Chapter 621 - 406: Conqueror of Antarctica, Life of Ice_2
The challenge lies in how to create new tricks, and these tricks are endless, continuously extending into more difficult and beautiful forms according to human imagination.
Wang Ye put on his snowboard boots and attached them to the board.
He tried changing the angle of his snowboard on the snow.
The techniques of snowboarding are somewhat similar to skateboarding.
Both change direction through shifts in body weight.
Snowboards are more flexible than skis.
But they are slower than skis.
Because the stance of skis allows for better wind resistance management.
Thus achieving higher extreme speeds.
So most challenges testing the extreme speed of downhill skiing use skis.
But in downhill skiing on rugged terrain, snowboards are used more often.
Therefore, in the skiing community, there’s a saying: "Snowboards are cool, skis are fast."
The bulky board and slippery surface were a bit hard to get used to at first,
but after sliding a few meters, he got familiar with using the snowboard.
Wang Ye placed a sports camera on his chest.
He found a relatively open steep slope nearby.
He donned his snow goggles and stood on the carbon fiber snowboard provided by Anta,
which was covered with anti-slip grooves.
As he counted down from three to one,
he suddenly pushed the snowboard forward.
His whole body, like a bullet, dove down from the ice cliff.
The edges of his board cut into the ice layers under the snow, stirring up heaps of blue ice crystals,
which swiftly scraped across his goggles.
His speed broke through a hundred kilometers per hour in just three seconds.
This astonishing acceleration stems from his almost completely streamlined posture.
Having mastered the Divine Speed Skill, he was adept at minimizing wind resistance.
In the current world, even the extreme speed of skis could hardly match Wang Ye’s speed now. He had turned into a pitch-black blur, rushing endlessly down the snowy steep slope.
Soon, he encountered the first sharp turn. Ahead lay an almost ninety-degree gray-black rock, uncovered by snow or ice.
Wang Ye crouched and applied pressure on the edge, trailing an icy mist behind the board’s tail.
The ice surface of Taylor Glacier was as hard as steel. He bent his knees slightly, angling the board’s edge at forty-five degrees,
utilizing the carving technique.
As countless shards of ice exploded in a curve,
Wang Ye successfully leaned his body through the turn.
Screech—
Instantly, cheers erupted in the live stream.
[Awesome! That was so damn cool!]
[Even from the first-person view, it’s so cool. I can’t imagine how amazing it would look if a drone shot it from above!]
[This is way cooler than a motorcycle leaning into a turn!]
[That’s exhilarating.]
[Watching Wang Ye’s challenge is just pure enjoyment.]
[No worries or fears, only the ultimate sensory enjoyment.]
[Because we all know nothing could go wrong for Wang Ye; the sense of security this man provides is overwhelming.]
[I’ll marry no one but Wang Ye in this life, boohoo. By the way, I’m a guy.]
[Wang Ye: Nantong 414.]
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Having successfully navigated the sharp turn, Wang Ye continued to accelerate his descent.
If a drone was filming him from above at this moment,
many people would find that Wang Ye’s acceleration was textbook perfect.
Usually, during a snowboard descent, the ride is very bumpy and unstable, so many downhill skiers are constantly shifting their weight like a pendulum. There is only a small amount of time when their bodies can maintain a stable center of gravity. This is why snowboard speed cannot match ski speed because snowboards are designed for flexibility.
However, Wang Ye’s stability on the snowboard far surpassed that of skis, his center of gravity was like a highly precise needle, any slight lean could push the board’s angle of motion to the correct position.
As he smoothly navigated more sharp turns, many professional extreme athletes in the live stream gradually realized that Wang Ye’s skills might be well worth learning for them,
but what they didn’t know was that this was actually Wang Ye’s first time on snowboard, and these techniques were self-learned on the spot.
If those extreme athletes knew this, they would definitely question their life’s work on the spot. Years of hard training and yet they couldn’t match Wang Ye’s spontaneous brilliance.
The slope of Taylor Glacier was very treacherous,
five hundred meters ahead it was still a thirty-eight-degree blue ice zone, but another five hundred meters later, it steeply dropped into a fifty-two-degree icy waterfall. If not responded to in time, one would surely rush out and crash heavily on the glacier, resulting in both board and body being destroyed.
After terrain through several sharp turns, Wang Ye reached this steep acceleration section. Seeing the slope suddenly increase to nearly sixty degrees, he quickly switched to a back edge falling leaf technique.
The falling leaf is an important snowboarding maneuver.
The maneuver involves alternating diagonal descents from left to right, left to right, and so on. The route resembles a Z shape. The continuous motion and path resemble leaves falling through the air, hence the practice is called "falling leaf."
Although this maneuver is not difficult, any beginner who has self-studied snowboarding for about a month or two can easily use it in a wide ski resort,
but the issue here was that Wang Ye’s current skiing route was incredibly narrow, and the snow layer was getting thinner and thinner.
Moreover, his speed now exceeded three hundred kilometers per hour, which meant his edge-switching technique needed to be done very tightly to avoid hitting obstacles on both sides or flying off the track.
Wang Ye narrowed his eyes, and his body’s center of gravity started adjusting immediately.
He continuously switched edges and controlled his speed, each time carving an arc into the ice surface.
As the snow layer grew thinner, his snowboard became increasingly difficult to control.
Finally, after a tense round of falling leaf maneuver,
he successfully passed through this extremely steep section.
[That was so thrilling just now!]
[If he had switched edges just half a second later, he would probably have slid off the course, falling right down the glacier.]
[Indeed, Antarctica is not suitable for skiing challenges.]
[Certainly, typically one would observe the terrain and set up a route for a long time before attempting a skiing challenge. Looking at this terrain now, it seems Wang Ye didn’t even take a glance before starting the challenge.]
[Able to pass through such an unreasonable terrain...a true talent.]
[Wait, wait... look at the terrain ahead, it’s a cliff?!]
Suddenly, a comment reminded.
The camera view revealed,
a quickly approaching ice cliff ahead!
The drop at the front of the cliff appeared massive, with the lowest point at least fifty meters or more.
Rushing directly over such a cliff, the only outcome seemed to be crashing with the snowboard into the snow, rolling countless times, and the board breaking apart.
However, at this moment, Wang Ye didn’t slow down at all, and the camera view wasn’t even shaking much,
raising suspicions among the audience,
that perhaps Wang Ye hadn’t noticed the cliff ahead.
While the audience in the live stream continued sending messages trying to warn Wang Ye,
the ice cliff approached faster and faster,
Wang Ye’s speed grew increasingly faster,
until, just the moment he was about to fall off the cliff.
All the audience members closed their eyes.
And Wang Ye unexpectedly made a leap, spinning several times in the air.
Like a pitch-black meteor, drawing a perfect parabola,
he descended towards the snow-covered ground beneath the cliff.
Bang!!!
After a brief moment of suspension, Wang Ye, with his snowboard, landed lightly on the snow, continuing to glide rapidly forward,
with his knees bouncing up and down like springs,
his technique dispersed the impact from the fall, transforming it into forward momentum, making his speed grow even faster.
Whoosh—
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