euro trippin'

in what seems like a trend of last minute plan changes, somehow now i'm in spain!

X games in france didn't go as good as i'd hoped. Just wasn't riding super good and didn't make the cut to finals. Fun trip of shredding though. pipe was pretty good, and got to ride some nice lines which i always like.
Quickly skipping out of tignes, i headed to italy for a world cup in a town called valmalenco. Knowing it was an 18 foot pipe, i wasn't expecting much. I hate 18foot pipes and generally avoid them. I hadn't ridden one in nearly a year, and less than a week in the last 2 seasons combined. For me, it's extremely different. a 22 foot pipe is nearly 25% bigger than an 18 footer. it's a big difference, it'd be like telling a 100m sprinter to just run 80 meters but their specialty is the last 20 meters of the 100m race.
Some people can bounce back and forth between the 2 pretty easily, but i seem to struggle in an 18 footer in comparison to the 22s. maybe it's because i'm taller and ride bigger boards than most people. I don't know what it is, but that was my last serious contest in an 18 foot pipe that's for sure. On the contest day, i broke a binding in practise, messed up a board during the day and fell really hard in practise for finals. I hit some undervert and put my butt into the coping. I was not stoked. But i ended up 4th at the end of the day and in the lead for the overall world cup pipe title. It's weird how things balance out sometimes.

My plans had me going to boston the next day to visit my brother and the Bern helmet offices, then heading off to the US open in vermont. BUT...
The overall title has never a goal of mine, but being in the lead and having one world cup left was too interesting of a possibility to pass up. It was a really tough decision since the us open is my favorite contest. I'm from the east coast (quebec) and it just feels like home when i'm riding around there. crazy weather, crazy riding, good pipe and slopestyle setup. i love it.
But spain won out due to the crystal globe (prize for the overall)
After riding all day on sunday, traveling to milan, i stayed up nearly all night trying to change plane tickets so i could come to spain. By 430 am i had it all done, passed out and off to spain.
I just got into la molina, checked out the pipe (22 footer that's looking good; hopefuly it'll be riding good) and am settling in for the week.
Should have some time this week to get some video up from the euro trippin. check back.
later
jl