Chills... thrills... and spills!  That's right, BABY, I'm talking about X Games 2009, held in Los Angeles, California!

Humor me a moment while I set the stage... myself and a colleague roll into the Home Depot Center for our first trip to X Games.  We are met with a small action sports city built in and around the stadium at Home Depot Center.  We flashed our credentials and the handicapped parking "sticker" and rolled right up to the gates.  And, of course, we find our crew waist deep in the manly sounds for roaring bike engines and the smell of fuel!  Ahh, home sweet home!

Extremity Games 2009 is the qualifying event for the Super X Adaptive Motocross Final at X Games.  This opportunity was made possible with the help of  Adaptive Action Sports (www.adacs.org).  Props to Amy, Daniel and the rest of the AAS crew!

Since I tend to get wordy, I am going to try to keep this short.  I'll skip right to race day.  There was a definite excitement in the air.  The morning of race day consisted of mechanics working and reworking bikes.  Early afternoon it was time for lunch.  I have never seen so many tough guys eat salad!  These guys are serious about eating right on race day!!  Then it was back to the pits.  Everyone has their own pre-race strategy... some play games, others visualize the race and some just enjoyed the sun and fun around them.

Now it is time to head up for the pre-race meeting.  We were quite a site... wheel chairs, crutches, duct tape and adapted bikes!  Once the pre-race meeting was over, we headed down on the course for a quick warm up session and to get things ready at the start line.  I was at the start line when the guys took off... IT - WAS - AWESOME!  Adrenaline pumping... dirt flying... goose bumps all over... fan-tastic! 

I stood there, in awe, throughout the whole race.  Watching these guys do what they love!  From my vantage point at the start line, I had a killer view of one of the jumps and got to watch our guys launch themselves off this jump and into the air!  Five laps later, Chris Ridgway snagged his second gold medal in a Super X Adaptive Final at X Games.  Ridgway was followed by Mike Schultz, former pro snowcross racer - who is only 7 months post injury!  Sneaking into third place was Jason Woods!  (results) espn.go.com/action/news/story

The race had just ended when I heard the first discussion about the adaptive finals for Winter X!  Hells yeahs, looking forward to it!

Thanks again to the AAS crew for making the Super X Adaptive Motocross Finals happen!  And props to all 12 riders for puttin' it down!  Killer circuit guys!  See you at next years qualifier at Extremity Games!

I would be doing the X Games a disservice if I did not mention the Adaptive Skateboard Park Jam.  This was by far my favorite skate event!  There is something about park skating that is just so sick - it's much faster paced than street.  We had seven adaptive riders putting it down in park!  Though this was not a medal event riders put their wheels down and the audience loved it!!  Right on!

www.adacs.org/news-events/aas-events-programs/summer-x-games-15-adaptive-moto-x-skate-jam

Note: Keep an eye out for a blog giving a heads up about video from the X Adaptive Finals.