I wonder what it is like to fly 22 feet out of a half pipe with 18-foot walls while rotating one and a half times around, as Simon Dumont did as he went on to win the skiing SuperPipe.
I wonder what it is like to flip a snowmobile end over end twice as Karl Allard of Canada did in the middle of a Snocross race only to get back on and finish last in the qualifying round.
I wonder what it is like to crank a snowmobile through a back flip or bail while trying to rotate a dirt bike 360 degrees and fall flat on the snow below, the bike tumbling down behind him.
Completing tricks that at one time were thought to be impossible or inventing new tricks have increased the popularity of this generally new type of sport.
Extreme sports have exploded into our lives and onto primetime television. Last week, Aspen hosted the eighth annual Winter X-Games with such sports as snowboarding, skiing and snowmobiling.
ESPN cameras have turned the X-Games into a spectator sport, to an event in which people can watch from their living rooms during a reasonable hour without freezing on the slopes of Buttermilk Mountain.
The rise of extreme sports is what has made Tony Hawk one of the richest men in America, not bad for making a career out of skateboarding.
It is a different kind of sport, one that seems to attract younger viewers. Maybe that is why so many DU students headed up to Aspen to watch the excitement.
“I just thought it was a fun experience, there were more people my age and a bunch of parties,” said junior Richard Steadman. “You could see [the park and pipe] under the lights when you drove up.” Quite a sight according to Steadman and part of what fueled the athletes’ adrenalin in the final rounds.
Others such as Jason Landress went because a group of friends were going and it was a chance to get away. Landress believes that people go because they want to see someone with more guts and little fear go big. “It is a life or death sport” in some cases with the consequences of the activity being quite high.
Many athletes listen to music while stretching and getting ready to compete. Some competitors in the SuperPipe competitions leave their headphones on to stay in their groove.
Shaun White, 17, who has been referred to as the next Tony Hawk, defended his title in the Slopestyle competition, but had to withdraw from the final round of the SuperPipe finals due to a knee injury.
White also competes as a professional skateboarder and almost makes a career from traveling from Winter to Summer X-Games competitions.
In the Snocross competition, Mike Island of Canada wins after announcing at the beginning of the competition that he was going to win it all.
Island and other competitors flew over 110 feet through the air on a snowmobile in one part of the course.
The X-Games are not only attracting younger viewers, but also younger competitors such as Jamie Anderson, who took time off from eighth grade to compete in the snowboard cross competition.
Also competing was Kazuhiro Kokubo, the 15-year-old Japanese SuperPipe rider who knows little English other than snowboard talk but knows how to go big.
At 21, I’d almost be ancient.
The SuperPipe features most of the best riders on the planet.
It is like watching the Olympics every year.
It is like taking a bunch of extreme sports and for two weeks a year, winter and summer, bringing them to primetime television.
Similar to the Hail Mary throw or the home run, the ability to go big either off a jump or out of the halfpipe is attracting a younger crowd of people who one day hope to be the future of the sport. Or at least watch cool tricks.
