Neptune air

Then while Jasey was putting down his landing gear, Ryan was enjoying the view above the crowd. He sailed above and beyond Jasey, the landing and right onto the finsh line with a winning splat. It was sick.

It didn't seem to phase Ryan. "I knew I could catch him. This was more technical than all the other ones. Everyone here hated it and I was just lovin' it. When you get down to where everyone has to speed check for a jump, it all comes down to the guy that can handle the jumps faster," Ryan said from the finish.

Brown launch

Drew Neilson was ruling every heat until the end. He was in third and closing until he checked the last double jump and slipped out on his landing.He lost his podium spot to Ross Powers who pulled in third. Powers, who had trouble bumpin' boards in the air with race boy Jeff Greenwood earlier in the day, but held on to the finals. Another ruler today was Seth Wescott. He too was looking for a podium with steady leads through many a heat. Seth had it all morning, but got bumped down to the consolation round with Jason Brown who took fifth to Seth's sixth. They get some good loot all the same.

The ladies race was crazy. Some of the top women had let themselves go and this course didn't allow for unchecked speed. Brittney Mahanna is in her first year racing and didn't seem too surprised by her win. It must be that conservative ski racing background. She seems relaxed now though and ruled every heat she raced, keeping her head on throughout the finals and into first place.

Julie Rheaume proved she could rule this course on hard boots. She kept her edges on snow and powered behind Brittney for second place. Lynn Ott prevailed without injury and came through clean with third.

Mahanna

Although the field of competition was light due to a bunch of no shows, the race was a spectacle from all angles. The state of this course meant a lot of speed checks that needed to be precise in order to land correctly. The technical aspects of the boardercross course were no more daunting than any of the previous boardercross races this year, but the frequency of these technical parts forced many a rad rider off course and into the Maine sunset.

Knocked Out...Like Cold
Well let's see, first I saw Mathieu Morency holding his side saying he didn't remember the start, but he did remember waxing his board before the start. Sounds like he only lost a few minutes.

Freak show, Mike Kildevaeld was attacking this techno show on his big GS board with disasterous results. Not only did he almost kill anyone who came near his huge edges, but, he said, "I did a superman dive over the double, bounced on my belly on the landing, then hit my chin and knocked myself out. Then at the bottom I noticed everything was blurry."

Consolation

Adam Smith hit it the hardest. On the first large launch, Adam not only cleared the landing, but let his board get out in front of him in the process. He went about seven meters down onto ice on his lower back. When I pulled his board off him he was out and kinda snoring, but he came around but was still in no condition to walk away from that one.

Julie Zell was going for speed when she knocked herself out, too. Shaking at the finish, she said "one eye is going in all different directions." Asked why she kept going, she replied, "I didn't know what was happening, but I just got up and started following her. My body was just in race mode."

I don't know what happened to Nillard today. She was having an off day, but then I saw her go down and her board go shooting off course and down the mountain. I was scared. Thankfully they're all conscious now. All I can say is that's whacked and I'm gettig a full face helmet.

Everyone was thankful to walk away and now the halfpipe will go off under the lights and everyone will dance on the roof of the Snow Cap Lodge. I'm gonna take a long nap at the bottom of the hot tub. Guten nacht.

— Hans Prosl, in nieve bliss for Der Mountain Zone

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