I didn’t edit my video at all because the Olympics crept up on me and I was struggling over whether to do anything with how increasingly problematic they are. But joy is important, especially when you’re living under fascism so I wanted to give anybody who’s coming back to freeskiing and snowboarding after 4 years away a quick and dirty primer on the events and athletes to watch.
I forgot to mention Gus Kenworthy in my video, who decided to come out of retirement and has qualified for Men’s Ski Halfpipe again. He’s riding for Great Britain but as an American citizen, he’s got an important message:
I hate having to make this update because I do love talking about action sports, but staying informed, drafting posts, and adding photos has become a task I cannot keep up with. There are other things I want to put my time and energy towards (unfortunately that does not include the documentary I had announced over two years ago). I also realized that I have a backlog of photos from events that I wasn’t working on because I was focused on other posts. Therefore this blog will now focus on sharing the photos I’ve taken of different action sports events I’ve attended. If you do want to read more of my writing, you can check out my site, https://jenniferelisewang.com/ , which gets updated with new poetry and prose publications.
The oldest photos of my backlog are four years old. In 2021, Scotty Cranmer and his crew came down to Longview, Texas to hold a game of “T-WHIP” (HORSE for BMX riders) between their guy Cory Berglar and Texas BMX legend Morgan Wade.
The event took place one afternoon at Dodson Action Sports Park, and Mat Hoffman joined to referee. Rain started to fall so both Morgan and Cory had some trouble with landing their tricks. However, the hometown advantage seemed to work in Morgan’s favor, as he won with some challenging tricks.
I was so hyped for the 2024 Paris Olympics. I figured that some kinks from the debut of the action sports would be worked out. Plus surfing was going to be at Teahupo’o, which is my favorite contest venue to watch and guaranteed to be something majestic. We definitely got that, but I got frustrated with the coverage. The BMX Freestyle replay was cut off on the NBC site (thank you Mickey for lending me your Peacock account, which had a better replay), and I was bummed that there wasn’t an actual freestyle BMX rider acting as an analyst. There were more inconsistencies with how to say East Asian athletes names and the updated trick names. Add in the transphobic policies governing BMX Freestyle and environmental damage in building the judges’ tower in Tahiti, and the notion that the Olympics kinda suck still remains true. Despite all of this, Paris 2024 gave us some amazing moments and breakout stars (or familiar faces getting new attention), and I’m stoked that the world can appreciate what I admire about action sports athletes.
Best Female Athlete – Yawen Deng (BMX Freestyle)
Photo by Frank Franklin II (AP Photo)
Team China has become a dominant force in women’s freestyle BMX. Some of it is thanks to the legendary Daniel Dhers becoming their coach, but the riders themselves are so determined. Yawen Deng showed her fire and nailed heavy tricks like a triple barspin and double tailwhip with precision. The best part was seeing her let loose when the results came in because the stone-cold athlete gave way to a BMX-loving teenager being totally stoked.
Best Male Athlete – Kauli Vaast (Surfing) Kauli Vaast’s gold medal journey was a fairy tale waiting to unfold. Even though he rode under the French flag, he was representing Tahiti, more specifically Teahupo’o. It was a lot of pressure, and he got off to a rough start having been directed to the Elimination Round. However, he got his revenge on Griffin Colapinto and demonstrated his local knowledge to dominate the rest of the contest. In the final match, he sealed the deal with just two waves that were two of three highest score of finals day.
Brut shared a fabulous video of him doing some Tahitian dance during the medal ceremony in Paris that exemplifies the pride he has for his home country and the meaning behind his win.
Newcomer to Watch – Alfonso Correa (Surfing) Peru’s Alfonso Correa isn’t exactly new, but he was mostly unknown to someone like me who mostly follows the WSL Challenger Series and Championship Tour. Alfonso hasn’t quite made it there, but the Olympics showed that he has the skills. He defeated CT heavyweights Felipe Toledo and Jody Smith and faced a very fired-up Gabriel Medina for the bronze. Some even say that he could’ve gotten the medal had a priority call gone his way; at the very least, we saw that Alfonso has the skills to make it onto the CS and maybe even the CT.
I made a quick video about skateboarding, freestyle BMX, and surfing in the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics. It’s meant to be a very cursory guide for folks who don’t normally follow these sports but will be tuning into the Olympics. Please check it out! (Silly thumbnail is intentional.)
