bucky takes the cake

last night was worth it all.

4:55pm. Staples center ahead of us. No clue what lay inside. As Sara and I made our way through multiple gate checks, we headed into what was one of the coolest nights I've had in a LONG time. I went to the X Games.

August 5th was the begining of the X Games in Los Angeles. It was something I had put on my list of things I wanted to see at least once in my life, and last night I made it. Last night's events were the skateboard vert finals and moto X best trick finals. The vert finals were first. We made our way to our seats. Unbelievable seats - couldn't ask for better - if we were there to see Moto X. However, we could see absolutely NOTHING of the half pipe. Quite disappointed. I looked at Sara and said, "There's no way we're staying here." So, we made our way up to the general admission area, which we expected to be the nosebleed seats. They ended up being really good seats. We could see right into the halfpipe - a good aerial view. So, we sat up there and watched. I heard the first name - Shaun White. Oh my word - I got to watch Shaun White skate live in person. How cool. The next few names, I didn't know. Then they said Andy Macdonald - rock on. Bob Burnquist - ROCK ON! And then, best of all - my favorite - Bucky Lasek. I was so excited - I was getting to watch these four guys skate! Not to mention some other really good skaters, including Pierre Luc Gagnon and Sandro Dios. As the night progressed, it looked as though Pierre Luc was going to take the gold. He had skated 3 really good runs. Shaun White did very poorly, but he had just come back from a really bad injury and hadn't been in the pipe for about 4 months. Bob Burnquist took two runs with injury. On the first run it looked as though he hurt his hamstring or something...The second run it looked as though he hurt his ankle. But he was a crowd pleaser all the same. Then, Bucky Lasek. His first two runs weren't the best (they were taking the best of three runs). After Sandro Dios - the only skater other than Tony Hawk to do a 900 - attempted after his time had ended to do a 900 to please the crowd (which unfortunately he was unable to pull off - that would have been amazing to see) - Bucky got in the pipe, and gave a most amazing run, taking the gold! The crowd went nuts! It was awesome! My digital camera didn't take very good shots for some reason, but my friend Sara got amazing shots! You can check them out at my online photo album. The website is www.photobucket.com, and where it says "Album:" type in TJD and my pictures will come up. I'll warn you ahead of time - they're HUGE right now. I have to resize them...But you can at least see them for right now, if you want. Here are the final standings of the skate competition:

1. Bucky Lasek—95
2. Pierre Luc Gagnon—93.66
3. Rune Glifberg—92.33
4. Andy Macdonald—92
5. Bob Burnquist—88
6. Chris Gentry—84.33
7. Mathias Ringstrom—83.66
8. Jake Brown—79
9. Sandro Dias—77.66
10. Shaun White—66.66

You can also check out more fun stuff at www.expn.com

Next up, Moto X. Sara and I had arrived there kind of late, and didn't get to see any of the tents that were out in front. So, we thought to ourselves, "The riders will probably save the better, more complex tricks for the end." and we decided to miss the first few riders so we could check out the tents outside. Big mistake we found out later. Chuck Carothers, one of the first riders up, attempted a trick he had been unable to land previously, and each time he had tried, had hurt himself seriously. I'm not sure what the trick is called, but supposedly he let go of the bike, rotated himself fully around the seat of the bike, and came down and landed it. While we were outside, we heard the crowd go nuts. It made the news the next morning as one of the biggest events, and here, we had missed it. Ah well...Can't catch everything right? We stayed for most of it, but it was a somewhat slow moving event, and we weren't too entirely into it, so we left.

Over all, and AMAZING night. Most definitely memorable.

Tomorrow I'm headed to the surf competition in Huntington, and the rest of the day and evening in San Diego. I think we're going to hit the zoo. I was able to hang out with Ryan Zaar in Santa Monica yesterday which was cool - we hung out on third street and down at the Pier which are both kind of touristy, but fun to see. We played on the swings which was a lot of fun, and just walked around. I'm headed back there today to check out some stuff I missed seeing yesterday. So, more fun ahead. Lots more to see and do. I'll keep you guys posted. Hopefully I'll get some time to take some more artistic shots rather than just snapshots...I feel like such a tourist though, and I chicken out to take pictures.

Anyway, I'm so enjoying myself, but I miss you all a lot.
I will continue to share my journeys as they happen.
Much love to you all.