Men’s snowboarders in a class by themselves

They are now the coolest kids in the cafeteria -- or if you want to take the school analogy one step further -- on campus.

(Not that they’d all make it to class consistently.)

Forget the guys from the conventional, old-school sports. The men’s snowboarders, not exactly a news flash, are hip at the Winter Olympics. Maybe because they aren’t forcing the issue in some contrived way.

“We were the outsiders, and the jocks are cool in high school and now [it is] the board people,” said Peter Foley, coach of the U.S. snowboarding team. “It’s kind of a 180.

“Kind of funny being the ‘in’ thing.”

It also means being outspoken. The U.S. men’s snowboard cross team, which will compete Monday at Cypress Mountain, greatly livened up its introductory news conference last week.

These things are usually tame affairs. Just happy to be here. The conditions are the same for everyone on the course.

Then Nate Holland, who is coming off his fifth consecutive victory at the Winter X Games, took a shot at the much-hyped Canadian program, “Own the Podium.”

“Everyone says that Canada will own the podium,” he said. “That’s fine by us. We’ll just rent it for the month.”

But that was not the best quote of the news conference. Graham Watanabe on what it was like to qualify for the Olympics:

“Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth,” he said. “I somehow tame it and ride it into the clouds and the sunshine and rainbows. That’s how I feel.”

Ride, Graham, ride.

Wonder what he might say should he reach the medal podium?

Recent form suggests that Holland and his American teammate, Seth Wescott, the defending Olympic champion, are much better positioned to do so.

Holland and Wescott went 1-2 in a riveting battle at the X Games last month in Aspen, Colo., and Holland is the only rider who has defeated Pierre Vaultier of France in World Cup competition this season, beating him in a race in Austria.

Snowboard cross training was canceled Saturday because organizers wanted to preserve the course, but conditions were vastly improved on a sunny Sunday.

“Amazing what a little sunlight will do for the course, and for the soul,” Holland said.

Finally, there was one more verbal salvo when Holland was asked by reporters about the competition, saying: “You should ask the Canadians why they’re wearing such tight pants. [Pierre] Vaultier is riding really well.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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