Dubai X Games
Jan 11th, 2008
Ater the Prague event, all the other riders on the tour went to Egypt for a week long vacation, but I hung around Prague by myself for 3 days before I left for Dubai. I was invited to the Dubai X Games and Mt. Dew was sponsoring me for the event and made me the poster boy. I was pumped to see the signs that had a photo of me doing a rock solid all around town advertising for the Games. Then I about freaked out when I saw that I was on the side of the actual Mt. Dew can. I never thought I would have a photo on a soft drink. The Games were a Best Trick and a Best Whip competition. The first event was the Best Whip and I was ready. They made it a head to head event with the eight riders. I was first up against Remi Bizouard. After watching him in practice I was sweating it. He had some really good turndowns, but I was able to beat him. Next was Nick de Wit and I was able to knock him out of the competion too. Going for the gold it came to Ronnie Renner and I. Everyone knows Ronnie for his whips and I wanted to show him up for the day. I decided that my turndown would score better than doing a look down whip like him. I was up first and I wasn't very happy about my whip. I just started it wrong so it wasn't that great, but it was still good. I got a score of 90. Renner went for his first whip and got a 93. I agreed that his was better, but not 3 points beter. I then got a little worked up and told myself that I was throwing it big. It turned out that I threw it too big. I didn't get straightened up enough before I landed on the sand landing and my front wheel carved in sending me straight to the ground. I knocked myself out for a minute or so before standing up and waving to the crowd. After getting checked by the ESPN paramedics that I know too well, I went back out and collected my silver medal. ESPN wouldn't let me compete (thankfully) the next day in Best Trick so I got sent up to join the announcers and enjoyed watching Greg Hartman take the gold.
