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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When it comes to his riding, 2014 Olympic halfpipe gold medalist Iouri Podladtchikov is a realist. He doesn\u2019t like to fantasize about tricks or runs that he can\u2019t bring into reality. Despite his love and talent for halfpipe snowboarding, the man known as IPod contends with difficulties and drawbacks of the discipline like anyone else.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Somewhere in Podladtchikov\u2019s mind, past the real world circumstances that keep his ideal run confined to the depths of his imagination, is a sequence he believes is superior to that which earned Olympic gold in Sochi two years ago. All anyone had to do was ask.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt starts off with the biggest Backside Air I\u2019ve ever done, where I\u2019m not even looking down, but looking to the side. I love that view, but never get to keep it for long because you must be focused up there,\u201D Podladtchikov says. \u201CFrom that, I\u2019d go into a similar sized Air to Fakie. I love those after each other. Then comes the Yolo Flip, my signature Doublecork Cab 1440, going into a Double Alley-Oop Rodeo. I\u2019d finish up with a perfect double McTwist 1260 and a Front Side Doublecork 1260 Tail Grab.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Sochi, the last three tricks in IPod\u2019s gold medal run were a Backside Doublecork 1260, Frontside Doublecork 1080 and the Yolo Flip. The two main differences between his best sequence ever and his dream sequence are the extra 180 degrees in rotation between the 1080 he did in Sochi and double McTwist 1260 he included in the fantasy. He also gave himself the space to combine the Backside Doublecork and the Yolo Flip with another Doublecork in between and the mid-air presence to add stylistic grabs to the technical tricks.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately for IPod and his fans, he says that while this run is within his abilities, competition is a difficult setting to shoot for the ideal scenario because of the inherent difficulties of being a pipe rider. Halfpipe riding, the most difficult of the three snowboarding disciplines according to&amp;nbsp;Podladtchikov, is all about momentum, speed, confidence, transition and the very specific circumstances necessary to combine all four elements into a perfect sequence. It\u2019s very rare to find them all during competition.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Podladtchikov describes those circumstances as a daytime start under a cloudy sky that protects against glare from the sun and the lights that illuminate the pipe at night, a temperature just below freezing and no wind or precipitation. He believes the adaptations and adjustments that halfpipe riders have to make from event to event, pipe to pipe, are greater than those who compete in Big Air and Slopestyle.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CBack in the in the day over in Europe, the halfpipe was called the \u2018King\u2019s discipline\u2019 because it was thought to be the most difficult. I would still say yes to that,\u201D Podladtchikov says. \u201CI wouldn\u2019t say Slopestyle is more difficult than riding pipe, and that\u2019s because I\u2019d say the changing conditions at the time of an event affects pipe way more than slope.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The adaptations that a pipe rider may have to make can be tougher than those of a Slopestyle or Big Air competitor because of the fleeting nature of the halfpipe. According to Podladtchikov, the two biggest misconceptions about pipe riding are that the most important moments are in the air and all halfpipes are the same.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CBuilding and maintaining speed and amplitude can be half the battle in pipe riding. Confidence in transitions translates into amplitude; it\u2019s almost it\u2019s own trick in the eyes of judges,\u201D Podladtchikov says. \u201CThe best conditions in any pipe are those you can adapt to quickly. The quicker you can adapt and get back to where you were the year before when you were in that event\u2019s pipe, the better off you\u2019ll be. You\u2019ll never see anyone just drop in and do the exact same thing they did at another halfpipe. It all looks the same, but it\u2019s never the same.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At last year\u2019s Burton U.S. Open, after a great morning practice for the entire field of riders, a brilliant midday sun melted the right wall of the pipe in less than an hour. When the snowboarders returned after lunch to pick up where they\u2019d left off, they found the vertical edge at the top of the wall almost melted away. According to Podladtchikov, every rider in the field decked out (landed outside of the pipe) at least once. This is just one way that conditions in a pipe can go awry quickly.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CA lot of people say soft wall, safer, easier, better. Not true, because a soft wall is always changing. When it snows or when if gets super sunny and it\u2019s only hitting one wall, you never know how much it\u2019ll be affected,\u201D Podladtchikov says. \u201CAnother thing to think about during Dew Tour, X Games and U.S. Open is the dry cold in Colorado. Cold is good, but dryness, which is a big problem here, is not. No wax in this world can fix it. When the pipe gets sticky, it\u2019s not even close to the speed you reach when a pipe is flowing. It\u2019s a poker game. You never really know what will happen.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;IPod came into 2016 as two-time defending champion at the LAAX open in his home country of Switzerland. This year, he failed to reach the finals with the world\u2019s largest halfpipe wrapped in fog and snow. Podladtchikov spoke with SI.com on the day before the ill-fated X Games Aspen men\u2019s snowboard pipe final that was called after one round due to heavy snow. He said at that point that he still hadn\u2019t found the flow in the 22-foot Buttermilk Superpipe that is so important to riding well in competition. He never would; by the time IPod dropped into the pipe during competition\u2014he was the eighth of 12 participants\u2014the intensifying snow had compromised the edges and all but killed any potential for speed in transition.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That blizzard canceled the men\u2019s snowboard pipe final after just one round. Podladtchikov finished dead last with a score of 11.33 because he went down early in his lone run. The ski Big Air competition went on without delay directly afterwards, supporting IPod\u2019s argument that pipe riding can be impossible to do at a high level without proper conditions. Though he concedes that X Games is the event that gives riders the best shot to do well, the current format of the competition final is his biggest grievance with event snowboarding.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CCompetition dictates that a run has to be scheduled to the minute. It\u2019s the only thing that kind of annoys me about our sport. You can tell that some people aren\u2019t comfortable with it and it negatively affects them,\u201D Podladtchikov says. \u201CWhen I look at surfing competitions, they wait for the perfect wave. They\u2019ll get a half an hour to pick one to paddle out into. We don\u2019t; the start guy says 3-2-1 go and you don\u2019t have a choice.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Podladtchikov has not had very good luck so far this season, but you need only peek into his imagination to remind yourself of the feats he knows he is capable of. His luck may be about to change; the next pipe IPod will drop into for an event will be the X Games Oslo pipe, which Podladtchikov called his favorite in the world.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI love the pipe in Oslo because of the pitch. I\u2019m difficult to please with steepness, whether too flat or too steep, but Oslo is perfect,\u201D Podladtchikov says. \u201CI feel more like I\u2019m in a video game while I\u2019m there more than at any other event.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A pipe he feels at home in\u2014and some favorable weather\u2014could be all Podladtchikov needs to turn his 2015-16 season around.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/edge/2016/02/23/Iouri-ipod-podladtchikov-perfect-halfpipe-xgames-oslo>