We are proud to be bringing you a 3 part update from Helly Hansen ambassador Samson Danniels and his qwest for X-Games Gold in Mono X. Over the next few days look for his account of training, qualifying and everything surrounding this year's Winter X-Games:
Part 1:
I’ve been in Aspen for three days. The gruesome travel day to get here involved three hours of driving, four airports, three flights with heavy turbulence and a border crossing without a passport. When my support man and I finally got into Aspen we sampled a great meal and a well deserved cold pint at a local hangout in town, then exhausted, found our home for the week and called it a night.
We woke up in the morning to see the massive X games features looming on the mountain above us. We took off for the venue and got our accreditation, and went for a few laps to stretch the legs after the gruesome travel day. We checked the schedule and realized we had to make our way to course inspection.
This is my first time in a Mono X event, and was my first time even going down a ski/boarder X course! Very quickly I realized I was going to be in for quite the week! The course starts with an eight-foot step-down and a mandatory 35-foot gap, winds its way through a collage of rollers, step-downs, step-ups, tables, berms and gaps. I have always hated doing course inspections because I’ve always found features and terrain to be intimidating when you look too hard at them!
The next day I saddled up for my first runs through the course. Somehow I was the first athlete at the start, and in the guinea pig position to test everything out as the first sit skier down the course. I took a deep breath and gave a good hard pull out the gate. Everything was working, a little ragged but working… until the first road gap. Despite a healthy speed check I overshot the landing zone by what felt like a mile, and landed on very flat terrain. I was able to hold it together and ski out; I kept pushing on, and cleared the 55-foot gap at the finish perfectly. Super stoked I got back to the start for my second run ASAP! I decided to try and smooth things out, even if it meant compromising some speed. Everything was going perfectly to plan when I came up short on the bottom gap. I blew the top of my suspension tower in my sit ski clean off, and destroyed every piece of equipment I had on! My binding broke, race plate shattered, ski delaminated, and there were barely any salvageable parts on my sit ski! When I hit the knuckle before the landing I actually bounced further then the initial jump, landing down near the finish line. Luckily it was my pride and equipment more wounded than my body!
I spent all day today getting new equipment sorted out. Borrowing pieces and trying to salvage anything I could from friends and fellow competitors; I was able to get something built in time for a test run in the afternoon.
Tomorrow morning is qualifiers. I’m nervous and excited! I’ve been visualizing the course in my head, and ready for action. Time to turn it up in Aspen!
