I didn't actually see any of the street qualifiers or competition; that was going to be held in the afternoon, and we had other plans (riding, for one). But we did check out a lot of practice, and I took a lot of pictures. (I learned why Mirra and Nyquist always end up in the magazines: it's so easy to shoot them.) Some quick highlights:
Ryan Nyquist: barspin backflips and his rad tweaked nosedive 1-handed 360s. Mike Escamilla: tailtaps and abubucas on the huge wall. Josh Heino: going full-speed all over the place. Tom Haugen: some cool lip tricks on the mini, like a 540 manual with a tailwhip thrown in. Mirra was all over the place, going huge and smooth on the box jump, walls, mini ramp, and any other wood item in his path. I missed the actual contest, where I'm sure they did lots more than this; I'll just have to watch it on TV with the rest of you...
Before leaving we checked out skate vert practice. This was another first for me (I don't get out much), seeing pro vert. It was so rad — I have so much respect for those guys. You'll have to look elsewhere for coverage (or watch it on TV), 'cause the only skaters I know are Tony Hawk and Andy MacDonald, and I don't know the names of any tricks.
We also caught some freestyle motocross, which is neat for about 5 minutes, then gets old. It's pretty crazy how high and far they jump, but the variations are real limited — basically some BMX jumps (superman, no-footed can-can, barhop)...the same kinds of stuff that those freestyle jetskiers do. I'm betting NBC will do to freestyle motocross what ESPN did to bungee jumping: cut it from next year's Games.
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