Two things on the blog today. First, last night me and a few friends went to the Red Bull Crashed Ice event in St. Paul, only a 30 minute bus ride from our campus. I was really excited to see a crazy new sport that I'd never heard of, and was not disappointed. It's basically played on a luge sort of track, but instead of a sled the competitors simply skate, so its essentially downhill skating. The course has various jumps, uphill climbs, and banked turns that do increase the difficulty immensely. The initial drop is 48 feet high and at its steepest is a 45 degree angle! There were quite a few Americans in the 64 man field so understandably they received the most cheers and had the support of the over 80,000 people in attendance. Only one American, Cameron Naasz made it to the final round where he finished 3rd after being involved in a 3 man crash towards the finish line. He's apparently one of the best the sport has to offer as he's currently in 2nd place in the season standings. The winner was Kyle Croxall of Canada, who was last year's world champion as well. The track was situated right underneath the St. Paul Cathedral and they worked very hard to incorporate the beautiful building into the event. The cathedral was lit up throughout the night and had color changing lights that would bathe the building in several different brilliant colors, its was pretty awesome. Overall, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in a new and exciting sport.
 |
| St. Paul Cathedral lit up for Crashed Ice |
