X games mega ramp 2013




















He began to wobble as he went up the quarterpipe and lost it in the air. Brown fell from high above the coping, missing the entire transition and crashing down to the unforgiving wooden flat bottom below. It was a big move but obviously the fall was a bigger move I guess. Before the run, Brown looked at Bill Weiss, a former skater and the team manager of Blind, which Brown was a member of for eight years before they parted ways in To Weiss's surprise, Brown smiled and spun his fingers around, which meant he was going to try a It was a huge adrenaline moment but before I knew it I could see his balance was tilted backward and when I saw him go up and out, I just immediately started to make my way down.

I didn't even see him hit the ground. I heard it and jumped over the railing and got to him as quickly as I could. Brown's memory of the run is somewhat spotty, mostly filled in after watching it several times online.

But he does remember the actual fall. He remembers thinking of his friend and fellow skater Pat Duffy, who had recently broken his legs during a fall when he took the brunt of the blow on his feet and shattered his tibial plateau. After flailing in midair when he lost his board, Brown went limp and shifted his body sideways and was able to absorb much of the blow on his backside.

It was a wild, wild ride. Brown was pale and knocked out for about eight minutes before he regained consciousness and was helped off the ramp while raising his hands in the air. One of the first things he said as he sat down in a cart off to the side of the ramp was, "Do I get another run? Did I make it? I was stiff as hell. I wanted to go straight to the bar but they directed me to the hospital. Bob Burnquist, who has won a record 25 X Games medals in his career, including 12 gold, was slated to go after Brown but waited 15 minutes before he decided to make the final run of the competition and what he called one of the most difficult runs of his career.

When he got up and people started looking at me wondering what I would do, I said, 'Yeah, I'm going to take my run. I wanted to end it on a good note; I didn't want people to think we die on these ramps. So I put this run together and all of a sudden I won the gold. So not only was he in the ambulance but I took a gold medal from around his neck. Jake Brown shows where doctors inserted an IV over his tattoos of money in flames while he sits in a hospital bed following his famous fall in X Games L.

He spent three days in the hospital and didn't skate for more than three months. I was kind of bummed about it. I didn't really feel I had to do too much more at the time so I milked it out a little too much at the time. I'm happy now to be skating and pushing myself but I would have liked to have just made that right into another trick and just pushing and progressing without the fall.

It would have been a better career path for myself but it is what it is. I can't help what happened. Brown became a household name after the fall.

He was in such high demand that two security guards were posted in front of his hospital room door after fans tried to sneak in to see him. It put Jake on a greater mainstream scale as far as people knowing who he is. But at the end of the day, Jake is one of the more talented guys out there," said Danny Way, who invented the MegaRamp and was one of the first people to talk to Brown after his fall.

He's progressing the sport. He's on the cutting edge in that small group of guys that moves the meter. He gets pigeonholed in this Jake Brown slam thing but there's so much more to him. The fall might have helped put Brown on the mainstream map but there's more to his legacy. He has medaled in the event every year from to , but is still best known for the one run he didn't finish. It's the first thing that comes to their minds I guess. It is what it is; I'm just trying to outshine that with some skateboarding now.

It's also a collection of seemingly fearless skaters bonded by their pursuit of pushing the limits of speed and gravity. They cheer each other on during the event and pray that every one completes his planned run because they know the consequences if they don't. It's a camaraderie that has been built by the fact that there are only two permanent MegaRamps available in the world to practice on.

Burnquist has one in his backyard in Vista, Calif. Way is working on a new version of the MegaRamp in Hawaii. Big Air skaters, out of sheer necessity, are almost always around each other, pushing each other and testing out new tricks. The MegaRamp was the brainchild of Way more than a decade ago; a foot-tall and foot-long shrine to going bigger and faster.

There wasn't enough speed. There was no way to push things beyond what they were. Way's MegaRamp dream, which began as sketches and conversations throughout the s, became a reality in the summer of at the now defunct Point X Camp near Temecula, Calif.

Way was the first one to ride it, but Brown and Burnquist weren't far behind. Eighteen-year-old Jono Schwan, pictured here, had a busy Friday: Earlier in the day, he placed eighth in Skateboard Vert. Friday night was his first time competing in Skateboard Big Airsince He made it to the finals, and finished the comp in a respectable fifth place.

Mitchie Brusco first competed at X Games in , whenhe was 14, weighed 95 pounds and was 5-foot Four years later, he's now a 6-foot, pound year-old who recently moved out of his parents' place and lives on his own. I wouldn't say I'm nervous," Brusco said during Big Air practice.

Trey Wood, 14, was the youngest skater in the field in Skateboard Big Air for the second year in a row. He gained 10 pounds and three inches in height since last year, but he's still only pounds. He was unable to land a run on Friday night, and finished in ninth place. He followed that up with another Big Air bronze in Austin last year. The Brazilian skater is known for technical tricks, like his heelflip body varial to heelflip Right before practice, the MegaRamp was doused by a small squall.

In an event beset with weather delays, the usual being wind, the rain was cause for small concern. But by the time the event got rolling, the skies had cleared, leaving the finals to go down under a beautiful twilight Texas sky -- a perfect way to close out Friday at X Games Austin.

Learn more. He said it was broken. It was hard to really get back in there. He said the gash was not the worst of his career, but one he thought could happen. I kind of had a feeling that would happen if I tried that trick. Either way, it was a slam or a make.



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