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X Games 2015 men’s superpipe kicked off on Thursday night this year, which was unusual timing for superpipe riders accustomed to having more time to prepare for an competition typically held on the last night of the event. Nevertheless, these guys hit the walls of the stunt ditch with stylish precision and creativity was definitely king.

Danny Davis’ gold medal run

Aside from Danny Davis winning back to back gold medals (his only medals since his first X Games appearance in 2007), possibly the most exciting development about last night was how riders mixed it up in the finals. One of halfpipe riding’s criticisms is the focus on dialing one run for a competition and putting as much effort as possible into making sure it’s landed when it counts. In last night’s finals Danny Davis did three different runs. Three. He and other riders were experimenting with new combinations, which can be a serious gamble with the judges on a stage like this. But this type of display sends a message not only to the other riders, but to the judges of upcoming competitions as well.

Taku Hiraoka silver medal run

Looking back at Danny’s winning run, he only put down one double on the last hit of the pipe. He started on the first hit with McTwist adding in a Japan grab, frontside 900, backside 720, then continuing into a switch method, cab 1080, ending with a front 1080 double. The difficulty of this run is insane, particularly the back 720/switch method combination. Looking at the rest of the podium, Taru Hiroaka did back to back doubles, while Iouri Podladtchikov went back, to back, to back double corks. Maybe the amount of times you spin doesn’t matter as much in the pipe anymore. Maybe we’ve reached a point where progression is turning into how a rider can implement old tricks in a new way rather than adding flips. To us, we can only hope.

Iouri Podladtchikov bronze medal run

Shaun White’s absence from the podium also marks an important transition in the average person’s perception of snowboarding. The halfpipe vanguard is changing. With Danny knocking Shaun out of the top three on his final run, he solidified himself as a true spokesman for our lifestyle among the public. Our feelings are nothing short of ecstatic for Danny and the story he is telling on his snowboard.

If this is a precedent for how halfpipe judging will be for the remainder of the season there is a glimmer of hope that tricks like the “yolo flip” will lose some relevancy in competitive snowboarding, and the threat of the triple cork has been kept at bay—for the moment at least.

In closing, notice how Danny didn’t “claim” at the end of his run. Bravo sir.

Watch also: Danny Davis – The Way I See It

Stay tuned to Snowboardmag.com for continuing coverage of X Games 2015.