half is basically in long sleeve shirts. I don't think you could even see people's breath at most events.
 

Huck_It_Baby

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My question is, why did everyone have such heavy coats on? Wasn't it like 40-45 degrees there?

Maybe many of the riders have sponsors who urge or require them to wear the brand?

Maybe none of the riders expect spring temps before flying to Russia?
 

SnowRock

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I would like to see style get more weight in the scoring. The rails are basically pointless. No one does anything particularly hard on them because they just need speed for a triple cork. I'd like to see a slower rail section with more emphasis on technicality and style. More presses and what not. The jumps are all about how many spins and corks you can do. I think a nice slowly spun 540 with a tweaked out grab looks better than some of that other stuff. There's not much room for creativity on the course either.

The course should be more like Redbull's Supernatural setup. One big face with a ton of hits on it. Choose your own adventure.
I thought they did reward style a bit more in than judgin than most of the other contests I watch (not many). Wasn't quite as much spin to win as I feel like the Xgames has become. Course seemed wierd though... rail section totally crammed, one of the kickers it seemed like everyone (men and women) were landing deep.
 

Hawkshot99

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My question is, why did everyone have such heavy coats on? Wasn't it like 40-45 degrees there?

Also - the top section was fairly pointless.

The heavy coats are uniform jackets. Made by Burton for the US team.

The event is called Slopestyle. Not big air. they must be good at jumps and rails. If it was just jumps they would call it Big Air.

The ladies dont hit the jumps as hard because they weigh less. Its physics. A heavier object will go down the hill faster and off a jump farther. They did not look as comfortable in the air but that is mental kot physical. A few of them looked very good.

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timm

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http://freeskier.com/stories/mans-course-womens-slopestyle-skiing-sustainable/2

"Men say their ideal jump size is 69 feet, while the women say their ideal jump size is 55 feet. These numbers are significant, as they mean women feel most comfortable on jumps 20% smaller than the men. The majority of women polled (67%) said the jumps at current contests are a little big, or too big, and they would be more likely to attempt harder tricks if they were given smaller jumps. The majority of men had the opposite opinion, saying the jumps were typically on the small side."
 

sf77

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"She executed her half-rotating jumps on and off the rails — the most technical part of these runs — without problem, then set up for the show: Cab 720 jump with a grab, switchback 540 with a grab, frontside 720. That's three jumps with a total of 5½ rotations and two fancy grabs of the snowboard. The landings: All perfect. Everyone knew it, including Anderson, who spread-eagled her arms as she crossed the finish line. Safe."
http://news.yahoo.com/anderson-completes-us-olympic-sweep-slopestyle-104342247.html

Anderson definetly had the best run of the day and deserved the gold medal. She proved that she can do big jumps and her second and third jumps were huge and amazing. The crowd loved them and IMO, they were spectacular. I was looking for video of it, but unfortunately could not find it.
 

tnt

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The heavy coats are uniform jackets. Made by Burton for the US team.

The event is called Slopestyle. Not big air. they must be good at jumps and rails. If it was just jumps they would call it Big Air.

The ladies dont hit the jumps as hard because they weigh less. Its physics. A heavier object will go down the hill faster and off a jump farther. They did not look as comfortable in the air but that is mental kot physical. A few of them looked very good.

Sent from my SGH-S959G using Tapatalk 2

Yeah, I get why they had rails etc… in there, but the way the course is set up, seemed to me, everyone did the exactl same thing up top. Every now and then some one would slip off early, but basically, those features were kind of boring.

And so overshadowed by the air! It was like "Ho-hum…oh look, he slid over one of those plexiglass boxes….yawn…. HOLY CRAP! That guy just rocketed 100 feet in the air, flipped like 4 times and spun around and landed backwards!!!!"
 

bobbutts

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I think the guys are insane and that makes the girls look bad comparatively. 1620's with corks and grabs and whatnot is pretty much inconceivable. Agree overall, would be improved with smaller amplitude course, more air, less boxes.
 
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