Guys i’m sure you already checked out tons of last X Games videos these days, but well, here we have a previously unreleased footage straight from LA. Check it out – Filmed and edited by Nick Pescetto.

“We went down to LA for the X GAMES. It was a blast. Our man Simone Barraco got 5th at the bmx street park, his first x games, so stoked. X was so fun, lots of partying, crazy people, hots chicks, some surfing, sun and stoke. Cp Gang x Frontocean”

…and don’t miss the full recap from X Games 2012 Los Angeles

Day 1 Day 2  Day 3 Day 4

Party On!

Here we are with the last day of Summer X Games in Los Angeles. One of the highlights was surely the Men’s Skateboard Street competition finals, where Paul Rodriguez dominated the scene followed by Ryan Sheckler and Nyjah Huston

Bmx big air finals were pretty exciting with Steve McCann flying like there was no tomorrow with his no-handed double front-flip. Seecond place went to Zack Warden and the bronze to Kevin Robinson.

The Rally Cross saw Sebastien Loeb on top of the podium followed by Ken Block and Brian Deegan

Last but not least, the Moto X Enduro men saw the victory of Mike Brown, Cody Webb and Cory Graffunder while among the women the winners are Maria Forsberg, Louise Forsley and Chantelle Bykerk.

 

Pictures: (c)Gabriel Christus, Tomas Zuccareno / ESPN Images

Day 3 of X Games 18 Los Angeles was vert-iginous! With 6 medals events and crazy bmx and sk8 vert finals!

Pierre-Luc Gagnon got gold after battling out Bucky Lasek in a tiebreaker decision in the Skate Vert Finals. Competition was intense – Andy MacDonald took bronze after giving everything he got, including a new 540 kickflip, and 12yrs Tom Schaar was still there landing 900 like there was no tomorrow – the kid got this trick dialed, men. To be mentioned last year gold medalist Shawn White did not take part in competition.

RANK TOTAL SCORE
1 Pierre-Luc Gagnon 91.00
2 Bucky Lasek 91.00
3 Andy Macdonald 85.70
4 Sandro Dias 85.30
5 Danny Mayer 85.30
6 Rony Gomes 83.00
7 Tom Schaar 81.70
8 Elliot Sloan 69.70

Back to vert for the bmx finals, where the – 40 years old! – Jamie Bestwick shown everyone what mean to be THE BEST with a terrific tech run including downside tailwhip to turndown and flair double whip – yes, crazy!

I’m loving this X Games edition cause it’s definitively the “legends” against the “groms” – an incredible challenges putting heat on the competition! Here’s full result of BMX Vert.

RANK TOTAL SCORE
1 Jamie Bestwick 86.00
2 Vince Byron 72.00
3 Simon Tabron 72.00
4 Steve McCann 70.00
5 Austin Coleman 64.00
6 Chad Kagy 63.00

Heading to the park for the skate finals where Pedro Barros won his second X Games Skateboard Park gold medal, beating out Ben Hatchell and Rune Glifberg in a down-to-the-last-second battle. Runs included pieces of skate art like a fakie ollie to nosegrind over the hip, a 360 over the gap, an alley-oop 50-50 through the shallow end pocket, a lein Sal flip, a “Unit” frontside invert 540 in the deep end to shallow and a frontside kickflip… unreal stuffs!

RANK TOTAL SCORE
1 Pedro Barros 84.00
2 Ben Hatchell 83.00
3 Rune Glifberg 78.00
4 Kevin Kowalski 71.00
5 Ben Raybourn 69.00
6 Andy Macdonald 62.00

On bmx park finals Scotty Cranmer won his third gold medal at X Games battling against Ryan Nyquist (silver) and Pat Casey (bronze).
Daniel Dhers, holder of 4 of the last 5 gold, was out of the comp due to an injury suffered in practice.

RANK TOTAL SCORE
1 Scotty Cranmer 79.00
2 Ryan Nyquist 77.00
3 Pat Casey 76.00
4 Brett Banasiewicz 75.00
5 Drew Bezanson 70.00
6 Gary Young 67.00

Take a quick break with Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy successfully challenging the Hot Wheels Double Dare Loop!

Back to the street area for the Game of Skate Comp, where Ryan Decenzo beated our Ishod Wair, Aaron “Jaws” Homoki, and Mike “Lizard King” Plumb, winning his second consecutive gold in this contest. Ryan showed up his incredible archive of switch trick on that rail. Props man.

RANK
1 Ryan Decenzo
2 Ishod Wair
3 Aaron Homoki
4 Mike Plumb

Ending with MX with Motocross Speed and Style comp, where Mike Mason took gold against MX living-legend Nate Adams…

RANK        SCORE
1 Mike Mason 92.8
2 Nate Adams 91.3

… and a curious ending in Women MX Finals, with a result that was exactly the same as the one in 2011! Deja-vù?!

RANK TIME (SEC.)
1 Vicki Golden 300.8
2 Tarah Gieger 308.0
3 Livia Lancelot 310.0
4 Meghan Rutledge 312.5
5 Jessica Patterson 318.2
6 Tatum Sik 322.1

Stay tuned for Day 4 with BMX Big Air and Skateboard Street Finals!