Trying to find the schedule of events has been a bit of a pain, but here’s the livestream schedule for Central Daylight Time:
BMX Freestyle Tue 7/30 – 6:15 AM: men’s and women’s qualifying Wed 7/31 – 6:10 AM: men’s and women’s finals – 10:35 PM: highlights of finals on NBC
Skateboarding Sat 7/27 – 5 AM: men’s street prelims – 10 AM: men’s street finals – 10:30 AM: coverage of finals on NBC – 10:30 PM: highlights on NBC Sun 7/28 – 5 AM: women’s street prelims – 10 AM: women’s street finals – 10:35 PM: highlights on NBC Tue 8/6 – 5:30 AM: women’s park prelims -10:30 AM: women’s park finals – 7 PM: highlights on NBC Wed 8/7 – 5:30 AM: men’s park prelims -10:30 AM: men’s park finals
Surfing (estimated) Sat 7/27 – 12 PM: men’s round 1 – 4:45 PM: women’s round 1 – 10:30 PM: highlights on NBC Sun 7/28 – 12 PM: women’s round 1 – 4:45 PM: men’s round 2 – 10:35 PM: highlights on NBC Mon 7/29 – 12 PM: men’s round 3 – 4:45 PM: women’s round 3 – 10:35 PM: highlights on NBC Tue 7/30 – 12 PM: men’s and women’s quarterfinals – 4:45 PM: men’s and women’s semis and finals – 7 PM and 11:05 PM: highlights on NBC
I meant to write this after my belated Dew Tour recap, but I got hit with a medical scare and then literally with a car. I’m fine now except an annoying foot sprain that won’t go away and is interfering with skateboarding plans. The gnarly scrapes I got give me even more respect for action sports athletes since I’m such a big baby when it comes to dealing with them. Anyway, better late than never: here is my highlight from last year’s action sports happenings.
Best Female Athlete – Megan Oldham (Ski)
Not only did she score two gold medals at X Games Aspen, Megan Oldham made history as the first woman to do land a triple cork on skis or a snowboard. Some of that momentum carried over to the World Cup series where she nabbed a silver and a bronze at two of the events.
Best Male Athlete – Yuto Horigome (Skateboard) While Yuto Horigome may not have gotten the coveted Thrasher Skater of the Year title, one cannot deny the work he put in to make sure he was in contention. He released three different video parts, showing that he’s more than just a contest skater, but he also dominated that with wins at X Games, Street League, and Tampa Pro. To cap things off, Yuto released his first signature Nike SB Dunk Low.
Best Nonbinary Athlete – Lex Hernandez-Roland (Snowboard) This is somewhat of a personal pick since I’ve gotten to know Lex Hernandez-Roland better in 2023. However, I love that they continue to be unapologetically their genderqueer, Mexican-American self, and in 2023, they were everywhere at events like The Uninvited and Snowboy Halo-Halo. Plus they got their second Dew Tour Streetstyle win and created their own bindings.
Oops, I didn’t mean to wait so long to finish up my 2023 Winter Dew Tour lookback. The second day of competition began with overcast skies and the popular Men’s Snowboard Superpipe. The athlete roster was quite interesting as you had heavy hitters like Ayumu Hirano and Taylor Gold going up against Dew tour newcomers like Ryan Wachendorfer and Siddhartha Ulla, who was the first Black and South Asian snowboarder to compete in the Youth Olympics.
The question of the final was whether spins or style would come out on top. Ayumu seemed untouchable since he stomped the triple cork at the 2021 Winter Dew Tour, but he didn’t pull it out this time. Nevertheless his back-to-back 1440s helped give him the lead, and his teammate Raibu Katayama aimed for the moon with his massive opening air to fakie. However, Taylor Gold found his footing at his last run, which was also the last run of the event, and showed how good style with the right amount of difficulty could be a winning combo. He was still more than 5 points away from Ayumu, but that run landed him a second place finish.
I know I’m a year late again. No COVID this time, just life and my neurodivergent brain getting in the way. Anyway, Dew Tour sort of skipped a year because instead of being held in December 2022, the contest was in February 2023. It also got squished to two days since Day 1 again was reserved for practice, not open to the public. Instead of checking out the Dew Tour Experience, which I figured I would have time to later on, I scheduled a snowboarding lesson. That worked out for the best since it dumped in the morning and I got to enjoy powder (even though it’s harder to learn). Click here to see pics from Copper Mountain outside the Dew Tour.
Day 2 kicked off in the morning with Men’s Ski Superpipe finals. Despite the somewhat early start, a decent-sized crowd was there, and we were treated to a mix of freeski veterans like Alex Ferreira and David Wise and newbies like Matt Labaugh and Ben Harrington. Ben in particular won everyone over with his energy; as Chris Coté (who I finally got to meet after a couple of years of being a fan and online friend) said in the broadcast, he was the “people’s champion”. David Wise and Brendan MacKay kept trading places for first and second. The four run format made the battle particularly exciting since you see them go a little bit higher and smooth out their runs over the course of the event. In the end, it was Brendan who got his first Superpipe win.
