Uncorked! We dig deep into the double cork playbook to see which riders have it, what their variations are on the trick and where the most hyped-up pipe trick (in an Olympic year) goes from here. Comment Email Print Share By Alyssa Roenigk
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Pablo AzocarShaun White debuted his double cork 1080 in New Zealand last month. White won pipe at both the NZ Open and the NZ Winter Games. Sometimes, just believing something is possible</SPAN> makes it so. (Isn't that what they fed us in "The Secret"?) The double cork is a perfect example. Six months ago, no one was sure the trick was even possible in the halfpipe. The learning process seemed downright dangerous, not to mention scary as hell, and no one seemed willing to step up and take the risk of attempting the trick to snow.
 
 
Then, in March, Red Bull built Shaun White a private, perfectly manicured, 22-foot superpipe, complete with the sport's first foam pit, in Silverton, Colo. Dubbed Project X, the company flew White and a few friends to Silverton, where it took the 2006 Olympic gold medalist -- who had surgery on his right hand just four days prior -- all of three days to figure out the trick. The frontside double cork 1080 came first. "On my first try to snow, I hit my butt. The second, I dragged my hand and the third it was, 'Stomp!'" White told me in Silverton, two weeks into the experiment. "I had imagined it taking longer, and I was really nervous. It worked differently than I imagined, but it worked. I used to learn a trick a day. But now, to learn a new trick in a couple days, a trick that's never been done, is unheard of for me. This is exciting."
 
 
Phil Erickson Luke Mitrani dropped the double cork at the NZ Open. It landed him second place next to White.  
 
Once word leaked that White had landed a double cork -- one of several tricks he conquered in Colorado -- his competition went to work. "It was like the four-minute mile," says U.S. snowboard coach Ricky Bower. "Once one person landed it, the flood gates opened. Now guys on the Chinese team are trying them."
 
 
Still, it wasn't until the New Zealand Open in mid-August when the international snowboard community picked up on the storyline that will follow these athletes straight to Vancouver. (In Torino, the story was back-to-back 1080s. In Vancouver, and in the Grand Prix season leading up to the Olympics, the double cork will dominate.) White planned to keep a lid on his new tricks until later in the season, but his hand was forced on the double cork when other riders began throwing the trick publicly Down Under. Although the cork is out of the bag, there is a benefit to its early reveal: Come winter, fans will be educated about what they're watching and judges will be better equipped to score the trick.
 
 
Louie Vito, who learned double corks at the U.S. team camp in Mt. Hood this summer after working double backflips on a trampoline in Park City, was the first rider to land the trick in competition. He threw a frontside double cork 1080 in the semifinals of the NZ Open on Aug. 15, followed by White, who landed the same trick. In the finals, Vito, White and Luke Mitrani -- who landed a double cork 900 melon -- all landed double corks in their finals runs. Mitrani took second place and White, who landed the first back-to-back double corks, won the event with a cab double cork 1080 stalefish and a frontside double cork 900. (Vito finished ninth.) White is still the only rider with back-to-back double corks, as well as the only rider who can land the trick both frontside and switch (cab). (He also owns the only double cork backside 1080, but has yet to land it in competition.)
 

Once one person landed it, the flood gates opened. Now guys on the Chinese team are trying them. -- U.S. Snowboard coach Ricky Bower

 
 
The week after the Open, White also won the World Cup halfpipe opener in Wanaka, New Zealand, which sets up one exciting winter contest season. Only four riders will make the U.S. Olympic team for the men. Already, seven U.S. riders claim ownership of a variation on the Trick of the Year. But Danny Davis, who owns two variations of the trick, says the double cork isn't  阅读全文>>