Day two of X Games 18th was unbelievable! There have been so many events that was rather difficult to follow all the competitions without losing highlights and best moves from the different contests that took place in the hot Los Angeles nite.

Bob Burnquist won the fourth gold medal in skateboard Big Air with a run of his own, including a jaw dropping switch backside 180 ollie over the channel and indy grab 720 on the 27-foot quarter pipe. Even more amazing if considering Bob was injuried after slamming hard on Tuesday practice.

The kids in the competition pushed the limit givin’ everthing they got – Brusco, 15years old, took silver with a 720 and a 900, Nolan Munroe, 17, got bronze with an HUGE McTwist 540. But was not enough to defeat the well, 35 years old, skateboarding legend. This was a cool demonstration that still a good, super stilish switch back 100 can still be better than any other doped rotation

Tom Schaar, attended for his 1080, failed to land and got 6th with “just” a 900. Man, pretty sick contest, isn’t it?

RANK BEST SCORE
1 Bob Burnquist  94.33
2 Mitchie Brusco 93.00
3 Nolan Munroe  91.00
4 Jake Brown      90.00
5 Rony Gomes     90.00
6 Tom Schaar     89.33

On Bmx Street Garrett Reynolds took gold with a smooth overall 85.0, but this time the shout out is for Simone Barraco, at his first X Games experience, gaining a good 5th position! Props Kid!

RANK BEST SCORE
1 Garrett Reynolds 85.00
2 Chad Kerley         83.00
3 Dakota Roche      69.00
4 Jeremiah Smith 69.00
5 Simone Barraco  68.00
6 Bruno Hoffmann 62.00

Alex Sablone got gold in Women Skateboarding Street Finals with a super 85.66 score, amazing result considering she’s the only skateboarder to have finished in the top two each of the last four years, winning in 2010 and finishing second last year and in 2009.

RANK BEST SCORE
1 Alexis Sablone     85.66
2 Leticia Bufoni      81.00
3 Rachel Reinhard 80.33
4 Marisa Dal Santo 76.66
5 Lacey Baker         68.33
6 Elissa Steamer    62.00

Day two ended with the Finals for FMX – Step Up and Best Trick competition – seeing Ronnie Renner setting a new high (literally!) with a 47 feet clean jump!

RANK MAX HEIGHT (FT)
1 Ronnie Renner 47.00
2 Matt Buyten    46.00
3 Brian Deegan  39.00
4 Myles Richmond 36.00
5 Max Bianconcini 32.00
6 Todd Potter        32.00

On FMX Best Trick, unbelievable gold medal by Jackson “Jacko” Strong with the “Jack,” a variation of the Special Flip body varial backflip invented by BMX rider “Special” Greg Powell. The word “Stono” on Strong’s front race plate was a tribute to rider Luke “Stono” Stojanovic, still in coma after suffering a serious FMX injury.

RANK BEST SCORE
1 Jackson Strong 91.00
2 Taka Higashino 90.33
3 Cameron Sinclair 89.33
4 Thomas Pages 88.66
5 Clinton Moore 86.66

To be mentioned the crash occurred to Finnish rally driver Toomas “Topi” Heikkinen during rally practice, broking his left ankle and suffering abdominal injuries. Man, can be funny and stuffs but don’t forget, the kids are risking it all for the show! Big Ups tp Topi and all the riders of this CRAZY X Games Edition!

First day of X Games 18 in Los Angeles went out confirming this huge event as a perfect ground for freestyle sport’s record breaks. No matter they’re riding a skateboard, a bmx or even driving a car, you can be sure you’ll see something never done before!

The main, Medal Event, for the 28 of July was the FMX Finals, seeing the hottest ever Taka Higashino takin’ gold with a score of 93.33 (I saw video of him training, I was doubtless he would have gone big in competition) and unleashing on the first run the first ever landed backflip rock solid double grab, not to mention this crazy air popped during the contest..kiss of death flip, superman no hander, heel-clicker flip, just to name a few of them. Here’s the full result of the contest:

RANK  & BEST SCORE 
1 Taka Higashino   93.33
2 Levi Sherwood    91.66
3 Javier Villegas  88.66
4 Nate Adams       88.66
5 Blake Williams   88.33
6 Adam Jones       88.00
7 Rob Adelberg     86.33
8 Dany Torres      84.33
9 Todd Potter      84.00
10 Andre Villa     78.00

On Skateboarding Big Air Qualification, best run was for Rony Gomes, but the show was made by 15yrs old Mitchie Brusco and his first 900 ever landed in X Games history. Obviuosly if you ever heard of Tom Schaar you won’t be surprised he landed consequently two 900 in the successive runs. Well, still not enough to beat the score of the young Alex Sorgente that got 7th place
However a shotout to the kids is needed, considering that four of the finalist are under 16, including the 11 years old Jagger Eaton (younger rider of X Games) that opened the comp with a crazy backflip over channel!
The 11 qualifiers will battle for a chance for the gold against actual medal holder Bob Burnquist in tonite finals, stay tuned cause there will be a crazy show!

