January 26th, 2015

30 Thoughts – X Games 2015 – Recap (Remote)

X Games 2015 has come and gone and snowmobiling played a major role in the event. In total there were 4 snowmobile disciplines and interesting story lines emerged throughout. SledderMag planned to attend but the last minute forces of (evil) real life conspired against us. In the end, we experienced X like most people: on TV or on an Internet live stream. Below are some thoughts about the event.

X Games was labeled by many of the competitors as the most ‘prestigious’ event of the season. The reason? It’s really hard to get invited and obviously the possibility of mainstream media time is unlike any other event in the year. What X Games offers snowmobiling is access to a huge mainstream audience, which is why the event attracts the best talent.
This prestige however, was an expensive gamble to many of the teams who participated. The riders who did show up were heavily invested in being there because having a rider/sled/mechanics at X is cost intensive. For those riders who had just a couple seconds of media time, in one event, the cost/benefit analysis may hurt for some time. X Games is a one-and-done, made-for-TV event, and to the victors go all the spoils.
No TV? For those without a TV subscription (in Canada at least) watching X Games wasn’t that easy. Trying to get 4 evenings in a row, away from the family to go watch sports at the bar is pretty much impossible if you’re trying to keep the marriage together. Therefore, if you really want to check it out, you’re stuck diving into the world of proxy links with verifying results. Who knows what some of the sites download on your computer? And finding good quality streaming proved more difficult that we thought it would. If you’re trying to watch X without a TV subscription you’re relegated to odd corners of the Internet (in Canada at least).
hmmm, wasn’t this a convenient thing for me to post to my facebook feed? Pretty hilarious really.
SPEED & STYLE The first event at X was Speed & Style. This event has been around for a while but this one had significance for the jumpers because there is no longer a freestyle or best trick event. This was the only event where tricks got pulled for the weekend.
The field was stacked to say the least. The best jumpers in the world were all there and there were some pretty sick tricks pulled. (official results here)
The Speed & Style event was broadcast in-between the Men’s snowboard half pipe event and so it was a pretty fantastic viewing experience on TV/ Internet Stream. It was awesome to see Danny Davis win snowboard halfpipe. His style is what wins him these contests, because he stands out.
Style and X Games go hand in hand, which is why all the athletes flock to the event.
Style is obviously huge in Speed and Style but the necessity to add speed makes things exciting to watch. (watch the winning run here)
Colton Moore had an outstanding night at Speed & Style. His tricks are pretty insane and his speed was good too. (watch a 1 minute highlight here)
Colton apparently trained for 2 weeks in Minnesota prior to X racing snocross to get his speed skills up for the event. It was a strategy that clearly paid off as he took gold in the event, winning over Joe Parsons by over 7 points. It was clearly his night and he dedicated the win to his late brother Caleb.
Colton wasn’t the only one who had trained snocross for X. Both Brett Turcotte and Levi Lavallee who were in the event have been racing snocross on the ISOC circuit this year. Snocross seems to be the best thing you can probably train if you’re going to be in professional snowmobile racing. This was evident at the Hillcross event. More on that later.
Obviously, since SledderMag is from Canada, we were cheering pretty loud for the only Canadian in the Speed & Style field, Brett Turcotte (who also happens to be on the cover of our latest issue). How sad was it to see his sled malfunction (blown belt) after he landed his second air? When he landed, he was ahead of Joe Parsons (who won silver), and their airs were (in our uneducated view) pretty equal if not favoring Turcotte.
Competition is a viscous mistress. All that work and in a poof, your night is over. Give it up to Brett. He took the lick in good stride. Smiling and congratulating your opponent as they move on when you know you mighta had them must hurt. Brett kept it classy.
LONG JUMP Friday’s event was the long jump. The field was stacked again but the biggest news was that Levi Lavallee was injured at the very last minute, right before the competition was to start (watch video here). Apparently he had a spark plug malfunction on his last practice jump causing him to lose power and he fell out of the sky way short and bruised his heels. All of a sudden, his alternate, Kyle Palin was thrust into the spotlight and he had to compete, with out even warming up. Kyle did pretty awesome all things considered.
Levi Lavallee pulling up short due to a spark plug not firing.
