The 2006 US OpenThe Highlight from '06's Second Biggest Pipe comp (yeah, I said it)
The 2006 US Open was much like every other snowboard event this year: people spun around a lot, Shaun White won, and it was cold out. So I am not going to bother covering the snowboard action, instead I am simply going to tell the story of the most offensive/hilarious/unique moment of this event. At this year’s US Open it seemed to be fun for the announcers to get guest announcers. So ay any given time, there were up to five people talking, including Seth Wescott, Mike Ranquet, Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins and of course the old standards such as Bridges, Sullivan and the Dingo. As you can imagine, the level of insight was at an all time high, as they talked about how much better the US Open used to be and Ranquet added up the total rotations in each run. But the real highlight of the ’06 announcing came right as Shaun White was about to drop in for his victory lap. The Dingo decided that since Shaun has been on a bit of a streak and has just won his 40th straight high profile contest, he deserved his very own chant to echo through the crowd as he rode. But it couldn’t just be his name, or “rollerskates” or any of the other chants that have been popular over the years at the Open, this had to be something really special. So after announcing he was starting a chant, the Dingo started in with one which probably seemed particularly brilliant at the time: “White Power! White Power! White Power!” Obviously this didn’t catch on and it’s a good thing this was a snowboard contest and not a more multi cultural event. Most people there, who have not suffered years of oppression, were able to laugh at its ridiculousness (because hey, he’s from Australia) although a sort of hush did come over the crowd as everyone tried to determine if he actually knew what he was saying. Sullivan was no slouch either, he stopped the madness quickly then got back on the mike and said, ‘I’m not sure what that means in Australia, but here in America it’s not ok,” and things got back to normal. Shaun spun around a bunch of times but made it look good and totally deserved another 20k. -BG
|
