was simply insane. I wonder how many trees had to be killed to build it. It was impressive to say the least.
7 riders made it in this year with Rooftop being the alternate. He admitted that jumping the gap for the first time was scary. He wasn't feeling it but he had to do it as there was no choice as soon as you rolled in from the top of the granstands. In practice Rooftop was doing the world's highest icepick grinds, and peg stalls. You'd be scared too up there. Allan Cooke, Dave Mirra, Anthony Napolitan, Morgan Wade, Steve McCann, Kevin Robinson and Chad Kagy actually got to ride in the competition.
With a packed HDP the show was going to be insane. I had sweatty hands when it started and I wasn't the only one. 4 jumps each and the best run counted. This gave some roof for safe runs and time to try something out. Steve McCann rolled the dice and tried to 720 the first jump. It did not work out for him. He was also riding in the SuperPark competition and Vert contest so he had two more chances on getting a medal at the X-Games. 
Anthony Napolitan pulled a no-handed frontflip on the first jump which was insane and Morgan Wade's Superman seatgrab was just unbelievable. He even had time to check out the crowd in mid-air. I hope you got to experience that particular jump, my hands are getting sweatty again just thinking about it. Allan Cooke had some solid runs going on over the huge 70 feet gap. He lacked a bit of vert skills (compared to the top three guys) to be a serious threat but respect to him and all of the guys who climbed back on top of that ramp time after time.
The Big Air event is right up Kevin Robinson's alley. The current High Air world record holder has put some work in on the big ramp and it showed. His no-handed 360-s over the gap ware insane. Slow rotation with two hands waving in the air. It seemed like it lasted forever. Kevin sure has them no-handed flairs in his pocket and showed a few of them. In his last attempt KRob went for a double flair but used the quarterpipe as a giant slide. It was good to see he was alive. How he got out of that one is still a mystery.
Two riders left; Dave Mirra and Chad Kagy. They were battling for the gold. It was unbelievable what Mirra was showing. You can never count him out. After not making it to the finals in SuperPark earlier that day, some people had already written him off on the BMX bike and placed him in the Subaru which would be his only chance to win another X-Games medal. The Mirracle man proved them wrong. Like most of these riders Dave had not gotten much time to practice on this type of set-up. With Rally training and SuperPark practice going on at the same time Dave had to choose his time wisely. Big Air was also held before the finals of the two other events and with the chances of getting injured you would agree with Dave Mirra taking it easy on the giant set-up. But Dave does not settle for anything less than gold and worked his way to a very solid run. He no-handed-three-sixtied the 50 footer, followed by an a
mazing flair on the quarterpipe. The crowd went nuts and Dave was stoked.
But he had planned for one more that he saved for last. The Aligator wrestler came out again on the 50 footer followed but a flairwhip at 11 feet high on the quarterpipe. He rolled out of that one with one foot on the pedals waving to the crowd. The Home Depot Center exploded. This put Dave in the Gold Medal spot with only one rider to go.
Chad Kagy rolled in from the left side of the roll-in to get maximum speed for the 70 footer. He flairwhipped it perfectly and then blasted the smoothest flairwhip at 17 feet high on that giant QP. It was mental. When the scores came in it put Kagy on first place, Dave in second and KRob in third.
Much respect to all riders for putting on a great show. I'd never seen anything like it. Well impressed.
BdJ
Big Air results X-Games 14:
1. Chad Kagy / Gilroy, Calif. / 96.00 /
2. Dave Mirra / Greenville, N.C. / 94.66 /
3. Kevin Robinson / East Providence, R.I. / 91.00 /
4. Steve McCann / Melbourne, Australia / 90.00 /
5. Allan Cooke / Greenville, N.C. / 89.00 /
6. Morgan Wade / Tyler, Texas / 86.66 /
7. Anthony Napolitan / Youngstown, Ohio / 85.00
When I entered the Home Depot Center (HDC) I did not believe what I saw. I felt like I had shrunk to the size of Minimi or something else that is really small. The Big Air set up was unbelievably huge. I had seen photos and videos of it but that doesn't do it justice. The roll-in was massive and lead to two 70 feet gaps (21 meters) with a 50 feet (15 meters) gap in the middle. The take offs were the size of freestyle motocross jumps and the landing was even bigger than the trucks these FMX-guys are usually using. The quarterpipe that followed
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.