AMERICA’S NAVY SKATEBOARD BIG AIR COMPETITION
Since the dawn of the mega ramp, this contest at X-Games has become a crowd favorite. Riders fearlessly stare down a seriously high and aggressively steep ramp that is several stories high (50 to 65 feet, depending upon which roll-in ramp the rider chooses) where they gain insane amounts of speed before choosing one of three “kicker” ramps to make the canyon-like jump over a 50-65 foot gap, where they attempt their first of two tricks. I think the use of spins or flips here helps the rider maintain control, as just ollie-ing or bunny-hopping over that gap would probably be harder than a 360-degree or greater spin. Then they have to land that trick, still traveling super fast, on the downside of a landing ramp as they race up the face of a giant vertical quarter-pipe. They not only catch air, they gobble it up in groups of ten, soaring way over 20 feet straight up in the air, doing twists, grabs, kicks, spins, flips. It’s an aerial on steroids – thus the name “Big Air.” It’s addicting to watch, but it’s got to be one of the hairiest skate competitions ever devised to this point. The event is judged and scored on style, creativity and amplitude.
THE STORY AND DRAMA OF SLOAN & BURNQUIST
Last year’s Big Air feel-good story was 14-year-old Tom Schaar, who became the second-youngest X-Games Gold Medal winner ever. He had a friend from the Make A Wish Foundation with him on the medal stand, wrapping the medal around the kid’s neck. This year held its own drama. Bob Burnquist, who has won several Golds in skateboard competitions at the X-Games, was out to reclaim his throne. He’s a fierce competitor, but comes off as a real sportsman. He’s easy to root for. An older veteran of the sport still dominating. It’s awesome to see. On his very first of five runs in the final round he nailed this massive trick that blew everyone’s mind and made his grin almost split the skin on his face open. He did a high-speed switch 540 over the gap into a super-high Indy 720, landing fakie and put himself right into first place with a high score of 93.33. You should’ve seen his face right after he landed it. He knew he had just done something special. He might win this thing with that run.
Elliot Sloan was pushing himself like crazy in the first round, able to land a trick and qualify for the finals, but you could tell that he was totally going aggro with his tricks. He was either going to win big or fail epically. I found myself talking outloud through my camera’s viewfinder when he was riding the mega-ramp. “Come on, dude! Nail it this time!” He was flying like a madman and just pulling off some insane tricks, but would munch it on the landings. This was the final round, so he had to nail at least one good ride. If I was his coach, I might’ve told to back off on at least one ride to at least put up a score. But we all knew that he wouldn’t take the safe route. He was going for it all. One of the EPSN commentators apparently remarked on this trick he’d been trying in practice all week-long, “If he can nail it, he’ll win Gold.”
Tom Schaar got in a really good ride that brought him close to the top, but Burnquist’s high score was still holding. Even Burnquist himself couldn’t top that first ride.
Then, on his last run of the finals, with all the pressure on, he went for it all … and he nailed it! He did an Indy 7 to a massive tailgrab 900 way up in the sky (21.2 feet above the quarterpipe). It was electrifying. His grim face from all the previous crash landings turned into joy.
While it normally would’ve won the competition, it couldn’t top the amazing ride that Burnquist pulled off, which was so shockingly great. Sloan’s high score was 92, giving him the Silver Medal. He had nothing to hang his head down after that amazing ride. Schaar took home the Bronze with a high score of 87.66 and Rony Gomes from Brazil made a killer final run that gave him an 86 high score and fourth place. Another great night for X-Games Austin.
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