As much as we tried to downplay it, there was no denying the pressure. We talked about it.

It's easy for me to establish an immediate rapport with riders ? I can hop in the pipe and ride, I've been there before. I do it for the same reason they do: the love of the sport. My goals are the same as theirs. I want for them what they want for themselves and that's the best that they can do.

You guys asked me before if he was awestruck with the Yankees, and I tried to downplay that. I don't know he was awestruck, but he was terribly excited. He was flying open. Bad. He couldn't find command of his pitches.

This was snowboarding at its highest level. It was unbelievable.

We did free runs, nonstop. Just me and him. We just went snowboarding. We just went up, we made turns, we slashed. Instead of standing up at the top, letting pressure build staring into the pipe, we went out and had some fun.

I'm not surprised both of these guys were up on the podium, and Mason was in fourth. We had hoped to sweep the podium, I won't lie. We ended up with first, second and fourth, and that's still pretty darn good. I'm really psyched.