Photo: Photogallery: X-Gams Austin 2014
Words by Henry White
“Perception: The ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.: “the normal limits to human perception”.
I wanted to include the definition just to be clear. I’ve had a running thought in my head about societies perception on Action Sports and their participants. We, the participants, all know they have it wrong, well at least my generation does, but the road then wasn’t quite as paved as it is for the next generation. Hard to realize that X-games has been around since 1994, but where would we be without them. It could be said that the catalyst of success in our industry was the X-games. It could even be said that they are our generation’s answer to the Olympics. As a matter of fact, though relatively new, BMX Racing as an Olympic competition hasn’t raised as big of an audience as the world of BMX Freestyle.
So why is it that society still views it in a negative light like it’s not as big and popular as the NFL, MLB, or NBA? I would blame the marketing, we’ve all been labeled, typecasted even. “Extreme-games”, it’s all in the name, marketed as such because the participants and viewers are not boring! We tend to exceed the normal limits of behaviors set by societies perception. Say what you will about the radical fans of traditional sports, I’m not knocking them, but show me a sport that has just as many if not more viewers that are actively participating in that sport. Our personalities have a tendency to be loud, outgoing, and adventurous types, clearly exceeding the normal limits of society. For us, you could even say that our game never ends, we are an industry of constant progression, and continual motion.
The beautiful thing about society is that it’s not linear, always changing in one direction or another, thus far my generation and those before me have been witness to an amazing evolution. With each decade new technology, a new mastery of balance, and amazing architecture that was beyond our wildest dreams and never considered ridable. Quite an incredible journey it’s been seeing as our industries roots date back to some gnarly downhill SoCal backyard races. By the way, if you haven’t seen Joe Kid on a Stingray, you’re blowin it!
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m tired of society seeing our industry as nothing more than a dangerous activity. Sure, the next generation will have it better, but what about now? I guess we just have to live it, and show them the unlimited possibilities, though they’ll probably never get it. For those that do, we embrace you, and encourage you to join our ranks and get to pedaling!
Misguided perception or not, we stand together as a strong community, and we should all be damned proud of it!” – Henry White
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