I'm talking about the Gravity Games, of course. "What the hell is that" you ask? Well, since money for extreme sports is flowing like so much Mountain Dew, NBC is cashing in where ESPN's X-Games and MTV's Sports and Music Festival already exist. So what's wrong with BMX getting on TV and riders getting paid? For the most part, nothing. (I'll skip that whole debate here.) And with Dennis McCoy organizing the riding side of things, I was confident that DMC would keep it real.

Of course, when you're dealing with the general public, you have your clueless folks (which are different than clueless riders...) who don't have the faintest idea of what's really going on — they just like to watch guys on bikes do crazy stuff. And that's fine — I'm not going to make fun of someone just because they only know Dave Mirra by name and think tailwhips and backflips are the only tricks anyone should do. (I can't name half of the Red Sox, which could be considered a sin to some people around here.) On the other hand, having to watch the contest standing between some loud, drunk jock and a Limp Bizkit fan wearing too much cologne isn't normally my idea of fun. But it is kind of funny when local newspapers try to get in on the act by dropping rider's nicknames — and almost getting them right — like "Dave 'DMX' McCoy".

Unfortunately, dirt jumping was held during the week and (being the working stiff that I am) I couldn't make it down to Providence for that. But I was able to check out street and vert, which was held on the weekend.