Getting a solid tailgrab on his double cork 1260s was one of the keys to Brendan’s victory.
Next was Women’s Snowboard Superpipe. The field consisted only of five competitors, which I found disappointing because true equality includes equal opportunities to compete. The absence of heavy hitters did allow everyone a chance to shine. I was stoked that four of the competitors were Asian or Asian-American and that Summer Fenton was holding it down for the non-teens/pre-teens. However, the 11-year-old phenom Patti Zhou blew us all away with her switch backside 900 and sassy responses in interviews. “It’s so easy!” she said after her first run.
I haven’t found the heart to update this blog with the genocide that has been happening in Palestine and still having to go about daily life in a country that is complicit. I had been frustrated with the action sports world remaining relatively silent. Granted, politics are a touchy subject for sponsored athletes, and it turns out I was looking in the wrong place. Beyond the contest scene and big brands are organizations, media, and individuals highlighting the years-long struggle of Palestinian surfers and skaters.
Explore Corps founded the Gaza Surf Club in 2008, and that same year, the documentary God Went Surfing With The Devil highlighted the struggles to just get surfboards into the blocked-off area. Eight years later, a film that centered the voices of Palestinian surfers themselves, Gaza Surf Club. One noteworthy aspect of this documentary is the inclusion of female surfers, and although the male surfers espouse sexist attitudes, this is visual evidence that Palestine is not the oppressive place that Zionists are trying have us believe it is. You can rent Gaza Surf Club on Vimeo.
Last November, Australian surf culture site The Section published a letter, Surfers in Solidarity with Palestine, which condemns the genocide in Gaza and calls for a ceasefire. The Instagram accounts, surfequity and surfyonder, boosted the letter and have continued to post in support of Palestine. Their founders are among the initial signatories of the letter, which also includes Lee-Ann Curren (yes, she’s Tom Curren’s daughter) and Saad Abid. Another notable name on the list is the legendary Tom Carroll, who previously led some of his fellow pros in boycotting South Africa during the apartheid.
The 2023 EarthX Film Festival is happening in Dallas this weekend. It’s the only environmental film and music festival in Texas, and the line-up includes a few short films about outdoor and action sports. Tomorrow night kicks things off with a screening of Common Ground, a feature length documentary about the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and music by Donna Missal. Click here for more info on the festival.
In addition to teaming up with 4DWN (the subject of one of the short films) and Dickies to bring a skate event last year, EarthX Film Festival also brought legends Gerry Lopez and Stacy Peralta to Dallas. Last year’s festival was in May, and the closing night feature was Stacy’s film, The Yin and Yang of Gerry Lopez.
This past week was Nonbinary Awareness Week so I wanted to shout-out the enby (short for nonbinary since NB already stands for “non-Black [person of color]”) pros in the action sports world. Nonbinary individuals identify as being not just strictly “male” or “female”. If you want to learn more, check out the answer to the first question in this article. if you’re here to hate, you can leave because I’m nonbinary and will not tolerate transphobia. Also, I’m a scientist working in neuroscience with a background in genetics so don’t even try to pretend you know biology.
Undoubtedly, the most well-known nonbinary action sports athlete is Leo Baker (he/they), thanks to a cameo in a Miley Cyrus music video and the Netflix documentary, Stay On Board: the Leo Baker Story. I’ve previously talked about the film, which reveals the frustration and stress in trying to conform oneself into the gendered categories of competitive sports. While Leo chose himself over the Olympics, fellow skater Alana Smith (they/them) continued their competitive journey and used the exposure to assert their identity.
Alana’s teammate, Alexis Sablone, explicitly did not identify as nonbinary or use they/them pronouns two years ago, but their Instagram now shows “they/she” pronouns. I add them here with the caveat that they have only identified as queer and don’t like the definitive nature of labels of both the gendered and gender nonconforming variety. To round out this list of skateboarders, we have several members of There Skateboards’ “Gay Team” who are enby: Jessyka Bailey, Sam Bolton, Chandler Burton, Kien Caples, Shag, and Kat Sy. Check them out in the groundbreaking film, Ruining Skateboarding.
On two wheels (although they also participate in board sports), we have Benny Gonzales. Last year, they made history with Subrosa and The Shadow Conspiracy, as the first nonbinary BMX rider with a sponsorship. They also released a sick edit titled “Nonbikenary”.
Finally, there’s snowboarder Alexis “Lex” Hernandez-Roland, who has demonstrated various aspects of their gender identity in Pink Dollar Possy’s Out at Sea. They’re also a friend, and we got take our enby gang at Dew Tour earlier this year.
I’m wearing my “No Gender, Only Fluffy” sweater from Paws of Pride.
Jen
To the Power of X 