By the time Dave Bolstad was preparing to take on Dale Ryan in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games Springboard finals, he was receiving advice from all corners.

Not just from the crowd, hollering the requisite "Go, Dave!" but from fellow springboarder Matt Gurr, who gave him a couple of pointers just before Bolstad scaled the pole and decapitated his block of wood in 43.906 seconds, the fastest time of the day, to capture his fifth Great Outdoor Games medal and first gold.

	Dave Bolstad finally won Springboard gold.

Bolstad had bounced Gurr from the semifinals following advice from Matt Bush, whom Bolstad had defeated in the first round. Bush told him to take extra time carving his holes because he would be able to make up time against Gurr chopping at the top. Then Bush cheered, "Get up there! Now get into him, Dave!" from the sidelines as Bolstad dispatched Gurr.

"We're all champions," Bolstad said after he defeated Bush. "Whoever does well on the day will take it."

To hear him tell it afterwards, though, Bolstad has had better days. He didn't feel as though his boarding or chopping was particularly strong, even as he was spraying chips into the front rows of the gathered crowd like candy off a parade float. Instead, the southpaw said, his ambidexterity helped him score three of the top four times in the competition on the way to taking the gold. Springboarders are required to chop both sides of the block atop the 9-foot pole, making Bolstad something of a switch-hitter.

It's a serious advantage. After placing fourth, Gurr said: "I just wish I could hit in the same place twice when I go back-handed."

Bolstad's a strong enough chopper that Bush altered his normal game plan before facing him, selecting a sharper-than-normal axe to help him get through the log up top, even though that meant he might flub his board holes. Sure enough, Bush had board trouble.

"It was kind of a gamble," Bush said. "I had other axes I could have boarded well with, but then they wouldn't have cut as well up top. It was a real toss-up which way to go."

Bolstad took only bronze in this event last year in part, he said, because he was tuckered out from the recent arrival of his first daughter, Brooke. She's 14-months-old now, and was escorted around the event in a pink-checkered dress and matching bonnet by her mother, Michele Bolstad, a competitor in the Women's Endurance event.

Not that Bolstad would change a thing, he said, but he wasn't in peak form in 2002.

"Last year I flew 24 hours on an airplane, and arriving two days before an event isn't the perfect lead-up," Bolstad said. "If you've had a new baby, you know how tired you feel."

Dale Ryan's silver medal was his first since a 2000 bronze in the Springboard. He reached the finals by beating Dale Ryan in the first round then winning a photo finish over Jason Wynyard in the semifinals.

Ryan, at a light 220 pounds, beat Wynyard up the pole but made the turn (switching hands) after the larger Wynyard, who shivered the pole with every stroke. Ryan's block toppled at 52.533 seconds, and Wynyard followed like a reflection, at 52.842 seconds.

That three-tenths of a second was the only blemish in Wynyard's day. The 2002 silver medalist drew three-time gold medalist Mitch Hewitt in the first round and despite being slower up the pole and standing on a sagging board, beat the Aussie by about three chops.

"I put up a pretty good cut and was really glad to get past him," Wynyard said. "I felt sorry for Mitch because he had won it three years in a row, but that's the way it goes. Taking nothing away from him, he's a great cutter. But I was disappointed not to make the championship round."

Wynyard recovered from the tight loss to Ryan, out-chopping Gurr in the consolation round.

"I've got a pretty good excuse," Gurr said. "Basically he's better at it than me."

Final Standings — Springboard

1. David Bolstad, Taurmarunui, New Zealand
2. Dale Ryan, Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia
3. Jason Wynyard, Aukland, New Zealand
4. Matthew Gurr, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia
5. Mitch Hewitt, Wamuran, Queensland, Australia
6. Matt Bush, Croghan, N.Y.
7. Dave Jewett, Pittsford, N.Y.
8. Dale Beams, Exeter, Tasmania, Australia