You hear the word “style” a lot at the X Games. As style is a personal interpretation of what looks cool, there is no consensus among the athletes about what it really means. Is it snowboarder Danny Davis’ arch-backed, straight-legged, back-to-basics method air? Taylor Gold’s super-technical, flat-spinning double Michalchuk? Skier Gus Kenworthy spinning both left and right off the slopestyle jumps? David Wise’s tail grabs during frenzied spinning down the halfpipe? Kelly Clark’s monster airs in the pipe?
As skiers and snowboarders master increasingly complicated spinning tricks, the role of style can lose its luster. Judges charged with counting the flips that help define snowboarding and freeskiing also have to recognize the often split-second pokes, grabs and tweaks that athletes insert into their acrobatic performances. Oftentimes, that progression — another overworked word in the X parlance — eclipses style.
But watch for a resurgence of style at this year’s show, which begins Wednesday, as athletes loosen up their runs after last year’s hectic, stick-to-the-playbook race to the Sochi Olympics.
With almost every top-tier athlete now including the most difficult tricks into their runs — double-flipping spins in the pipe, triple-flips in slopestyle — style suddenly becomes the differentiator.
“There are very few tricks that just one guy has these days,” said Davis, who won his first X Games gold last year with a pair of relatively simple yet smooth and lofty method airs. “Style is what sets you apart from everybody.”
Last year, Davis grew tired of the double-cork spins that seemed required for halfpipe podiums. They were hard on the body and downright scary. He decided that if he was going to compete in five Olympic qualifying contests in six weeks, he would have to develop a run that he enjoyed.
He started looking for tricks that his fellow riders were not throwing.
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“In a way, I kind of regressed on tricks,” Davis said. “Instead of going double-double this-that into something else into another double, I dialed it back a bit. Trick choice is a big part of your style, especially with all these spinny tricks lately where the grabs are just hanging on. It’s not that those tricks aren’t cool. Those double corks are unreal and they are super hard, but it’s really hard to make them look cool and to put different grabs in there when you are really just trying not to land on your head.”
Personal expression Creativity and style are interchangeable concepts in the judging world. And creativity — beyond trick selection — largely boils down to how athletes grab their boards while airborne. There’s little room for variation when a skier or snowboarder is spinning 1080 or 1260 degrees, but what they do with their hands while spinning above the snow is where personal expression emerges.
“If you are able to grab in a unique way, that is really, to me, the essence of style,” said Andy Woods, U.S. Freeskiing’s halfpipe coach. “It’s your own personal flair on every trick that you do, so everyone wants to make sure they do it differently.”
For example, Wise is working an inside tail grab on the left-side double cork 1260 that has helped him earn three X Games gold medals and the first-ever Olympic gold in skiing’s halfpipe debut last year in Sochi. He’s adding a touch of style to the hardest trick in the pipe.
That’s where style belongs, say the technical wizards such as Telluride’s double-threat freeskier Kenworthy, who competes in both halfpipe and slopestyle. Too much focus on style can muddle judging, he said. It’s too subjective, and it challenges athletes who have to change their runs to meet expectations for different judging panels.
“I feel like when judges try to focus too much on style and really put an emphasis on personal expression, it just becomes really hard to judge. The biggest thing our sport needs from judges is consistency,” Kenworthy said. “I feel judges should judge based on technicality, originality and variation.”
Last year, as both freeskiers and snowboarders aimed for Sochi, runs at X Games became repetitive. Athletes in the hunt for the Olympic team stuck with their “A” runs. Messing with what they had practiced increased the chances of messing up when it mattered most. This year, there’s no such concern.
Clark and Australian Torah Bright are shouldering the responsibility as guardians of snowboard style in the halfpipe.
“I would hate to see snowboarding take on a spin-to-win type of approach where the person doing the most rotations and the most flips is going to automatically win,” said Clark, the winningest snowboarder in history. “It’s always been really important to me that style does not get left behind.”
Everyman appealIt’s the less-technical, style-drenched tricks that keep snowboarding relevant, Clark said. Not everyone can float a 25-foot method air like Shaun White or Davis, but most every rider can try a 2-foot method. The multiflipping spins don’t have that everyman appeal.
“You want to make snowboarding approachable. You want to make it accessible. You want it to continue to be relatable,” said Clark, who will be vying for her eighth halfpipe gold Saturday night. “To be able to go out there with style and show the things that are important to us, it’s just an invitation to people.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or
