Why I Love the X-Games

Even if you are reading this post from inside a Turkish prison, you are still in a more favorable position than I am at this moment. As I type this, above my head on our wall, in a painful 52 inches of glory is yet another episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. This episode is titled "The Song of Guitardo" in which Lord Zed will use the pink ranger's guitar to destroy them (by way of a giant cockroach with wings and lobster claws). And if you think that's bad, you really should have been here this morning when the green ranger lost his powers fighting "Robo-goat." CURSE YOU, NETFLIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Now turning to something else that is painful to watch, I would like to talk about X-games. It may not be well-known, but I actually love the X-Games. It's going on right now, in fact, and I got to watch a good chunk of street skating while on the elliptical today. Honestly, X-Games is one of my favorite competitions and I will give you 5 reasons why:

1. Dressed to thrill. With the exception of motocross, these guys compete in jeans, t-shirts and maybe a helmet. There is no crazy equipment, no special shoes really, and limited pads. For the most part they look like they just got out of school and walked to the stadium.

2. Go big or go home. There seems to be a prevailing attitude at X-Games that unless you go big and risk it all, you are a giant wuss. These guys don't believe in playing it safe, and consequently these contests usually become ultimate games of 'can-you-top-this." I think most of these guys would rather go down in flames and miss the podium completely because they tried a monster trick that no one ever saw before, rather than take the safe road. As long as they try they always get respect.

3. Save the drama for your momma. With the Olympics you usually get all these long, amazing stories about athletes and how their entire lives have come down to a single moment, or how an entire nation is counting on them for victory, but with X-games these guys are kids! Most of them are still teenagers so they don't have these long drawn out stories of triumph and tragedy. Usually just stories of who they took to prom or why they hate homeroom.

4. Oh, don't mind us. When you think of figure skating or gymnastics routines, they are so rigid, intense and always have to meet about a thousand different criteria. X-games routines I'm sure are choreographed, but they make it seem like they aren't. Instead you feel like you're watching a bunch of kids just goofing off at a skate park. It never feels like anything they do is planned.

5. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. As a result of the go big or go home attitude, you do get to see some spectacular wipe outs. And because of the dress code for most competitions, said wipe outs can be quite painful. Much like all the footage of skateboarding on AFV, it can have a very high cringe factor. But that's exactly what makes it so fun to watch :)


So if you have ESPN, tonight you can watch Shaun White (Vancouver Snowboarding Gold Medalist) try and win the Skatboarding Vert title. See, isn't that cool? He's a snowboarder that can also skateboard! I mean, that's insane, right??! How does he go from one to the other? The world may never know.