Jake Brown loses his board before plunging more than 40 feet to the ground during the Skateboard Big Air Final at the X Games in Los Angeles last year.By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES – It might have been funny had it not been potentially deadly.
Skateboarder Jake Brown's legs churned in midair like he was trying to run. His shoes shot off in different directions when he slammed to the ground. His body looked like a rag doll as he slid to the base of the ramp. Minutes later he was smoking a cigarette.
It looked like a fall Wile E. Coyote would take.
And now the 33-year-old Australian wants to shake it off and try it all again. Well, parts of it anyway.
It was opening night at last year's X Games XIII when Brown sped up the mega ramp in his fifth and final run in the Skateboard Big Air competition that he was leading, pulled off an improbable 720 over the mega ramp's 70-foot gap, but drifted out away from the quarterpipe lip and plunged more than 40 feet to the ground, trying to fall on his side and avoid breaking his legs.
"Do I get another run?" were his first words to friend Jason Ellis after he regained consciousness.
It took a year, but he will get another chance Thursday night as he faces off against defending champion Bob Burnquist, the event's virtual inventor Danny Way and others on opening night in what is sure to be the most closely watched moment of X Games XIV.
Brown dismissed any extra attention he may be getting.
"There's always a lot of people watching," Brown said in a phone interview Wednesday. "It's a skateboard competition."
The fall immediately became a viral video sensation, sending a collective cringe through thousands of viewers.
Brown lay motionless for nearly five minutes before getting up and walking off.
He was left with a broken wrist, where he still has a metal pin, and cracked vertebrae.
"Oh man, that was the heaviest slam we've ever seen," a somber Tony Hawk said on the telecast as he watched an unconscious Brown.
The image of the falling Aussie dominated the rest of the games.
Two days after the accident he appeared smiling and walking in front of the X Games crowd at the Home Depot Center in the closest thing action sports has had to a Willis Reed moment.
"I'm doing great. I'm still walking. That's more than I can ask for," Brown told the crowd. "I can't wait to come back."
He later could be seen smiling and walking around the X Games flashing the energy drink that sponsors him.
Partiers at the games' closing extravaganza chanted his name over hip-hop tunes.
Brown won his second consecutive silver despite the spill, and certainly will have the judges' sympathy when he ascends the Staples Center elevator looking for his first gold Thursday night.
The pin in his wrist could put limits on his arm, but, Brown said, "it's strong enough to do whatever I need to do."
Brown also bruised his heel five days ago on the mega ramp that Burnquist owns, but plans to skate through it.
Burnquist won the gold medal last year with an ollie 180 into a frontside 540 that came immediately after he watched Brown's fall and sent him past Brown in the standings.
Way, who designed the mega ramp, returns to the competition after sitting out last year with a ligament injury. He won gold the year before.
On the same night as Brown's return, Travis Pastrana, the X Games darling of two years ago, will make his own comeback as he competes in Moto X Best Trick after taking a year off to focus on Rally Car and Moto X racing.
The last time he was in the event he pulled off the first double backflip in competition, giving the X Games its most memorable moment and beginning an unprecedented week in which he won three gold medals.
No comments:
Post a Comment