X Games: The Good, the Rad, the Gnarly

Another X Games has come and gone and, for those keeping track, there reportedly was only one athlete trip to the hospital.

To be sure, it was a slow four days for ambulance drivers assigned to Staples Center and Home Depot Center; not at all like the 2005 Winter X Games in Colorado, where 17 athletes made trips to Aspen Valley Hospital for treatment of back sprains, broken wrists and other minor injuries.

But the summer version of action sports’ largest get-together can hardly be labeled tame. On the contrary, it was a rollicking affair during which 146 competitors from around the world defied injury with remarkable athleticism and agility.

That nobody was seriously hurt on their skateboards, bikes or motorcycles while soaring, twisting and contorting over concrete, dirt mounds and even steel rails -- often times crash-landing on same -- was testament to their conditioning and of expertise gained through countless hours of practice.

That said, it is safe to assume that most of the participants are moving gingerly this morning, with tweaked appendages, bruised bodies and aching noggins.

Call it X Games hangover.

This year’s is probably worse than in previous years. These games, despite the lack of sirens and stretchers, seemed among the gnarliest in the event’s 11-year history. So gnarly, in fact, that one can’t help but wonder whether today’s athletes are beginning to push the envelope too far in the name of progressing their respective sports.

The people who run the event don’t openly think so, although X Games General Manager Chris Stiepock said the various facilities are designed to enable the athletes to feel comfortable enough to push themselves farther than they otherwise might.

That is not to say the X Games encourages unnecessary risk, Stiepock said. “These guys have an uncanny awareness that tells them whether they can land their tricks or not,” he said. “Plus, they know how to fall and to roll in a way to mitigate potential damage” to their bodies.

Nonetheless, the sports are getting more extreme.

One glaring example is the skateboarding big-air competition. Last year the highest roll-in ramp was 70 feet and the only one to attempt it was gold medalist Danny Way, the creator of the Mega Ramp who recently used a replica to clear the Great Wall of China.

This year the roll-in ramp was raised to 80 feet and, although five of the six finalists attempted it, Way won again by performing a front-side 360-degree board grab while traveling across the 70-foot gap at about 50 mph, hitting the down slope and then soaring 25 feet above the 27-foot quarterpipe.

At that height he held the board with an outstretched arm, in what is known as a Christ air, placed it back beneath his feet and rolled back down amid tremendous applause. Afterward, Way refused to label any of the X Games competitors as extreme sports athletes.

“We’re just a collective group of crazy guys,” he said, drawing laughter from reporters.

In freestyle motocross, back flips were once considered too dangerous, but they’re now performed with so many variations, 30 feet above ground, that riders are digging deep within their imaginations to find others.

Kenny Bartram performed one standing side-saddle with one foot on the peg in Thursday’s moto X best-trick competition. Travis Pastrana wanted to do one with diminutive skateboarder Ryan Sheckler on his handlebars but X Games brass deemed it too risky.

“I was lucky because otherwise I was going to be the bad guy and say no,” said Sheckler’s mother, Gretchen.

At the time, Sheckler, 15, was sporting a grapefruit-size bruise on his hip, the result of a fall on the concrete during the park skateboarding competition. He missed eight minutes of the body-slamming marathon, but returned in time to complete the contest and finish fourth.

“He has an extremely high tolerance for pain, which is not always a good thing,” Gretchen Sheckler said.

Nursing an almost identical bruise is Dave Mirra, who slammed hip-first into the bottom of the ramp during Thursday’s BMX vert competition. He missed the rest of the event but came back Saturday to win gold in the BMX park competition at the Home Depot Center, then traveled to Staples Center and won the silver in the inaugural best-trick event.

Mirra’s crash occurred soon after John Parker had banged his head at the bottom of the ramp and was knocked unconscious. He was hospitalized overnight, diagnosed with a concussion and released the next morning.

“It wasn’t much fun to see,” said Jamie Bestwick, 34, winner of the vert and best-trick competitions. “Actually, I felt sick at one point just because people were going down left, right and center.”

Kevin Robinson added after the particularly gnarly best-trick contest: “The level at what the tricks are now it’s almost a gamble every time. The level of difficulty is elevated so much now. You’ve got to throw it down every time and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Despite the sense of apprehension creeping into the minds of action sports athletes, one that has not been expressed so openly during previous competitions, none of those interviewed were ready to acknowledge that they had progressed their sports as far as safely possible.

Way, for example, said skateboarders on the Mega Ramp “are just scratching the surface of what can happen in the future.”

Pastrana is trying double back flips in the foam pit at the practice facility on his property in Annapolis, Md. He is rumored to also have been trying a back flip in which he separates himself from the bike in mid-air and does not actually flip himself.

Several tricks were performed for the first time during X Games 11, including Bartram’s side-saddle back flip, Bestwick’s double tail whip flare and BMX rider Chad Kagy’s flat spin tail whip 540.

The latter two came during the BMX best-trick competition, which will be among the most interesting events to watch if it returns during X Games 12.

“I’d love to see it again; I think it’s great,” said Mirra, 31, the most decorated athlete in X Games history, with 20 medals, 14 of them gold. “But your mood going into it is tough. I’m pretty beat up so the last thing I want to do is slam again on the last day in the last event.

“Personally I want to go out and have a nice dinner and relax. It’s really hard to get in the right mood.”

In other words, the world of action sports may be getting a bit too precarious for a wise old veteran such as him.

*

Staples Center may not play as large a role as a primary venue for next year’s X Games, because of a construction project that involves the building of a hotel and theater complex in the facility’s main parking lot.

Michael Roth, spokesman for AEG, said construction will begin in the fall and did not say how long it would last. He said the plotting of X Games venues for various competitions is up to ESPN.

General Manager Stiepock said he was unsure what events, if any, would be moved to the Home Depot Center, the X Games’ other primary venue. But Stiepock added that “we’re committed to holding events inside Staples Center.”

This year the BMX and skateboarding vert competitions were held inside Staples Center.

*

Times staff writer Peter Yoon contributed to this report.