In the five years I’ve been covering the US Open, this is the closest contest I’ve ever seen. And while I wouldn’t have wanted to be a judge at today’s event, I think they were a little off with awarding Kazuhiro Kokubo the title today. Thankfully, in the women’s event, things were much more defined, with Kelly Clark claiming her fourth US Open pipe victory.

Kazu’s run, which was awesome, included a massive Frontisde 900 into an even bigger McTwist Chicken Wing to a Frontside 1080 Tail among a few other 1080s and was definitely a podium-worthy run. It just shouldn’t have been the winner, since he had a minor sketch-out on one of his first Frontside 1080s. The problem here is that you ust can’t score a run at 97.17 points with anything but perfect execution on every trick. So second place comes as a bitter sweet present for Louie Vito, who celebrates his birthday today. He had a unbelievable run which saw a Front 10 Double Cork, Cab 10 Double Cork, Double Crippler, Backside 9, into a Frontside 10 for a score of 96.17. Unfortunately for him, the judges didn’t score this as high as Kazu’s run.

“I’m happy. It’s my birthday,” says Vito just after his run, though he looked very disappointed with not taking the victory. “I could care less what the judges say.”

But I can’t really say who was robbed more: Vtio or Ipod. Third place Iouri Podladtchikov’s first run was not only good enough for the podium: he stepped things up a massive Cab 1080 Double Cork, a Front 5 into a Double McTwist 12 (the same one Shaun White does) with a first run score of 96. In his third run, he tried to one-up himself, but fell on the Double McTwist, causing his first score to stand for third.

It all capped a day of pipe riding that, not surprisingly, was of better quality than the Olympics—even though Shaun White chose not to ride. I just wished that the best rider of the day was awarded the win of such an incredibly presigious title—in my opinion, the biggest title in snowboarding.

More to come later in Snowboardcanada.com’s News Section.

Whistler, B.C. – A lot of good things happen at the annual SIA tradeshow, in Denver Colorado. You get to check out all the new lines of next year’s gear, see a lot of the pro shreds you might not bump into at any other time, and you get to meet with all the brands so hear what they’vr got going on..

 At one such meeting with Oakley Canada's Alex Langevin and Ingrid Siriois, they told us of their massive plans during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games (yeah, using the full name here just for S.E.O.) to bring in all of their big partners (a who's who of the top North American retailers) for the week for the festivities and culminate in a day of catboarding at Powder Mountain Catboarding --  which is owned in part by snowboarding legends Don Swartz and Ken Achenbach – on the day after the women’s pipe finals, and they wanted Snowboard Canada there to join them. So really, how could we say no?

What started with an early morning (6 a.m. at the Oakley Safe House in Vancouver, to be exact) ended up with us at the base of PMS about two hours later.

Here we are, just getting assembled before the drive up to the cats. Birke photo.

And in the cat on our drive up to the snow. Birke photo.

The view out the window on the way up... some sick terrain in here, and some of it's really familiar to shreds. We're just a few minutes sled ride away from the famed Tricouni Cliffs. Michel Laramée photo.

Once we're at the top, we're treated to a great view of Whistler Blackcomb... in a way I've never seen them before. Whistler, with its runs to the Creekside are in the foreground. Birke photo.

Oakley Canada's Alex Langevin drops in with a nice surfy backside slash. James Ray/Powder Mountain Catboarding photo.

Axis Boutique's Phil Chouinard drops a Tailgrab as our guide Shamus Hayes looks on. Safety first. James Ray/Powder Mountain Catboarding photo.

Me, with a little slash too... Couldn't resist, really. James Ray/Powder Mountain Catboarding photo.

Canadian shred emeritus Derek Heidt cruises with fresh snow all in front of him. Heidt wanted to get into some of the gnarlier stuff PMS has to offer but due to questionable condistions in the days previous, we had to stick to slopes that had no "convexity". (Right, Shamus? Proper use of the term, eh?). James Ray/Powder Mountain Catboarding photo.

And here's one of Derek's classic Indy pokes.

Mineki from Rude Boys in Banff tried this drop twice and nailed it both times... Here's an Ollie. James Ray/Powder Mountain Catboarding photo.

Just some of what we gazed at all day... our lines from afar. James Ray/Powder Mountain Catboarding photo.

Snowboard Canada's Matt Aiken got in more than a few slashes before the day was done, including one that resulted in a really close call with "Death Rock" or, as most of our crew called it: "Le Roche de Mort". Matty survived the tumble with everything intact, except for his goggles... Good thing he knew some people there who could help him out. James Ray/Powder Mountain Catboarding photo.

And here's the crew at the end of an awesome day. 'Til next time, PMC. Birke photo.

For more into on Powder Mountain Catboarding, check out their website here.   

Just when you thought the world was a messed up place... Adam Levitt, editor of SBC Wakeboard just sent us this link of a Cable Park System made by Secitec on snow in Norway, complete with kickers and rails. Is this, as he put it, a sign the apocalypse is near? (Cats and dogs living together...Mass hysteria.) Could it be legit if they let go after every hit? You be the judge for yourself and comment below. Looks kinda like snowkiting to me...

There’s a new facebook group I saw today called “Snowboarders against Christine Brennan”  , which at the time of this blog post, had just over 3,000 members. I joined it immediately.

