Start gate

"I didn't have any real strategy," said Drouin, "except to just keep breathing. Lately, I get nervous and find myself really short of breath."

However, Drouin isn't having that much circulatory trouble this season. She won this event at the Goodwill Games in Lake Placid back in February and she'll be back on the boardercross course this Sunday for the World Snowboarding Championships — and so will her partners on today's podium: Canadian Marni Yamada, 2nd, and American Dena Melinn, 3rd.

"I'm really tired and jet-lagged. Every run, I had to really concentrate..."— Xavier Delerue

Delerue is also having a stellar season. He took the snowboard cross at the US Open in Stratton, Vermont, and won the Swatch Boardercross stop in Japan this season. Nevertheless, today's win took some effort.

"I'm not in really good shape — I'm really tired and jet-lagged," he said. "Every run, I had to really concentrate."

That's because he was up against some of the best in this discipline, including Canadian Scott Gaffney and American Seth Wescott, who took 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

The huge gaps on this narrow course didn't claim as much carnage as I expected and the heats were close. Any rider with a a sleek wax job and no desire to turn had a good chance of winning. The finish line was painted at the end of a transition of the biggest gap on the course. As the riders dropped out of the sky, the winners stomped the landing and claimed victory.

Those who didn't take the top spots had another agenda — big air and freaky flips. Near the end of the men's consolation heat, Canadian Roland Hould threw a fine rodeo over the gap and stomped the landing, crossing the finish line with his hands raised in the air, as if to say "How do you like me now?" Might as well go out with a bang.

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Whistler is well into the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival and snowboarding is on the tip of everyone's tongue, but I'm not here to play favorites. Earlier in the week, the two-plankers had their way with the exact same course. The World Skiing Invitational Atomic Skiercross ran the gnarly features with Daron Rahlves (US) taking the win. The following day, Phil Poirier of Canada went huge and spun his sticks to take 1st in the World Skiing Invitational Orage Big Air.

With a stage and a skate ramp set up in the village, everybody's gettin' jiggy. The smiles are out and the spring sun is bringing out the skin (finally). Grab your board and some sunscreen and get with it! Slopestyle starts tomorrow — be there.

— Lucas Kane, Silly on Sake for MountainZone.com