Homero Noguerra
Close to 50,000 people showed up this weekend to check out the action in Brazil. Ole!
And so we've come to the end of another X Games. Except for a small group of action-sports revelers singing and
dancing in the glow of the Sambodromo as they finish off their beers, the venue is all but empty now. What a weekend. Let's take a look a back at what went down.
Complete Results | Photo Gallery
Garrett Reynolds stole the show in BMX Street on his zebra-striped bike.
We met Karen Jones, a lone female Vert skater competing against all the men.
Dayne Brummet held it down for America in Skate Street, but it wasn't enough to topple Lucas Carvalho, Rodolfo Ramos or Paulo Correa—a Brazilian podium trifecta.
Todd Potter won Moto X Best Trick, and we turned the tables on him and fellow moto monkeys Greg Hartman and Kyle Loza.
Simon Tabron took home Gold in BMX Vert, even though he's been feeling terrible all week. On the bike tip, we also posted about how jacked BMX dudes are, and then we wondered why we posted about this topic the next morning.
Bob Burnquist ruled the day in Skate Vert, but there was a ton of great (and unusual) action happening all around him on the ramp.
Homero Noguerra
Matt Buyten has never met a bar he couldn't blast over on his bike.
After
Todd Potter won Best Trick last night, I asked him if he thought he could win Step Up as well. "No," he answered, "because
Matt Buyten's here. That guy's the Step Up king right now."
Potter must be keeping a crystal ball in that
suitcase of his, because that's pretty much exactly how the final played out. Buyten cleared 22 feet, floating easily above Potter and
Kyle Loza who finished in second and third, respectively.
Jeff Foss
Sandro, Bob, and a whole lot of branding.
I worked up a mean sunburn watching the Skate Vert final today here in São Paulo. It was worth it, with
Bob Burnquist edging out
Digo Menezes and
Lincoln Ueda for Gold. Here are the
full results. I'll save you the comprehensive "who did what" enumeration and fill you in on the finer details of the afternoon.
Jeff Foss
Lincoln Ueda during a rare moment on the ground.
was going bigger than anybody (as usual), and despite the fact that Burnquist and Dias were working the crowd like
Whitesnake at a sold-out arena show circa 1983, the calm and collected little man was still getting a chant. Of course, that was partly because he was tossing them little plastic tins of water.
Dias stomped a 900 and the fans went crazy. Sure, it was after the event ended, but that doesn't matter. As soon as it happened,
Burnquist chucked his board into the flats and slide down to congratulate him.
Jeff Foss
Sandro Dias soaring high above São Paulo, moments before his 900.
Jeff Foss
"Well I, er ... I thought it was mine?"
At one point,
Neal Hendrix stole
Marcelo Bastos board—
while Bastos was riding it. Hendrix literally reached out from atop the deck and snatched it off the guy's feet. Bastos, meanwhile, slide down the transition unscathed (and confused) as his friend's above got in Hendrix's face. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but the two skaters worked out their differences a few minutes later in a quite corner.
Bob Burnquist almost manualed over my foot. No joke. He popped over the coping during one of his more tech-y runs and rolled a manual from one side of the deck to the other (six inches from my foot) before dropping back in.
I heard an English accent in the elevator this morning. I was thinking Beckham, but it turned out to be Simon Tabron. Even better.
Jeff Foss
Simon wasn't exactly feeling up to snuff this morning, but he still went gigapntic in today's BMX Vert final.
It's pretty nice—kind of a throwback ramp actually. The transition is a little bit smaller than what we're used to these days, but the ramp itself has a ton of vert. With the vert-to-transition ratio being big like that, you can get super fast pumps and giant airs. It makes for a pretty challenging and exciting ride because you don't get that split second to think about it—you just land, look up and think,
oh my god I'm gonna go high on this next one.
EXPN: Sounds like fun.
SIMON TABRON: It is. The level of competition here is ridiculous. Jimmy Warden and Zach Walker are going crazy—I think it's the best I've ever seen them ride.
EXPN: Have you been out on the town yet? We're in Brazil, you know.
SIMON TABRON: I know! I've actually been really sick this week and that combined with the jetlag—I've been struggling. We'll see, maybe tonight.
Jeff Foss
Fancy a cup of tea, Simon?
Delightful chap, that Simon Tabron. I decided to check out his moves from the top of the Vert ramp just now. Redonkulous! He won hands-down with a perfect 720. As he rode up the other side of the ramp you could actually see him smiling under his mask ...
X GAMES BRAZIL BMX VERT RESULTS
1. Simon Tabron
2. Zach Warden
3. Jimmy Walker
4. Koji Kraft
5. Tom Stober
Tati Cardosa
17,861 people showed up today to check out X Games Brazil, many of them of the female, tanned and exotic variety.
"Redonkulous" isn't a word I like to throw around at X Games events, especially if there's still more action to come. Because what happens if tomorrow is even more off the hook than today? Then I will have already used up a very valuable piece of hyperbole, and I will be forced to call Sunday's action "flabbergasting" or something in that vein. Frankly I'm not sure if I'm ready (on a moral level) to cross that line.
You're first step, if you haven't already done so, is to check out all the
results.
Now let's play the anecdote game:
Remember yesterday when I asked
Greg Hartman to interview Kyle Loza, and Todd Potter stepped in and made a prediction for tonight's Best Trick final? I think Hartman was a little fired up after Potter didn't name him as a podium player. Well, he made it there tonight in spectacular fashion with a redonkulous (yeah, I said it) switchblade backflip. Finishing in second, Hartman was bracketed by Potter (1st) and Brice Izzo (3rd), the little Frenchman who could (come out from under his older brother's shadow and surprise everybody).
Jeff Foss
This police officer muscled her way to the front of the VIP crowd to snap a pic from her camera phone. Nice moves!
Jeff Foss
Dayne had the rail on lock.
Do you recall how
Dayne Brummet mentioned to me that his ankle was hurt, but that
he was going to do his best? He may not have been 100% healthy, but he could have fooled me with the textbook wall-ride he pulled on the statue in the middle of the course. Meanwhile
Lucas Carvalho led the charge with a do-or-die frontside lipslide off the planter box and an effortless switch 180 off the double set of stairs, scoring him the gold.
Rudolfo Ramos (aka "Gugu") was right behind him but in fast-forward, rocketing around the course and laying down huge tricks for second.
Jeff Foss
Aaron Ross setting up for one of his many, many, many tricks.
Think back to when I talked to
Aaron Ross and he talked about the Street course and how it
fosters creativity? Courtesy of our awesome researchers, I tracked down part of his trick log: Uprail grind to tailwhip; truckdriver hop into wedge, opposite feeble to tailwhip,360 tailwhip over the hip; 360 whip to fakie; fakie to whip; double barspin to fakie over the hip; Smith grind to 180 and to hard 180. How's THAT for creative?
