The men’s halfpipe in the Winter Olympics was won by the young. almost too young-looking dreadlocked, Japanese snowboarder Ayumu Hirano, with a superb run and the flawless execution of a frontside triple cork. *
In the final run, with nothing to lose, he was relaxed and easily beat the top score on the leader board. He crushed it.
From the earliest of days, our teachings are to calculate risk, be cautious and weigh our decisions for longevity.
Yet sadly, that is not life in totality. There are times that if we do not put ourselves out there, we will never know. Comfort, ease, and caution are the killers of brilliance, growth, and exceptional.
What is your half pipe? If you feel you are not competing, why not? Even if you are retired, there is likely something you are striving to be good at. Maybe it is kindness, a better person, a career, or health. Regardless, you have nothing to lose by entering the race and declaring your intention. Yet, by not taking on the challenge, we already lost.
* “The triple cork — full name: frontside triple cork 1440 — has long been something of the holy grail in snowboarding. Consisting of three flips and four total rotations, the triple cork has lured many hopeful snowboarders to their doom … or, at least, the end of their medal hopes.
The problem with the triple cork is this: rotating four times in the air takes a long time, and in order to buy that much time out of a halfpipe, you’ve got to be 1) going very fast when launching into the air and 2) going extremely high in the air to pull off the trick. Halfpipes at the elite level aren’t small — the one in the Olympics is 22 feet high — and even the slightest miscalculation of any element of the trick can lead to, best case, the end of your run.” Excerpt from Jay Busbee: The cork, the judgment and the GOAT: the day snowboarding changed forever.
