Big air: Newest X Games sport pushes the limits of BMX riding

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This article was published 29/07/2006 (7083 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

(AP) – The riders look down as the crowd gets smaller, the slow elevator ride to the 80-foot platform providing plenty of time to realize just how high they’re going. Once at the top, there’s no backing out, the only way down a narrow ramp that launches them over a 70-foot gap to a landing that’s still 30 feet off the ground.

And they have to do it on a BMX bike.

The X Games are all about pushing the limits and the newest sport, BMX Big Air, is sure to be a show stopper at this year’s version of the action sports showcase.

“Take everything you’ve ever seen people do on a BMX bike and times it by 10,” BMX Big Air rider Chad Kagy said. “I’ve been a professional BMX rider for 10 years and this is by far the gnarliest thing I’ve ever done.”

Since its inception 12 years ago, the X Games have been the premier platform for action sports, an annual game of “Can you top this?” that’s hugely popular among fans of non-mainstream sports. Organizers have tweaked the lineup over the years to keep the event edgy, and this year is no different.

Along with stalwarts such as skateboarding, Moto X, BMX and surfing, this year’s X Games – which start Thursday in Los Angeles – will feature two new events: BMX Big Air and rally car racing.

BMX Big Air should be a perfect fit for an event that tries to keep up with the bigger-badder mentality of action sports athletes.

Like many action sports, BMX has transformed upward over the years, the riders pushing the limits to go higher and gnarlier. What once was a sport of side-by-side racing is all about freedom and expression now, riders flipping and contorting their bikes in the air off ramps and jumps, constantly creating new tricks.

Big Air is just the next step.

Like the Moto X riders who do their tricks on motorcycles, the BMX riders have taken to the air in a big way with Big Air, flying down the ramp at 40 miles per hour and launching themselves dozens of feet in the air. The combination of aerial acrobatics and fearlessness from the riders should be a big hit for the tattoo-nose ring crowd; if they’re taking an elevator to get to the top, you’ve got to figure these kids are going to love it.

“The X Games are all about going bigger, faster and pushing it to the limit, and I think this sport does that,” Kagy said.

Rally car racing doesn’t have the high-flying visual appeal of BMX Big Air, but should slide in nicely next to the other rough-tumble sports of X.

Part of action sports’ allure is that fans can relate to what the athletes are doing because they have boards and bikes of their own and know how difficult the tricks are. Rally car racing has a similar fan-to-athlete connection.

Here’s how it works: Teams made up of a driver and a navigator race through a variety of conditions on closed sections of roads filled with humps, dips and hairpin turns. The race is held over two days in eight stages and the team with the lowest elapsed time over the point-to-point circuit wins, similar to the way the Tour de France works.

But unlike other motorsports, rally racing is done in street-legal cars, giving it an I-can-do-that feel for the fans.

“They’re going to see cars that are like they have or their friends have, driving on roads like they see, and they’re going to be able to relate to what’s going on,” said J.B. Niday, general manager for Rally America and X Games rally car racing sport organizer.

“You look at NASCAR and Formula 1 and those are cars that you’re never going to get to drive in your life. These cars are cars that people can actually own and everyone has driven on a gravel road at some point, so they can relate to what’s going on out there.”