ESPN has stepped up it's commitment to skateboarding & other "EXTREME Sports" with the X-Trials & X-Games. Team Pain was brought in in 1999 to design & construct the street course & the vert ramps for the Skateboarders & the BMX riders. Since then TEAM PAIN has built all the Vert ramps for the X-Trials (4 qualifying events @ different locations) & the finals billed as the X-Games. Previous finals have been in San Francisco, California, but the 2001-2003 finals will be hosted in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.     

Photos write up about the X-Games 2001 from Philadelphia, Pa. has now been added. Check it Out!!! >>>>

Jake Brown Blasting a Huge Backside Method @ the
St. Petersburg, Fl. X-Trials 2000

Mat Hoffman back from injury flying High @ St. Petersburg, Fl. X-Trials 2000

ESPN has helped the sport of skateboarding & BMX by all the media exposure give to these sports. ESPN has started EXPN and has really give a boost to mainstream acceptance of these sports. With the creation of the X-GAMES & the X-Trial qualifier, skateboarding & BMX have entered the living rooms of almost every adult & kid in the US. Like it or not they see it even if it is when they are surfing the channels & catch Lincoln Ueda or Mat Hoffman hucking a Huge air during a contest on ESPN's Sport's Center when Tony Hawk pulling the "900" off, they pause for a second and are effected ever so slightly. The thought that what they saw was insane & how do people do that is a positive reaction for people that would other wise never see any footage of modern skateboarding or the sports would never cross their minds again. Why is this important? Well, when the issue of a public skate park comes up @ a city council meeting more people can accept that spending money on a public skate park is acceptable use of tax payer money. They're not as many people that think that skateboarding is a crime & skateboarders just harass people at the local shopping centers grinding destroying all the planters & handrails. Instead they see a hugh push by a mainstream corporation to promote the sports & people that have never been exposed to the idea of funding a public park are more open minded than before. Credibility to the sports is now that much more thanks to the efforts of ESPN & their coverage of the sports.

Neil Hendrix @ the Grand Prairie, Tx. X-Trails 2000

Check Out Photos From Past X-Trials

Check Out Photos From 1999 & 2000 X-Games

Check Out Photos From 2001 X-Games in Philadelphia

Thanks to EXPN & Shazamm for the use of the photos.
you can check out these & more killer photos & videos on
http://expn.go.com