X Games 13

[Maxx]

Anybody watching?

Tonight was night one and we got Skateboard Big Air and MotoX Best Trick.

In Big Air we got to see Jake Brown defy death, by getting up and walking away after falling from close to 50 feet in the air onto the flat bottom of the mega ramp. He hit hard enough to knock his shoes clear off. Check it out:

Jake Brown, man of steel

In MotoX best trick, we got a great lesson in how to screw up scores, when the judges gave the second rider, Kyle Loza a 94 for doing this:

The Volt

Now yes, its impressive and yes its never been seen before, but is it anywhere close to as difficult or as dangerous as what the first rider, Todd Potter did? You judge

Todd Potter's KOD Backflip, Poor Quality

Potter actually did a much cleaner version of that trick with better extension and was scored an 86.

Giving the Volt a 94 and the KOD Backflip an 86 ruined the competition, as everyone's tricks were backflip variations, all IMO harder to perform than The Volt, but given the precedent the judges set with the first 2 riders scores, those tricks were also scored absurdly low.

Basically, the only person who could have beaten Kyle Loza was Shawn Murray, who landed a double backflip a few weeks ago onto foam and sand, but crashed while attempting to do one onto dirt tonight, destroying his bike in the process.

I'll try and update those videos with the actual X Games footage as it becomes available.

Tomorrow Night we've got MotoX Step Up, which is always fun, and BMX Big Air on the mega ramp, which is looking to be insane.

If you're unfamilair with what the Mega Ramp looks like, here's a pic

Surely I can't be the only one watching this, so post your thoughts

Edited August 3, 2007 by Maxx

[jonnycomelately]

"That was the heaviest slam we've ever seen...I can't believe he made the 720."- Tony Hawk

It goes from semi-genuine concern for a dude who fell a large distance and stuck the landing so to speak to wow he landed that trick. Nevermind that he is not moving or that he fell from the equivalent of a small apartment building, he landed the 720. Only at the X-Games.

[CKN]

"That was the heaviest slam we've ever seen...I can't believe he made the 720."- Tony Hawk

It goes from semi-genuine concern for a dude who fell a large distance and stuck the landing so to speak to wow he landed that trick. Nevermind that he is not moving or that he fell from the equivalent of a small apartment building, he landed the 720. Only at the X-Games.

[SwantonEdge]

Jake Brown's crash was the worst live sporting accident I've ever seen. It was like "OMG! 720! Make the Quaterpipe...SHIT!!!" just the scariest thing to watch...

Best Trick was disappointing. The Loza Vault is an insane trick, but I definitely think the judging was messed up by those first 2 tricks. Potter should have been in the 90's at least, with Loza maybe a 92/93. Adam Jones gets biggest props though, 2 brand new flip tricks that no one else was trying. The Shoalin Flip was insane...

As for Scott Murray, my heart goes out to the guy, he seemed like a really cool dude and than it was painstaking seeing how nervous he was leading up to it. I was expecting him to come up short, especially since he had like no speed going into the jump. Still, takes a lot of balls to do what he did.

I had heard rumors about a Rebeud going for a Front Flip, but nothing. Maybe someday....

I'm so bummed no BMX dirt this year. Rally and Supermoto have no place at X-Games. They're obviously just in to please Travis.

Can't wait for BMX big air tomorrow. BMX park, Vert and the FMX Freestyle comps should be good too.

Does anyone know if they've got BMX Vert Best Trick this year? I haven't seen anything about it, but they didn't mention dropping it...

I don't follow skating, but is there any word on Shaun White going for the 1080 again? Or has he given up on it?

Edited August 3, 2007 by SwantonEdge

[thatshortguy]

Caught the replay on ESPN and just saw Brown's crash. Two things sprung to mind as I watched:

1. I fear Jake Brown. I'm not even kidding, that is some superhuman luck or toughness. He should not be walking right now, but I'll be damned if I didn't get goosebumps watching him stand up and walk away, signalling to the crowd.

2. I'm seriously considering a Tony Hawk nomination to Mike & Mike's "Just Shut Up" weekly award. While I ultimately think his heart was in the right place, how can you possibly say something like "I can't believe he nailed the 720." literally seconds after the guy fell a non-exaggerated 50 feet from the air onto solid wood?!

[Media 2.0]

Yea, that really was a crazy fall..and the more I watch, the more I just think damn...that would suck. Just think, once he's there..he's there, he had nothing to hold on to, nothing to grab onto or anything...he was just pretty much waiting to hit.

Lucky for him, he seems to know how to take a fall pretty well (even though it still looked nasty) because trying to land on his feet, or even face forward somehow would have been a lot worse

[Maxx]

My problem with the Loza varial is that its not nearly as dangerous or impressive as Chuck Carother's body varial from a few years ago. I mean at no point during Loza's trick was he in a position to lose control of the bike, if he needed to, he could have grabbed it and made a save at any point. Not the case with Carother's and certainly not the case with any backflip variation.

Especially a Kiss of Death backflip, which slows the backflip rotation down to the point that they have to pull hard of the bike to land cleanly.

I just can't believe those scores

This gets an 86, when 2 years ago no one was even thinking of coming completely off the bike during a backflip

Edited August 3, 2007 by Maxx

[Evansfan1]

When I saw the volt, I was like yeah that was kind of hot, but the amazing kiss of death backflip, especially in slow motion had me going crazy. The extension was just crazy. It doesn't make sense how the judges scored the moves.

[naiwf]

When I saw the volt, I was like yeah that was kind of hot, but the amazing kiss of death backflip, especially in slow motion had me going crazy. The extension was just crazy. It doesn't make sense how the judges scored the moves.

