X Games LA 2012: Day 2 Recap

Posted on June 30, 2012 by ChuckTaylor

Mother nature brought the sun and the X Games brought the heat as day 2 wowed the masses.

What a day. Killed day 1. I don’t see how the rest of the weekend will be as good as day 2. Pure awesomeness across the board with the finals for BMX Street, Skate Big Air, Moto X Step Up and Moto X Best Trick.

In the Women’s Skateboard street, Alexis Sablone took the day’s first gold medal. Shortly after that, Garrett Reynolds duelled with 18 year old Chad Kerley in the BMX Street final. Reynolds, looking for his 5th straight gold in the event was heavily favoured but Kerley came out killing it. To be fair, there were other talented riders in the finals but these dudes were on another level. Both riders posted solid 42′s in their first run and Kerley backed his up with a 41 while Reynold’s only mustered up a 40. Kerley stacked his 3rd run so it was down to the 4 time champ to get at least 42 in the last run of the day to secure his 5th gold. Reynold’s put together an amazing run but managed to stack it right on the buzzer. I’m not too sure of the rules but the judges didn’t count it and gave him a 43 for the title. I don’t know a lot about the sport but I feel like Kerley put together better runs yet Reynolds’ cred may have pushed him over. Sounded like they thought Kerley deserved it during the presser as well. No drama. Great showdown.

Sickest event of the day was the Skateboard Big Air final. With Bob Burnquist announcing earlier that morning that he’d compete despite a serious looking lower back injury on Tuesday, the stage was set as the vet took on 15 year old Mitchie Brusco, the even younger Tom Schaar and the rest of the field. Practice saw plenty of falls. The heats were better but since they had 6 runs each there were plenty of spills as they only needed one score. Jake Brown looked solid as he topped his bracket with the same score as Bob. All bets were off for the finals though. It overlapped with the Moto X best whip and my friends were about to bounce until they saw these guys stick trick after ridiculous trick. From the highest air to more spins than your washing machine, the crowd was loving it. All the while, poor old Bob Burnquist was limping away from every single stack. The dude was in massive pain so the crowd was extra appreciative of his efforts. The look on his face when he stuck his gold medal winning trick was priceless (check the video below).

Jeremy Stenberg won the Moto X Best Whip. Still don’t know what that is because the Skate Big Air was rockin’ my nuts off at the time. Step Up was something else though, the reverse limbo had Moto X riders Ronnie Renner and Matt Buyten obliterate the pack with record jumps and Renner just edging out Buyten for the crown with a 47 foot jump. He was clearing that so easily I thought he could’ve done 50 if necessary.

The Best Trick final was clearly the Moto X crown jewel of the evening. Every single landed trick and even most of the stacks were very impressive. It was an Aussie 1-3 with Jacko Brown taking the gold and Cam Sinclair the bronze. Last night’s freestyle king, Taka Higashino, grabbed silver. There were some insane jumps but I was left wondering… Kyle Loza was lined up to perform some trick that had never been landed on dirt before which surely would have stunned the pants off us all and given him the gold but he backed out last second. It takes a big man to realise when your heads not in it. Good on him.

All that plus a spectacular crash in rally practice, more free Red Bull and more Hooters girls. Today was a good day.

Australian East Coast coverage of Day 3 starts at 3am tomorrow. I’ll leave you with two words: Hot Wheels

In the mean time, check out Bob Burnquist’s gold medal run and our two Aussie’s Cam Sinclair and Jacko Strong with some crazy ninja flips.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv0i6S_B18A&w=640&h=400]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijY5Jq9Pw2g&w=640&h=400]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaS3MOThUrU&w=640&h=400]