I’ve gone bananas, and I’m back

Had the privilege of listening to Catfish again. The thing is, Catfish’s partner, Paul Roberts, is pretty good. I guess the biggest problem I have is that the two guys act as if the relatively customary tricks are unheard of. The entire atmosphere then becomes forced and fake. I think the best way to explain it is as a manufactured atmosphere. Most of the fans here aren’t knowledgeable enough to realize which moves are special and which ones are not, but I doubt ESPN wants to admit it. Thirteen years into the event and no one really understands the technical moves? Not a good thought.

Some of the "better" lines by the announcers:

“That is one of the hardest tricks to perform on vert in the world!”
“We’re about to go live to the world, Los Angeles. This is where we need you to go bananas!”
“Keep it up, Los Angeles, you’re all going to be on television live. Let’s get crazy! It’s X Games 13.”
“Jimmy Walker has taken care of business!” (He got a whopping 85.00 on that run.)

I spoke with Bucky Lasek earlier, and he told me he thinks most of the fans do appreciate the incredibly technical nature of skateboarding on the vert. I asked him if he worried that people were just tuning in for the crashes. He said he wasn’t, but that he thinks people who did back in 1995, 1996 and 1997 have grown to appreciate the finer points in the sport. I’m pretty sure that’s a bit of a stretch.

The only big applauses come when the announcers beg the crowd, and it’s rare to find a even a decent-sized cheer without prompting by the P.A. system. The only exception was Simon Tabron’s alley-oop 900. But, then again, it’s a lot easier to recognize massive spinning than it is to see difficult maneuvering of the handle bars.

-- Ken Fowler

Dhers fulfills lifelong dream, then … PR happens

Moments after Daniel Dhers won the BMX freestyle final, he gave an interview to ESPN Brazil. In Portuguese. Dhers speaks three languages, and is learning sign language. He then accepted his gold medal, posed for pictures, jumped a ramp and began to sign autographs for the fans. He was up there for about 10 minutes.

The 22-year-old native of Caracas, Venezuela, was loving life at that moment. He was about excited as a person can be. His lifelong dream had always been to win the gold medal at the X Games, his mother, Griselda Arrellano, said. “I knew it was his dream, but I never thought it would become a reality,” said Arrellano, who when Dhers first began riding simply thought he was going through a phase.

It wasn’t a phase. It became a passion and now it’s his job.

An ESPN staff member, working on the PR side of things, went up and told Dhers that ESPN Deportes wanted to interview him.

“Sorry guys, I had to go do this,” Dhers told his fans.

I’m waiting next to the ESPN Deportes crew to talk to Dhers. It was me and two other reporters. But after the ESPN interview, the PR guy tells us that Dhers needs to go to the media center. I had been at the Home Depot Center and didn’t know there was a media center, so I ask him, where is it? He replied, “follow me.”

Well, Dhers, Dhers' mother (Arrellano), his younger brother (9-year-old Alex) and myself follow the PR guy. We followed him straight to nowhere. He got us lost.

He took us out of the stadium, back into the stadium, back out of the stadium, and was about to take us back into the stadium but security wouldn’t allow Alex to bring in Dhers’ bike.

So we walk about 50 yards to another entrance and then about another 200 yards to an exit so we could go to the media center –- which was about 15 yards from where the BMX freestyle competition took place (the HDC tennis court).

“Estoy muy enojado ahorita,” Dhers told me. (“I’m really mad right now” is what he said.)
His brother had to carry a bike, his mother had to carry Dhers’ backpack and Alex’s backpack as well.  I offered to help, but she said no. She probably thought I would steal the backpack. My mom would have thought the same thing if a stranger asked to help carry one of her bags.

There were only two media members left by the time we got to the media center and Dave Mirra was there as well. Mirra was one of Dhers’ idols growing up in South America.

He did the interviews and you could never tell that he was mad. He was smiling, happy and very upbeat. He finished those interviews, which were in English, and then walked over to his family, which is where I was. I asked him if he could do one more interview.

He was cool and we talked for about 10 minutes. He’s a real nice guy, really down to earth.
In all the madness of going to this place and going to that place, it occurred to me that Dhers, who at the age of 18 left South America to come live in the U.S., had yet to enjoy a free moment with his family. There was one brief moment when on the way out of the tennis court onto the elevator he looked at his medal and then at his mother and said, “look mami?” with a look and tone to his voice that was more of a 12-year-old instead of a 22-year-old. He rarely gets to see them now that he’s always on tour (I asked him where he currently lives and he said “in an airplane.”) So I wrapped up the interiew.

I thank him for his time and we’re all about to walk out of the media center when Dhers ask his mom and brother to hold back. I was going to hold the door open for them, but began to close it when I heard him say that. I looked back as the door closed and saw Dhers giving his little brother a big, tight bear hug. His mother got close and was about to join them, but just before the door closed I saw Dhers’ face: he had a huge, gigantic smile.

-- Jaime Cárdenas