Snowboarding Begins at the Games

Welcome back to the Reindeer Games! Today, we begin our eighth and final event of the games, the Snowboarding competition.

This is the first-ever Snowboarding competition at the Reindeer Games, and the new event should be exciting.

“It’s always good to try new things,” says Rudolph. “The Snowboarding event will be fun for the reindeer, and for the fans, too.”

The reindeer will try a different Snowboarding skill each day for the next three days. Today, we have the Slopestyle competition, and then tomorrow the Big Air, and Tuesday we will finish with the Half-Pipe event.

We will add up the scores each day for the reindeer, and the highest total will win the eighth gold medal of the games.

In the Slopestyle, the reindeer perform tricks while moving fast down a mountain and moving around, over, across and down the different bumps and curves in the mountain. The course is full of obstacles, too, including boxes, rails, jumps, jibs and other interesting things. Oh my, that sounds like a challenge.

The reindeer can go down the mountain any way they like (that’s why Snowboarding is fun – you go fast and you can go any way you like!). The reindeer must go fast without falling, and they must perform some very difficult tricks, too.

Ok, let’s head out to the action. First up is Prancer. She’s at the start and she’s off!

Prancer’s moving quickly down the course, and she’s around a few boxes and past the garbage cans. And now what will she do?

Oh, my, it's a double cork 1260 into a double McTwist 1260. Oh that’s just ridiculous. The double cork 1260 is two spins in one direction, while spinning three-and-one-half times in another direction.

“Oh, that’s too much to even think about,” says Rudolph. “I must sit down before I get dizzy. The reindeer are really ready for the first snowboarding event.”

Prancer finishes with a good run, and next up is Dasher. He’s at the gate, and he’s off!

Down the course he goes, moving in and out of the obstacles.

“Dasher is moving smoothly, and having a good run,” says Rudolph.

Ok, now for his set of tricks. Dasher is ready, and he takes-off! Oh, it’s the double McTwist 1260 and then two double corks. Oh, that’s just superb. A McTwist is, among other things, a double flip while spinning around three times – yes, all at the same time!

“That’s just a great job by Dasher,” says Rudolph. “The competition is going really well so far.”

Indeed, and all the reindeer did well on the first day, and the scores are very close so far. Tomorrow should be even more fun. Check back when the Snowboarding continues with the Big Air competition!