Dak and Oak

2000 Winter Gravity Games Results
As a professional athlete in what is a relatively small sport, you get used to fending for yourself and being pretty independent. So when the Gravity Games laid out one of the coolest, most low-key events ever seen in skiing, the athletes were stoked.

All last week in Mammoth, CA the NBC people and the MSI crew (the event organizers for the Gravity Games) supported and respected us as professional athletes in a way that no other event organizers have done in the past. We athletes were treated to a massive athlete lounge, complete with pool table, foosball, pinball, large screen TV, and unlimited food for breakfast and lunch. We got credentials that got us inside the corral of every event. There were rocking parties every night. But most of all, they made the event feel more like an "athlete-gathering for an expression-session" rather than some "over-hyped made-for-TV extravaganza."

"...I took a rope from one of the high-angle guys and rapped down till I could lasso my binding with my pole strap, climb back up and then air out of the chute...."

One of the coolest things the Gravity Games did for the athletes was provide massage therapists and chiropractors free of charge, all week. It is amazing how much these contests wreak havoc on your body. Having masseuses, and in my case, chiropractors, tweak and soothe your body back into its proper anatomical position, both before and after competing, is an amazing thing. I threw my low back/pelvis out of whack a week ago in Whistler when I aired a 35 footer and landed on a rock with my sit bone. I have been in to see the chiro twice a day and I have been amazed by the number of athletes circulating through that place.

	Philippe Poirier

It has been a sick week! After getting hung up above a cliff with my ski stuck six feet below me, just barely out of reach during the Big Mountain event, I took a rope from one of the high-angle guys and rapped down until I could lasso my binding with my pole strap, climb back up and then air out of the chute. The whole deal was beat, but I figured as long as I knew I could have gotten myself out of there on my own, (hiking out of where I aired in) I might as well take the rope to get my ski and finish the run. I'm sure NBC will play it a million times over, so you will probably get to see it.

I'm cruising up to get rubbed and cracked one more time before I head out of here in the Suburban for Snowbird and the US Freeskiing Nationals.

— Dave Swanwick, MountainZone.com Correspondent

Editor's Note: The Gravity Games will air on NBC in February. Check your local listing for times and dates.

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