The way I kinda of go about blogging is loose structured, possibly grammatically incorrect rambling... so here is my ramble for today. 

Alright. I should have wrote this while I was in Argentina, but I couldn't get on the internet at the hotel I was staying at. My only web access was at a restaurant where I ate dinner every night, so I figured I would wait till I am back in Utah and settled.

So the US Snowboard team went down to Argentina for a late summer camp, two warm up events and the first snowboard cross world cup of the season. After roughly 36 hours of traveling the team arrived to a town called San Martin in Northern Patagonia. 

San Martin is a small town of about 4000 people. It sits in nestled in the Andes about a three hour drive north of Baraloche. It was dumping when we arrived and I guess was snowing for the previous few days before we got there. 

We had to get some miles under our belt before our competition. What better way to do that than in waist deep pow? 

We were riding at a mountain called Chapelco. Its a family resort, for the most part with some unreal backcountry. But the avalanche danger would have been way too gnarly to go off piste so we stayed on trail. The first two days we were in waist deep on trail. The mountain was too flat to go in the trees for more than a few turns. I'll try to paint a mental image here. It snowed 6 feet in two days. There are about 5 of us riding together. All 5 of us jump off trail with in about a second of each other to land in goggle deep snow in the trees that we could not get out of. It took us by surprise, just kinda gophered our way in a hole that took about 10 minuets to get out. So you get the picture, we shredded the nasty for a few days then started training.

The South American cup races had a mixed field of Pros and Ams. For us it was more about greasing our bearings. I needed it for sure because stuff just wasn't second nature yet. We were all just prepping for the world cup. 

Well fast forward to the big show. This world cup is important for our country and the riders. We were competing for the max quota spots for the 2010 Olympic games. Also as individuals we have to remain in the top 30 so we have a world cup start for the 09,10 season to get into the Olympics.

The world cup course was built by David Ny. One of the best in the world. (My personal opinion) Everyone should check out scandinavianshaper.com to see what else this guy does.

David built a 90 second long course with big rollers, huge jumps and technical sections where a rider had to nail a transition to advance or settle for an average finish. I can't rave about it enough. I wish I had more pictures of it. We had 5 jumps in a row followed by 3 rollers, another massive jump into a massive double. Stuff that would easily rival the X Games course. And these jumps weren't typical SBX jumps, they were cheese wedges, hand of Thor, type of jumps. 

Well the course claimed a few victims, nothing too serious, but you had to bring your A game. The US had a strong showing in qualis, with the most riders to make the finals. All 8 men and 4 out of 5 women. 

The finals were crazy. I mean 4 people hitting jumps at the same time that were upwards of 20 meters from take off to knuckle. Nuts

Unfortunately, Seth Wescott and Shaun Palmer were injured either in practice or qualifiers and basically just pulled out of the gate hanging in the back and riding safe. Nate Holland, Jason Smith and Graham Watanabe had strong showings in qualifiers but couldn't get out of the quarter finals. Myself (Jonathan Cheever) and Pat Holland made it to semis. I am not sure what happened to Pat, but I choked and couldn't nail some trannies and had to settle for small finals. The Small final round was Pat Holland USA, Alberto Schiavon ITA, Rob Fagan CAN and myself. I did the same thing in the consolation (5th - 8th place) as I did during semis. Fortunately I was able to make moves and get into 5th. Alberto Schiavon killed the course and drafted me. He was able to inside me on the last turn, and took 5th.

The finals were crazy. Top qualifier and overall world cup champion last year Pierre Vauliter FRA, Stian Sivertzen NOR, Mattieuz Logocki POL and Nick Baumgartner USA battled it out. Pierre, who is built like gumby had no problem getting the hole shot by absorbing and pumping everything to get board lengths out in front. Nick wasn't too far behind. Nick is a strong dude and wasn't too far behind Vaultier. The wind was howling this day and wasn't ideal for jumps. Over one of the jumps Baum had a gust of wind bury his nose into the landing. Most people think Nick fell, I think he was just trying to put a hole in the landing with his 6'1" 205 pound frame. Anyway rounding off the top 8 were...

1. Pierre Vaultier FRA 

2. Stian Sivterzen NOR who did a frontflip over the 65 foot finish jump in the middle of a race.

3. Matteuz Ligocki POL

4. Nick Baumgartner USA

5. Alberto Schiavon ITA

6. Jonathan Cheever USA best looking competitor.

7. Robert Fagan CAN

8. Pat Holland USA

On the women's side...

1. Lindsey Jacobellis USA could have probably competed with the men.

2. Mellie Francon SUI

3. Maelle Ricker CAN

4. Zoe Gillings GBR there is no snow in Great Britain... cmon lets be real.

5. Helene Olafsen NOR best hand plants

6. Brooke Shaw USA killed it

7. Marni Yamada USA

8. Susanne Moll AUT 

well that was the SBX side of this trip. If anyone is interested check out SBXmagazine.com in a day or two for an article that is a little more grammatically correct.

Have fun guys,

keep it real,

Jonathan Cheever