RANK & BEST SCORE
1 Rony Gomes              90.00
2 Jake Brown             89.33
3 Edgard Pereira         89.00
4 Lincoln Ueda           88.33
5 Elliot Sloan           88.33
6 Mitchie Brusco         87.66
7 Alex Sorgente          87.33
8 Tom Schaar             87.00
9 Nolan Munroe          85.00
10 Jagger Eaton          82.66
11 Italo Penarrubia      82.66
12 Martin Andre         82.33
13 Jono Schwan          81.00
14 Trey Wood             77.00
15 Jussi Korhonen      76.66
16 Jocke Olsson          23.33

X Games Los Angeles 2012 is right around the corner, from June 28 to July 1. We can just wonder about the crazy stuffs we’ll be seeing coming out of this year edition.

Don’t forget to support the two Italian riders invited on the competition: Simone “Kid” Barraco for BMX and Alessandro Sorgente for skateboard’s Big Air!!

Here’s the competition schedule (PST Time – Los Angeles) – Are you ready?

Thursday, June 28

12:00 p.m. X Fest
12:00 p.m. Park and Street Practice (BMX and Skate)
01:00 p.m. Big Air Practice (BMX and Skate)
06:00 p.m. Skateboard Big Air Elimination
06:30 p.m. Moto X Freestyle Final

Friday, June 29

12:00 p.m. X Fest
10:00 a.m. Skateboard Hometown Heroes Final
01:00 p.m. Women’s Skateboard Street Final
03:00 p.m. BMX Street Final
06:00 p.m. Skateboard Big Air Final
06:45 p.m. Moto X Best Whip
07:15 p.m. Moto X Step Up Final
08:15 p.m. Moto X Best Trick Final

Saturday, June 30

10:00 a.m. X Fest
10:00 a.m. BMX Park Final
11:00 a.m. Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare
12:30 p.m. Game of SK8
02:00 p.m. Skateboard Park Final
04:30 p.m. BMX Vert Final
05:00 p.m. Women’s Moto X Racing Round 1
06:00 p.m. Women’s Moto X Racing Final
06:30 p.m. Moto X Speed & Style Final
07:30 p.m. Skateboard Vert Final

Sunday, July 1

10:00 a.m. X Fest
12:00 p.m. RallyCross Round 1
12:15 p.m. Skateboard Street Heats
02:30 p.m. RallyCross Round 2
02:45 p.m. Skateboard Street Final
03:15 p.m. RallyCross Round Final
06:30 p.m. BMX Big Air Final
07:30 p.m. Moto X Enduro X Men’s Round 1
08:30 p.m. Moto X Enduro X Women’s Final
08:45 p.m. Moto X Enduro X Men’s Final

Ryan Decenzo wins Games of Skate, beating Silas Baxter-Neal, Austyn Gillette and Brandon Westgate. The format was different from a traditional contest: the leadoff skater attempted a trick, and if the trick was landed, the next skater would attempt the same trick. But if the skater attempting his peer’s trick fell, the next skater in rotation would attempt a new trick. Decenzo was still a bit confused by the celebrations of the night before (for his silver at the skate street), but after a little time on his board he regained all his consciousness. Gillette was knocked out when he failed a frontside kickflip over the bump-to-bar. Baxter-Neal was knocked out next when he failed to attempt an ollie up onto the loading dock obstacle which Westgate had ollied onto with ease. Only Decenzo and Westgate remained then. Decenzo ended with a switchstance feeble on a handrail. Westgate couldn’t land that move and the win went to Decenzo.

Garrett Reynolds is the undefeated champion in BMX Street at X Games, and he just added a fourth gold to his collection beating out Dennis Enarson and Dakota Roche. Reynolds has won BMX Street each year since it was added to X Games competition in 2008. Final score: Reynolds 92, Enarson 85, Roche 84. Reynolds performed several technical manual combo lines, like grind up the short rail, barspin out to manual around the deck, barspin 180 to fakie into the bank and also big tricks like double barspin 180, a barspin to barspin gap over the wheelchair ramp rail, a 180 to reverse crooked grind to 180 down the short rail, and a feeble up the hubba ledge to opposite 360 out. Enarson’s 360′s and smooth slide weren’t enough to beat Reynolds, and he placed second.

Julian Christianson wins his fourth Hometown Heroes Amateur Skateboard Steet championships on the same course of the Skateboard Street finals. Among all the other tricks, he pushed a huge switch heelflip down the big stair set. His score is of 88.33 and allowed him to take the win. Second is Brendon Villanueva, 86.66, and third Dan Coe, 80.00.
Brian Deegan won at RallyCross final, over Tanner Foust and Marcus Grönholm. Travis Pastrana, who participated despite the injuries he got on Thursday night, ended hitting a wall on the last lap and losing what seemed to be a sure bronze medal, ending as fourth.

Taddy Blazusiak and Maria Forsberg won gold medals in Enduro X. Mike Brown and Justin Soule were second and third among the men. Tarah Gieger ended second in the women’s race and Kacy Martinez claimed bronze.

Photocredits: (c) Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool