Back...Palmer, too...Again!

Fahzure's break from reporting has him coming back refreshed like the irrepressible Shaun Palmer. For those of you unfamiliar with Palmer, from the mid-eighties through the mid-nineties, he dominated Free Sports winning at boadercross, snowmobile, skiercross, halfpipe, DH, road and BMX races at national and international competitions.  The X-Dance film festival, which precedes Sundance in SLC, each year, focuses on Free Sports film and video.  Although there were only a few cycling productions (how about more BMX, X-Dance?), both of the biggie cycling vids were Saturday night, with Yewtah filmmaker Clay Porter's 3 Minute Gaps showing first. Next up, an inspirational short about Tony Alva, who still rips pools like he was born to do it. This year the headlining film was The Miserable Champion, Shaun Palmer's story...here's the trailer:

Chainsaw Productions -Shaun Palmer "The Miserable Champion" from Chainsaw Productions on Vimeo.

Amazing person, amazing story, OK video.  At about 40 minutes long, it seemed abbreviated (Palmer says he's not done yet, one more gold around his neck before retirement (which didn't happen in Aspen, last week), and the story lacked a certain richness in narrative.  Worth a view, for information purposes definitely, but I'm certain there's more to be told about Palmer then just his achievements, which are mind boggling:

Gold X-games Boardercross 1997-1999
Gold X-games Ski cross 2000
USA Today World's Greatest Athlete
Silver 1996 DH World Championships (his first year in MTB competition)
Gold 1999 Dual Slalom  World Championships
Pike's Peak Hill Climb class winner 2000

X-Dance and the premier were great, with Palmer in attendance to take questions:

Today, Travis Pastrana travels a similar path, soon in 3D:

Be sure to keep following these guys, it's always interesting.