Canadians Continue To Sound Off After Sketchy Slope Judging That Sees Two Advance But One Surprising Miss – WATCH ALL THE RUNS HERE

Last night, the olympics officially kicked off with snowboard slopestyle qualifiers. While it was exciting to see snowboarding step up to bat at the world stage, especially so with all the controversy surrounding the course this week, the judging left more than a few athletes, commentators and views stumped. Inconsistent scores were the name of the game, one run someone would be rewarded with an 90+ score with a few flat spins and mediocre rail maneuvers but then the next competitor would nail a run that would seem to top that yet be scored lower. Personally I can't even keep track of what's going on most of the time and choose instead to focus on the style and look of each trick but CBC's Craig McMorris – doing a damn good job of translating what was happening to the general public – was in firm agreement, most especially after rider Billy Morgan failed to crack the top four of his heat with what seemed like the run of the heat. Confusing!

There were two heats of 15 riders, with the top 4 from each heat advancing straight to the finals and the rest headed to battle it out in a semi-final on Saturday morning. Canadians Seb Toots and Maxence Parrot (who had the top score of the day it should be noted) each advanced but it was Mark McMorris who had the most eyes on him by a long shot. Ten days out from a broken rib at the X-Games, Mark definitely wanted to show he still has what it takes to win gold and after an unlucky fall on his first run (dude went TOO big on a jump!) he nailed a textbook run that included a beautifully thrown triple-cork on the final jump. To his, and everyone else paying attention's, surprise he was only rewarded with a 7th place score and will now have to slum it with the common folk in the semis. You get what you get with a judged event like this but it sure would be a bit more helpful to know what was going on. One great idea I've seen recently is at the X-Games, where the commentators would be able to speak directly to the Head Judge, during the competition, and get clear explanations of why what tricks got scored how they did. Could you imagine this level of transparency at the olympics? We can only wish!

After the riding, Canadian Seb Toots, who had already caused a bit of controversy with some comments about El Blanco after White pulled out of the slope event with just hours to go said, "All I was saying was just that he decided a couple of months ago that he was going to do slopestyle and half pipe and he knew that there was going to be risk here and a lot of risk in the pipe. And to take an American spot, to just not do it, I think it’s bad. One other guy could have been here competing right now.”

But it was McMorris who seemed to be struggling with the judging the most, saying "“It sucks when you fall but to land a really good run that you’re really proud of and with one of the only legitimate triple corks of the day and not even come close, that’s pretty ridiculous. But it’s a judged sport, what can you do? […] I’m hurting mentally right now more than anything.”

On his top scoring run of the day, Max Parrot said, "“I think it is my best score ever. The course is really good – it’s perfect.”

And I have to say, after all the hooplah surrounding the slopestyle venue this past week, to me at least, the damn thing does look near perfect. Sure the jibs seem a bit close together but at least there are enough options to let the riders show so creativity there. And while the jumps do look intimidating, they also look damn near perfect as far as trajectory and (lack of) impact in the landing goes. Did anyone notice how steep the landing were from the aerial heli shots or when riders who had aborted their run threw "little" ollies off the knuckle? Those are some of the steepest landings I've ever seen and for those of you who don't know how it works, steep is good, really good, because if the jumps are built right and the trajectory lines up, the steep landings help take away the impact of falling from the equivalent height of a five story building. I saw more than a few bails that I thought might easily injure the rider but didn't.

– Despite the 7th place, McMorris's broken rib doesn't seem to be playing too much into his riding. He stated that it basically does not seem to be affecting his riding so far, which is a great sign as we all know Mark has more than enough tricks to take this thing home.

– Maxence Parrot continues his dominating streak – he recently won a bunch of comps including double gold medals at the X-Games ten days ago – and is riding like, well, like nothing I've ever seen. He's throwing some of the most insane and technical tricks but somehow doing it all with incredible style and near-perfect landing. This kid is on fire!

– While many have said he is a bit past his prime (funny considering the young ages we're talking here), Seb Toots proved he is still just as capable as throwing down a winning run as anyone out there. 

– The real Canadian snowboarding star, to me at least, seems to be Craig McMorris, brother to Mark and a commentator on CBC narrating the whole event. Craig did an amazing job calling tricks, explaining what was going on in laymans terms and clearly having a great time in the broadcast booth.

– Charles Reid is the fourth Canadian slope rider and put up a decent score in his heat. With all the focus on his teammates, might Charles be able to surprise us on Saturday?

– Technology! Despite a delayed start and some audio issues, I watched the entire event via a CBC app on my tablet while lying in bed, and it was damn near perfect. What a world we live in! Nice work CBC 😉

– Anyone else find themselves absolutely transfixed to the giant peaks in the background of the course? It looks like the real deal over there and I hope everyone gets to shred some pow when they're done performing, er I mean, competing. 

Watch Max's run
 

Watch Mark's run
 

Watch Seb's run
 

Watch Charles' run
 

Canadian womens competitor Spencer O'Brien qualified straight to the ladies final:
 

and Jenna Blasman is going to the ladies semis:
 

Final Results: