Have you ever wondered how Chase Hawk is living? Well, here’s your chance to find out! Head over to the X-Games website to watch a video from when their crew rolled through Chase’s house in ATX to take the tour!
Editorial: Perceptions
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
What do you think of Henry’s thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
Interested in writing your own Editorial piece? Get in touch.
Photogallery: X-Games 2014 – Austin, Texas
As I write this, exactly one week ago today a ton of people were scorching in the sun down in Austin, Texas taking part of the X-Games that, for the first time in 11 years, had found itself outside of Los Angeles. The venue was massive, dirt was welcomed back as part of the events, the park and street courses were getting proper use, mega ramp continued to be huge and over 100,000 people took part in the weekend. Needless to say, it was a busy weekend for BMX. Although I personally had some other obligations for being there, I was still able to pull out my camera and shoot a few photos during the events and ended up with some 400+ photos to go through, edit and pick out for this photogallery. After all was said and done, that 400+ was dwindled down to 44 of my personal favorite shots of the weekend that you can check out in the link below! Take a peek!
CHECK OUT THE PHOTOGALLERY HERE!
X-Games Austin 2014 Photogallery
Defgrip – Photogallery: X-Games Austin
Over the weekend, Nuno Oliveira was a busy man running around the massive X-Games venue snapping photos. Head over to Defgrip to check out 48 photos he picked out from the weekend that turned out so good!
X-Games Austin 2014 – Round Up 2
First off, apologies on the slow posting this weekend. It was a hectic weekend in Austin and the WIFI was pretty limited! It’s creeping along enough to get caught up finally. Needless to say, over the past few days a TON of videos have surfaced from dirt to park, street and Big Air… So instead of making separate posts or all of them, we’ve compiled everything into one so you can get a look at EVERYTHING in one place. Make the jump to take it all in!
X-Games 2014 Round Up 1
The flood of videos from the X-Games have begun! We’ve gone through and compiled all of the videos that have popped up in the last day into one spot for your viewing pleasure! Check out Jamie Bestwick keeping his streak alive, then check out park and street practice below!
X-Games 2014 Street Practice – Day 1
The first day of practice for X-Games in Austin, Texas kicked off today! Check out this video Ride BMX dropped from day one of practice! Better believe all your favorite riders were there breaking the place in!
“X Games practice just kicked off today and I headed over to the street course to stick a camera in people’s faces. Chad Kerley, Garrett Reynolds, Ty Morrow, Sean Sexton, Dakota Roche, Alex Kennedy, and more shared the course for three hours, figuring out the course and firing out way too many wild things for a practice section. Check two minutes of just a precursor of what’s to come…
Shout out to Angie Mariano, Perris Benegas, and Nina Buitrago for killing it on the course with some of the best riders on the planet.” – Ryan Fudger / Ride BMX