Red Bull Rampage 2014: Cam Zink's 2nd Place POV

 0:43 you see him drift to the right mid-air because of the wind blowing! Scary

 Zink is such a boss! For sure would have had first if he would've flipped that booter at the bottom.

 He has so much skill, he could easily have thrown more into that run but I think he just loves to do one big ass trick and that's it.

 Semenuk beat this run. Andreu definitely destroyed it. Zink is legendary none the less.

 the 720pee button....

 The same as last year...

 I can see your point but it was the half of the course that really meant something and that 360 was fucking huge. Not saying the bottom was easy but for me the top lines were what rampage is all about and should have had more points available than doing a flip of the jumps at the bottom. Keep the fancy jumps to the other events and leave rampage as a free ride, who can find the stupidest line comp.

 And he did it twice!

 In the words of Gee Atherton commenting on Cam Zink at another rampage "That was a big ass 360."

 He cleared about half the mountain on his two big drops there wasnt much elevation left to work with on that ridge haha

 Yeah, I agree. Stopping for high fives in the middle of the run probably cost him the win.

 Great point

 You're forgetting that last year no one had second runs... they were judged off the first ones in which Zink tossed that legendary backflip... if people had taken their second runs, I'm willing to bet his first run down wouldn't have stood up. Also the judges didn't dock anyone this year for traversing because the venue was set up in such a way that most riders had to traverse to hit their lines. I do find it funny that people say he "coasted" the rest of the run when he still sent that huge hip doing a whip.

Did it deserve 2nd? debatable but that top line alone deserves to put him into the top 3 easy... I don't think people can quite grasp how insane that top section was. It was next level.

 Good point, I've never been to a Rampage so I guess I can't fully gripe. Although I must say that a whip (whether its huge or not) is a pretty basic trick, especially if you have the air time like zink had and a massive trick inventory. If he had pulled any other tricks other than whips over any of the jumps he hit (or missed, in the lower section) I would bow down and say he deserved 2nd.

 Any rider that doesn't fill their run from top to bottom does not deserve top three at Rampage. Thats just my opinion.

 agreed

 cthorpe- but he did... he didn't throw a harder trick off the hip jump but his bottom section was down the same line as everyone else who dropped off to that end.

 Obviously his fellow riders were stoked on his line, as was evident by the level of stoke at the finish.. Did you see all the other riders get bum rushed at the end of their runs? We can all be keyboard commandos all day long, but in the end, all these guys are risking their lives to further the sport we love. And Zink just happens to be the guy holding the records for ALL of the biggest tricks. Not only did he have two of the biggest natural drops at the venue, but he tricked one of them while all the other guys were straight airing their drops.. So in my eyes, his 2nd place and best trick were very well deserved.

 (above) well we all have our own opinions, I myself can't agree with you based on what I've been saying. After all it is a spectator sport with live broadcasts, after watching people are gonna form opinions based on what they see. Again I think the judges were too generous with Zink's score based on what I saw. The guy rode a fire road for like 1/4 of his run and basically whipped the lower half like it was some DH Race. I agree that he deserved best trick although there were other riders that went just as big on some of the other sections. The fact that Zink stole 2nd away from the much more deserving Rheeder and also took best trick annoys me...it should have went to another rider who didn't make podium. But that's just me.

 Regin- I think you missed the part where the judges didn't penalize for traversing.... that was made apparent due to how the venue was setup this year. You can have your opinion but it doesn't make sense when it goes against what the judges were presented as criteria. And Rheeder threw down some awesome tricks but this wasn't a slope comp. Rheeder's top line was no where near as insane or representative of big mountain as Zink's was. Saying he stole 2nd place is strong language and isn't representative of someone who knows wtf Rampage is about in the first place.

 So you're saying the judges are incapable of being wrong? Also despite what you and a few other people on here are saying about Rheeder, that wasn't a slopestyle performance. None of his tricks or line would suggest that; all his tricks were not out of the ordinary for Rampage. He kept his speed the entire line and it was as clean of a run as anything. If you want to get technical here, Brandon Semenuk is a top Slopestyle athlete, I'm guessing you're not gonna complain about him trying to make Rampage into a Slop comp considering both their lines and tricks were very similar? Give Rheeder a break, still think he deserved 2nd. He took well advantage of the full course which Zink did not (fire road), no argument there. Lots of tricks that weren't all whips like Zink either (minus the one 360)

 It seems to me that Zink gets so excited (I think it's him you can hear yelling) having landed the 360 that he switches into coast mode (as in, how the gods coast anyway) and what remains of his run looks tame by comparison. This was even more apparent last year when he literally road off his line and pretty much bailed after back-flipping the Sender. Deserved best trick for sure, but not 2nd - that should have gone to Semenuk, with Zink 3rd or 4th (behind Rheeder).

 Regin, you're completely misinterpreting what I'm writing..... but sure, go with that.

 Whatever you say Scott. There's clearly not going to be any swaying in our arguments we both have strong opinions. You favor Zink more and I don't.

 I never said it was about pulling one big trick, I said it was about a combination of line originality, being smooth, AND throwing tricks. All of the guys in the top 5 are close enough in points that it didn't really boil down to anything other than the judges. I wasn't even saying Zink deserved a better score or anything. In my opinion Rheeder should have taken second. Zink deserved it just as much as he did, and he got it. But hey, think what you will. Not like you or I are going to change the outcome.

 True. I agree with you on Rheeder. Can't comprehend why the judges marked him so low, but favoritism is always an opinion.