It’s pretty crazy how equipment can malfunction and cost an athlete everything in competition. Levi was a big storyline leading into X Games as he was cued up to compete in all four disciplines and realistically, he had a chance to medal, if not win at every one. After getting edged out by Colten Moore in Speed & Style and then getting injured in long jump, Levi ended up in the announcing booth for snocross. His loss was our gain because he was actually pretty good at commentating.
The best part about long jump was for sure Heath Frisby’s gold medal interview. After winning the event (his 10th X Games medal), and just missing the record, the announcer asks Heath on a feed live to the audience, “How much effort did you put in to getting this one?” Heath flashes his mischievous grin and replies “Not much, it’s pretty easy when you have the Leighton boys working on your stuff!” HA! What a character. Most athletes don’t claim things to be easy.
Seriously though, Heath is a boss. He claimed gold while still in the air and if you watch that jump closely he’s pretty much wheelie’ng into the ramp, which is ultra badass. The world needs more Frisby in it. (Watch ep. 1 of Heath’s ‘Life on the Road’) (Long jump results)
HILLCROSS Saturday held the most interesting addition to X Games with the return of Hillcross. It ended up being a wild event with a lot of carnage in flat light conditions and it would seem that those with a snocross background ending up doing better than those with hill climbing backgrounds.
What you can’t see in this photo is the track screw marks embedded in Rob Kincaid’s arm after getting landed on by Titus in training.
As with everything X Games, the hillcross was a made-for-TV event and this seemed to catch the new to X Games hill climbing crowd off guard. Most hill climbers are used to attending races that are made to enhance the race experience. The single elimination format of the hillcross race meant that many big names were out after only one try at the big show.
warm up on hillcross course.
It’s hard to say the addition of a LCQ (last chance qualifier) isn’t needed. We get that there are time constraints but the one-and-done nature of this event was exceptionally harsh.
Everyone was still pretty stoked on the event. Were there some learning lessons and growing pains throwing the event? Yes. But everyone we talked to would sign up to do it again if they were given the chance.
It seemed like line choice in the start gate was everything. Normally hill climbers don’t have that issue because it’s just them against the mountain and the clock. In hillcross, the person to person battles are a huge component and the first turn of the course claimed a lot of victims. It was almost a better strategy in the qualifiers to hang back a bit through the first corner.
Perhaps some side hilling could have evened out the odds a bit? It’d be neat to see a bit more hillclimbing elements integrated into the course. The chances of the course changing are probably pretty slim. The people who really shone this weeked were snocrossers who have long track and turbo experience. Perhaps the field selection will vary next year?
How stoked are we that a Canadian won? Very. Huge shout out to Ryan Simons on a dominating performance in the final to win gold. Hey Ryan, if by chance you read this, we want to connect with you and do a backcountry ride together this winter.
Good ol’ Canadian chap Ryan Simons wins on the world stage.
SNOCROSS The final discipline on Sunday was Snocross. It was the most well attended live and probably the most watched. Snocorss has a huge following in case you’re stuck in the backwoods of Canada like we are and didn’t really know that.
The first race on the SnoCross course was the Adaptive final where Garrett Goodwin surged to control of the race at the start of the second lap to capture gold. The win was the first of Goodwin’s X Games Aspen career, his third overall. Doug Henry, who struggled off the starting line, battled his way back from a tough start to win the silver. The bronze medal went to Jim Wazny.
The main storyline here was Tucker Hibbert, who was unbeatable. Tucker won gold (his 8th in a row) and became the most consecutive winner in X Games history. It’s fitting that he got this new title on the same weekend where he lost ‘youngest gold medalist’ title to Chloe Kim from Women’s halfpipe.
Since 2007, only one man has taken the top spot in Snowmobile SnoCross and that man, Tucker Hibbert, continued his dominance on Sunday winning his eighth-consecutive gold in the event. Hibbert took advantage of a great start by grabbing the holeshot and never looking back. Kody Kamm, repeated his silver medal performance from 2014 and Ross Martin took the bronze. With the win, Hibbert increased his total X Games medals to 13 – 9 gold, 3 silver and a bronze.
Watch the snocross finals here
The final thought with X Games is, ‘does anybody care?’ Some social media people who were posting during the event said the stats on their posts were less than if they were posting about riding powder and backcountry. It would seem that the sled community, especially in the west don’t follow professional snowmobile competition as much as in other sports, such as moto.
What do you think? Did you watch any of X Games this year? What were the standout moments for you?