PHILADELPHIA -- Being an X Games judge. It's kind of like being the guy behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Nobody knows who you are but everyone knows you're important.

We decided to track down some of the judges for this years competition and find out what makes them tick, what they are looking for, and just how they rose to power.

Check it out:

BICYCLE STUNT

Name: Steve Buddendeck Age: 30 Home: Dayton, Ohio What pays the bills? I own an advertising agency and I'm a staff photographer for TransWorld BMX and Ride BMX magazines If you want the thumbs up from Judge Buddendeck, you better mix it up. Explain the judging process. I watch practice to see who is riding well. When you come to the first rider in the competition it's tough because you don't know where to start your scoring. You have to give yourself enough room that if he is the best rider, he can still finish first, and if he's the worst, you still have enough room to score everyone else higher. More points for style or tech? In Park, I want to see people ride the whole course. In dirt, I want to see different kinds of tricks, not the same stuff over and over. I also appreciate technical riding. It's good to have a mix of both. Personal style counts a lot though. Watching Dave Mirra ride, he's such a smooth flowing rider so that helps him. Just because you have the best tricks doesn't mean you are always going to win. Athletes perception of judges? Sometimes we are the bad guy. Riders don't always see things the same way we do. We've had riders come up and want us to explain why they didn't do well, that happens from time to time. People don't like to see the same people win all the time. For example Mirra, if he has a crash and still finishes No. 1, people want to know how that can happen. Most memorable moment? I think it was '96 in Newport, Rob Sigaty was the first guy in Vert to do a backflip. The backflip is historically a trick that the crowd loves but doesn't always score the highest because it isn't one of the more difficult tricks out there. He wasn't doing the same tricks as everyone else so when we scored him and he ended up in fifth or sixth place, the crowd booed us. They threw food at us and just heckled us really bad. The same thing happened the same year in Dirt, T.J. Lavin did a backflip and ended up in second place behind Freddy Garcia. The crowd booed us so hard that some of the judges changed clothes before they came down from the judging tower. How did you get to be a judge? I was a magazine editor of Snap BMX magazine and just being a magazine person you get to know everyone and you understand the sport and where it is headed. Magazine people are good because they are not biased and they know everybody. So basically being a magazine person and a photographer got me in. What will you be judging in Philly? Bike Vert, Street and Dirt but not Flatland. Flatland progresses so fast and I'm just not fluent in it enough. We'll get an expert to take my place for that.

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