Too Much Snowboarding

After watching the 2012 Summer Olympics, I made a comment about every sport.  All 36 of them.

In contrast, there are only 15 official Winter Olympic sports.  With the exception of the kinda-crazy bobsled / luge / skeleton, most of them are related in some way to your basic skiing or skating.  (One sport that refuses to be categorized is curling, a family favorite, and one that deserves as much attention than the media darling of figure skating.)

One of the newer sports is snowboarding, and that's my topic today -- how the events within the snowboarding sport have gotten completely out of hand.

It started out simple enough, with half-pipe and aerial events.  But now the list includes big air, parallel slalom, giant parallel slalom, slopestyle, snowboard cross, and team ski-snowboard cross.  These all apply separately to men and women.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy watching these thrill sports.  I'm saying that we don't need this many Olympic events for snowboarding.  We've taken these boutique, millennial-driven, X-Games activities and put them on the same level as mainstream sports that require far more fitness.

Whatever.  At least it's good for the United States' medal count, because the U.S. tends to dominate these snowboarding events.  Suck it, Norway!

Jamaica Mon

I spent a few days away on a family vacation in Jamaica last month.  It was my first time in the Caribbean – not to mention my first visit to a country outside North America.    As with other travels to new places, I have some observations to share:

• Jamaica is a beautiful country – except for when it isn’t.  The coastal areas, foliage, and tropical colors were all great.  However, on the 1+ hour travel each way from the airport to our resort, the outdated and run-down roads, buildings, and housing structures were a deep contrast to the beauty.

• Driving on the left side of the road, with a right-sided steering wheel, is weird.

• I have never interacted with a group of friendlier people than the Jamaicans.  I’m well aware that I only visited the tourist-y places, and friendliness under those conditions may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Still, this was a deferential friendliness, as if someone feared offending me by just stepping across my path.  So I think there’s something more to it, something related to their laid-back living styles and frames of mind.

• I saw plenty of people smoking joints, but I frankly expected to see a lot more cannabis than I did.

• The food was a bit hit-and-miss for me, although I might not have been adventurous enough.  Among the most notable items, the Caribbean jerk chicken was very good, and I absolutely loved my daily serving of fresh papaya.

• There wasn’t much time for watching TV, but I had no idea there could be that many televised cricket matches.

Jamaica was interesting.  It had a few scars, but as the locals might say, it's no problem, mon.