Scotty Lago can hit the top of the podium anytime with his explosive riding. Seriously, this 1080 is just plain wrong

Let's just say it right now; the Olympics screw up snowboarding. Obviously if you get an Olympic medal it does not screw up your life to bank an additional million dollars (there once was a study that said an Olympic medal is worth an average million dollars in endorsement money) It does not really hurt snowboarding to get all the additional outside corporate money that the Olympics draw. If Totinos wants give a bunch of money, fine, I actually buy Totinos Pizza Rolls and if they wanna pay Danny Davis and Mason and support events, fine. Say what you want about corporate sponsorship but Totino's could not stock the free Totinos freezer in the athlete lounge at the Dew Tour fast enough to keep up with the pace it was being eaten. I digress, the bad part of the Olympics is that for like a freaking year everyone focuses so much on the Olympics; from the media and fans to the riders to everything else and it all comes down to just 5 or 6 walls of pipe riding in Vancouver, is it really worth all that attention? Imagine if snowboarding was not in the Olympics, the 2009-2010 season would be just another year. People could not just write the whole year off with the Olympics as a reason to not do anything else. People would have to be more creative than focusing their whole season on a 5-6 wall pipe ride. Maybe Terje had something when he chose not to compete in the 1998 Olympics. Then again, maybe the Olympics push the sport to new levels too?

What does the Olympics have to do with the Dew Tour? For reasons unknown the Dew Tour ran with an 18' tall pipe as opposed to the 22' tall pipe expected in Vancouver. While there are some newer folks at the Dew Tour trying to get them to run with a 22' pipe from here on out it is not always easy. Resorts sometimes have plan well ahead, to get enough snow and a big ol pipe shaper is not as easy to come by as a used Toyota Camry on Craigslist but in the meantime, it's snowboarding, it is not going to save the world, it's supposed to be fun, who the hell cares if it is a 18' or 22' foot pipe. It must be nice have the financial ability to decide not to enter a contest and turn down the $10,000 prize money and maybe even the $90,000 (exact number not confirmed) over all prize money for the whole tour. All of the above is a long winded way of saying that a number athletes did not enter the Dew Tour and while it would be impossible to go down the list and say exactly why, the general consensus is that riders like Shaun White, Louie Vito, Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler and more were absent due to pipe dimensions. It's all fine really, you have to respect those decisions and those riders still rule. Besides with Danny winning, the prize money probably created a lot more more fun for a lot more people since he probably partied with a ton people afterwords, so an economic trickle down theory, of you will.

Danny was pretty stoked to complete what he started in Copper, making a complete run and landing on top of the podium. His run started off with a cab 1080 double cork right into a frontside 10 and Danny is definitely a key contender for Vancouver. I-Pod was one of the first to bring back to back 10's to the world so it's definitely not a shock to see that he also launched into a cab 1080 double cork for his first hit and rolling into second. JJ Thomas is not content to bask in his 2002 Olympic medal glory, he is still charging it and landed in 3^rd spot.

For the women's side of pipe events it is kind of tough to describe. With the the big hitters like Kelly Clark absent, head high airs and spins with solid grabs were hard to find. A few 900's went down and a few big airs too...let's just say there was a lot of talent with a lot of potential and we will see these girls blowing up.

The next Dew Tour stop stop will be the Wendy's Invitational at Snowbasin, UT January 15-17, 2010 Who will show for the pipe? Who cares because Snowbasin is one of the most underrated and fun resorts in the US; the riding in the event and potentially your riding on the mountain will go off.

Danny Davis has always been worthy of attention but after this past week of the Grand Prix and Dew Tour going off one weekend after another it is appearant that Danny Davis is the freakin man. His riding is perhaps the most exciting to watch; big, stylish and tech. Danny makes the riding look so fun and he knows how to live, having fun in about everything.  This giant frontside air was in a vistory lap, after he had wrapped up a victory

I-pod started off his run, bang, with a cab double cork 10

Festival Village, full of stuff for the kids – photo by Joe Carter

Luke Mitrani – photo by Joe Carter

Sarah Conrad, frontside 5

Breckenridge is known to have some of the best parks and pipe in the world but it's freeriding is also a big attraction. This photo shows 12,998' tall peak 8 which can easily be summited via the Imperial Express chair, lot's of bowl and chuteing options up there and elsewhere on the mountain

Elena Hight can go big

Iikka-Eemeli Laari

Matt Ladley, front 1080

Mr. Black had quite a week with a 3^rd at the Grand Prix and a 6^th at the Dew Tour, you will be seing more of this guy – frontside 9

Mason Aguirre maybe should have an Olympic Bronze medal, that he earned in 2006, in his possession but he got robbed and got 4^th instead. Mason got 4^th at the Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge. Speaking of the Aguirre's where was his sister she could have won women's pipe

Women's podium, l-r, Sarah Conrad, Queralt Castellet and Kjersti Buass, photo by allisports.com

Men's podium, l-r, I-pod, Danny Davis and JJ Thomas, photo by allisports.com

Results

Men

1 Danny Davis

2 Iouri Podlachikov

3 JJ Thomas

4 Mason Aguirre

5 Steve Fisher

6 Zacahry Black

7 Iikka-Eemeli Laari

8 Fredrik Austbo

9 Roger Kleidval

10 Janne Korpi

11 Matt Ladley

12 Scotty Lago

Women

1 Queralt Castellet

2 Sarah Conrad

3 Kjersti Ostgaard Buass

4 Kelly Marren

5 Elena Hight

6 Kaitlyn Farrington