WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The parallel giant slalom course looked more like a Slip-N-Slide.

Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands was the woman who got through it best.

"You couldn't see anything," said Sauerbreij, the first Dutch snowboarder to win gold. "You were just going, and every bump in the course was a surprise."

She stayed on her feet for all 10 runs down the sloppy, rainsoaked Cypress course yesterday to win gold in what is supposed to be the most staid of Olympic snowboarding events but turned into something else.

Olympic hydroplaning, anyone?

Sauerbreij overcame a .02-second deficit to Russian Ekaterina Ilyukhina to win the second heat by .23. Marion Kreiner of Austria won the bronze.

Heavy rain and bitter wind slammed the course and fog rolled in at the end.