Ettala, Jones, Helgason, White and Bleiler take the honours in Aspen with snowboarding getting out of hand again…

How about them apples? No ‘Text Voting’ controversy this time round, but plenty of sickness on show instead at the big TV spectacular.

Jenny Jones – Women’s slopestyle gold

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First up, the slopestyle. In the women’s Jenny Jones showed her win last year was no fluke by landing a solid run made up of some smooth jibs and then front 5 to cab 5 to sick front 7 done like they should be done. Dunno whether she kipped with this year’s medal as she did with last year’s, but you can be sure the 10% rule was in full effect. Two X-Games golds in two years, an Onboard interview, Dew Tour podiums, Superpark invites… dang, the girl’s on a serious roll. Long may that continue…

Eero Ettala – Men’s slopestyle Gold

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Despite being one of the most respected riders around, Eero Ettala had never medalled in the X-Games. Well, he certainly put that right over the weekend. Throwing it down on his very first run, he showed his killer style in the upper jib section and then fired it out on the kickers with a backside late cork 10, a double cork back rodeo 9 and a switch double backflip. It was full on robo-boarding with Eero’s patented mad steeze. No one else had a strong enough answer to that and the Finn walked away with the win.

Halldor Helgason – Big Air gold

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The big air, site of last year’s SMS stupidity, was memorable for all the right reasons this time around as Icelandic ripper Halldor Helgason scored the perfect 100 points from his two runs. A frontside double cork 10 and a backside double cork 1260 netted him 50 points each and it’s easy to see why this young buck is kind of a big deal right now. Just watch how relaxed he looks on the front double 10 slow-mo. Stupido.

Gretchen Bleiler – Women’s pipe Gold

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Things were gnarly in the pipe too where hometown heroine Gretchen Bleiler edged out Kelly Clark with a heavy run consisting of a front 9, back 5, inverted front 7, Cab 7 and frontside 5. All with legit height. Screw legit, monster is more apt and the win sees Gretchen set up for Vancouver with a solid statement of intent.

Shaun White – Men’s Halfpipe gold

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And Shaun White won the men’s pipe. Shock. Horror. It wasn’t as smooth sailing as it sounds, though. We all know he dropped the double McTwist 12 a week or two back but in training he went for it on his last hit and took the coping to the head. After what happened to Kevin Pearce you couldn’t help but shudder when his head connected and his helmet flew off but fortunately it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, though Shaun certainly looked shaken. An hour later, he manned it up in the final and further demonstrated why he’s the guy to beat in Vancouver. Giant backside air, double cork front 10 to cab double cork 10, frontside 5, double cork McTwist 12 and alley-oop backside rodeo to finish. Yes, he can fall, but it looks like it just serves to spur him on further.

When all was said and done, the X-Games showed how snowboarding is becoming more and more like a video game each time riders drop in this season. That shit is retarded. We’re looking forward to when the big X stamps itself down in Tignes this March, that’s for sure…