If you haven't had a chance to watch the ABC News piece about Kevin Pearce’s tragic injury entitled “Risky Manuever Lands Snowboarder in a Coma”, I'll paraphrase Ms. Brennann's comments, which appear after the initial story: She says the IOC needs to “rein in snowboarding” to stop these injuries that are the result of riding’s progression and that it’s their duty to do so because the “I.O.C. are the leaders of the sport.” Seriously? One the I.O.C. has jurisdiction over the Olympics, and nothing else. It doesn't run snowboarding. Snowboarding’s been around a lot longer than its presence in the Games, and if the I.O.C. banned Double Corks and other subsequent progression in snowboarding, it’d get pretty damn boring, pretty damn fast. Snowboarders would still be pushing the sport, they'd just be watching a more anemic version of it every four years, which would fail, since the best in the world either wouldn't be riding at their potential, or would jsut stay away fromt he games in protest.

Let’s face it—snowboarding can be dangerous at the highest levels of participation. And when you’ve got a few coveted spots on your country’s Olympic team and only a few contests to ensure that you’re on it—you’ve got to pull out all the stops, and in this case that means to throw Double Corks, or you don't go to the Games. This format for selection is also the best way to ensure that the best riders at that time are on the Olympic team. Perhaps the only real problem here is that there are about 10 people in the U.S. who could place Top 20 in Vancouver if allowed to go, and there are only three or four spots to fill.

Christine Brennann is just clearly out of touch here, and I'm so sick of talking heads like this on TV who have no real authority to be speaking about snowboarding, doing exactly that without anyone checking them and their views. Where's the balance? Is this Fox News?

Yeah, she's right that the I.O.C. brought snowboarding into the Olympics to attract a younger audience -- and that's because it was largely an older audience who were watching the Games -- but they also couldn't deny it's popularity anymore either. The whole ski industry likely would've died ages ago if it weren't for snowboarding bringing millions of people to the mountains (and Gnu/Lib Tech's Mike Olson developing progressive sidecuts, which are now used on "shaped skis". But to say that snowboarding’s progression needs to be “reined in” to prevent these sorts of injuries from happening is downright ludicrous. That’s like saying that figure skaters shouldn’t be spinning around as much, or that skiers in the downhill event should be forced to stay within a set speed limit, as some of the members of the Facebook group rightfully suggest. The Olympics are about the best—and sadly, there are risks on the road to excellence no matter what sport you’re participating in. Everyone at the pro level understands this, and its potential consequences.

Most importantly here, when reporting on this sort of issue, major TV news organizations really need to present multiple viewpoints, not just one presented as an "authority" who’s really just spewing her un-founded opinions. If only they brought in Snowboarder's Pat Bridges or Todd Richards to refute her comments live... Now that'd be TV worth watching.

--Scott Birke, editor, Snowboard Canada

P.S. -- In case you haven’t joined it yet, here’s the Facebook group to join to support Kevin Pearce’s recovery—let’s all hope he has a quick one. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Well-Wishes-to-our-Frend-Kevin-Pearce/232366118918?ref=ts

So on our second day here in Whistler for planning next year's editorial, John Scarth, Gerhard Gross and I decided to hike to the top of the Peak Chair to see if the snow was still as awesome as it was reported to have been last week.

Nice tourist pose, eh?... When we were hiking up the cat track, these Aussie free-heelers stopped and took our photo... Then a few minutes later, we were at the top, which was pretty much a dead zone and something I'd never experienced before. When do you ever see shit like this?

That's at the top of that cliff on the Peak Chair, right before you get off at the the top. Note the lack of chairs on that... We did a run in Whistler Bowl right after that, while it wasn't all time like it was last week, we still got some nice turns in wind-packed snow, it was incredible since there was no one else in there. Seriously -- no one.

Then after a brief stop at home and a few meetings with photographers Jeff Patterson, Evan Chandler-Sones, Mark Gribbon and writer Feet Banks we met up with the Red Bull crew who was throwing down a night at Sushi Village...

That's Red Bull's Gabe Authier on the right, armed with an Asahi and one of Sushi Vill's signature sake margaritas.

Close up shot...

Left to right—that's me, Gerhard, Scarth and Pete Andersen. (And yeah, those are bottles of Asahi in paper bags. We bought the beers, Dylan Temple gave us the bags.)

And here's Véronique Goulet, Camp of Champions' Fabia Gruber, Marie-France Roy, and Oakley's Ingrid Sirois.

Gabe killing it... After Sushi Village, we were off to BBK's Pub at the base of Blackcomb where Jay Greenway and the legendary Wes Makepeace were playing... Turns out it was a who's who of awesome there...

Here's Jay, who also plays in The Fall of Summer with Mike Calder and Mark Bannock.

Here's Wes Makepeace, and if you've never heard his stuff, check it out here. Awesome.

Awww... it's Priscilla Levac and Crispin Cannon.

... And me and Nix (Chris Nichols, from FourStar Distribution and C1RCA).

We're off to the Whistler Creek Productions's Third Annual Whistler Film Festival Party tonight. If you're in town, come out and meet up with us, and if you're not, check out our photos tomorrow.