White Gold

My wedding ring is made out of white gold, but what I really feel excited about right now is that Shaun White just won an Olympic gold medal. Now, I am not this huge commercialization of snowboarding fan, even though I've been working for the Winter X Games for seven years, but I like to see snowboarding at its highest level going off. Now all the mainstream media is hyping the hell out of the "Flying Tomato," which I've never heard anyone other than media actually call him. Danny Kass, Mason Aguirre, and Andy Finch all did so well. Finch riding in a damaged state and still rallying to the finals, Kass just rolling along sort of not giving a fuck - but stoked on everything just the same - and Mason Aguirre, who will be making his name known throughout the world in the years to come. As a snowboarder I am grateful that we were represented by a cross section of dudes who speak so well of snowboarding.

The ladies will step to it tomorrow. I am a big fan of our ladies as well. I really like Kelly Clark because she is not the darling that the other girls are, but she is pushing snowboarding and women's athletics. I started watching her ride when the X Games were in Mt. Snow, VT in 2000. I think she was 16. Anyhow, its nice that a New Englander without the hype and glamour (kind of like Ross Powers) is quietly charging her way towards her second olympic medal. Gretchen Bleiler is a honey and her "A" game will put her on the podium without a doubt. I would like to see these two take the one - two positions on the podium and I really don't care who gets first. Elana will be around for years to come and I bet she is going to start pushing the level as well. Same for Hannah Teter. We have a stacked team and the rest of the world is going to have to pull out some big guns (like Dick Cheney) if they want to shoot our ladies down.