[(həd)]

Potter got fucked over. Like Maxx said, Loza's varial looked shite in comparison to Carothers. I firmly believe Potter should've gotten gold. His KOD/Ruler flip looked so much smoother yet more insane than Bilko's (that I gladly went and watched), and it could even be argued that Jones's Shaolin flip is better than "the Volt".

I feel sorry for Lusk in freestyle hitting pretty hard on a Hart Attack flip variation, but oh well, least Jones got gold. I honestly thought they were going to give it to Nate.

There's always next year for Murray too. It'd be good to see someone else nail the double backy.

[Maxx]

I had mixed feelings about the new format they were doing, only because of what happened with Lusk's crash, which basically guarentee'd Jones would advance. Of course I wanted Jones to advance and win cause I just don't like Nate Adams, little bastard claimed he was better than Pastrana.

Very nice to see Jake Brown get a standing ovation. Still unbelievable that he walked away from that with just a wrist injury and a contused lung, and that he plans on doing it again next year.

The problems with SuperMoto continue, as once again 2 guys got out to just a ridiculous lead that no one was ever going to cut into, which really takes the entertainment out of a 40 lap race. Problem is, like half the guys race SuperMoto alot, as its gained alot of popularity in Europe, so others are way more experienced with switching fron dirt to pavement now, making it much more uneven than in past years. Just look at Jeremy McGrath, he seems to finish lower and lower each year. Plus the field wasn't as star studded as usual. But I did get to see Carey Hart continue to suck, so that was a plus.

Now regular Moto X racing, that was something. They were very smart to use the Winter X SnoCross format, quick races, with the winner moving on. Granted I had no doubt Carmichael was going to win, but alot of those qualifying races were entertaining, especially each of Pastrana's where he fought his way from dead last after horrible starts into second place. I really want to see McGrath participate next year.

No one can top BMX vert riders from the UK, Bestwick and Tabron are both amazing.

BMX Big Air is absolutely insane. Those guys are doing flips over the gaps and then getting 20 feet out of the quarterpipe, alot of them with no breaks on their bikes. But it looks like Kevin Robinson is the Danny Way of BMX Big Air, although Anthony Napolitian is certianly a threat with his no handed front flips.

I love Step Up, great competition this year, thank god they moved it inside. First jump was higher than the winning jump last year. Clearly it'll be a 4 stroke event next year, as Ronnie Renner dominated with that bike.

Surfing...meh. I can't really tell the difference between a good wave and a really good wave, so scoring never really makes sense to me. Plus they filmed it like a month and a half ago and posted the results online.

Skateboard vert, and surely a gold for Lasek or Shaun White, is on today, along with Rally Car Racing, where its probably going to be Pastrana or McRae winning

Edited August 5, 2007 by Maxx

[Cactus Drags]

What's a Shaolin Flip? I can't find a clip on YouTube.

[Maxx]

Ronnie Fiasst' Shaolin, thrown whilst backflipping.

Pretty sure Adam Jones is the only one to do it.

[GhostMachine]

Meh. Whats wrong with the good old Superman trick?

As for Jake Brown, I think the fact he was running in air while falling and then his shoes exploded off his feet should've been good for a couple extra points. Though, I seriously can't believe he didn't break one or both of his legs.

[Cactus Drags]

Apparently he escaped with a minor wrist injury and a contused lung. He must be God's favourite or something.

[Maxx]

Colin Mcrae has no luck at X Games. Crashed in the semi finals, and I'll be very suprised if Travis Pastrana doesn't win another gold metal in Rally today. Much, much better format in Rally this year, they're going head to head as opposed to last years single best time runs.

[SwantonEdge]

Pastrana gets DQ'd for crashing into the other guys lane. Hilarious.

X-Games has gone off course. They need to bring back BMX Dirt and get rid off Moto-X racing, Rally and Supermoto. If they have to keep those events than at least move FMX to a different arena so they can have more than 3 jumps.

The production crew sucked ass this year. Heaps of videos had the wrong sound feed, they would cut to cameras with no interesting shots, you could hear commentators being cued in in the background. Just cheap.

[Maxx]

See, I think they should keep Moto X racing, most of the freestyle guys can do it anyways and it was quick, entertaining and easily digestable this year. As I said about SuperMoto, problem is every year two guys just dominate the event. Rally racing, I like it's new format, but I really think they should have their own course as well, they could do more jumps, more turns and just make it more fun to watch.

Personally I'd like the X Games to create its own MotoX event, a combination of racing and freestyle. It'd be a best time format and a single competitor would race the track, doing trick over jumps if they choose. Tricks will knock seconds off your overall time, bigger the trick, more time knocked off, fastest time wins.

I think they might have pulled BMX Dirt because of what happened to Stephen Murray, plus they added Big Air and I figure most of the dirt guys will migrate over to that.

I'd be fine with SuperMoto leaving, its not even close to being an even competition and watching 2 guys race around 30 seconds ahead of everyone else for 40 laps is just not entertaining. Plus the field is now devoid of name guys besides Jeremy McGrath and Carey Hart. No Metzger, no Pastrana, I'm fairly sure Chad Reed didn't do it and I heard nothing about Eddie Seal, the first winner of SuperMoto being there.

Racing certainly has a place at X, I for one miss downhill BMX racing, but they just need to figure out a good format.

[SwantonEdge]

I think they might have pulled BMX Dirt because of what happened to Stephen Murray

[Maxx]

Well racing was around since the beginning of X. I remember watching street luge in Providence at the second X Games. They used to have speed climbing races, plus the BMX Downhill and in Winter X, they've got SnoCross and BoarderCross. Rally is working, but I just thinks its stupid to have two Moto races, especially when one takes like an hour and half and isn't very competitive