Kevin Robinson takes the BIG win in Big Air. Jared Souney © Lat34

Kevin Robinson Wins First-Ever BMX Big Air Contest on Megaramp

Kevin Robinson and Chad Kagy are best friends. Their wives are best friends. They both live in State College, Pennsylvania and they ride together at Woodward. They might as well be brothers, but their sibling rivalry is acted out only on the ramp. All week long they've been practicing together here in Los Angeles on the X Games vert ramp and the Megramp, and in every event they've been in, one or both of them have held the top spots. The push each other, challenge each other, and talk some smack every now and then, and they are the first to congratulate each other when the day is done.

First it was Kagy ruling the BMX Vert competition with a flatspin tailwhip and a barspin flatspin.

Then it was a one-two punch in BMX Best Trick: Robinson finally stuck the elusive double flair he's been pursuing for three years – edging out Jamie Bestwick to stake his claim on a trick nobody else is even close to landing – and Kagy made the judges' job harder by nailing his first-ever whirlybird, a double-whip flatspin that is nearly impossible to comprehend even when you see it on the slo-mo replay.

Today they hit another one-two punch in the debut contest of BMX Big Air on the Megaramp. Robinson hit a mind-blowing no-handed flip over the 50-foot gap followed by a no-handed flair nearly 15 feet above the coping on the quarter-pipe. Kagy was right behind him coming into the final round after posting a huge score for his double-whip helicopter backflip in Round 2. He sketched a bit on the landing over the gap, but the fans still booed when the scores came in and put him in second.

"I knew judging would be hard, especially since this year there really is no frame of reference," said Mike Escamilla, trying to explain the discrepancy in his on-air commentary. Escamilla is one of the only riders not in this contest who has ever been on a Megramp before, and he too was puzzled: a double-whip backflip is huge, even with a little ball-ride on the landing, and Kagy was solid enough to pull it together for his approach into the no-handed flair.

Such is the bond between Robinson and Kagy, and the level to which they've elevated the sport of BMX together: It's getting damned hard to make the call between them.

Trying to secure his lead before Kagy's run, Robinson did something absolutely unheard of: just two nights after landing the first-ever double flair on vert, he rolled in, launched a no-handed backflip over the gap, and tried to do it again on the massive quarter-pipe. He just missed the landing, leaving room for Kagy's last chance to play catch-up.

Responding to the crowd's boos for his Round 2 score, Kagy attempted to clean up his double-whip backflip for what would surely have been a winning run. When he slid out, Robinson rushed to the ramp to make sure he was okay and give a high-five.

True to form, they closed out the day with an after-the-buzzer finale, taking the elevator back up the Megaramp for a doubles run: Robinson got on deck and Kagy climbed up to the previously untouched upper deck, and they dropped in together for side-by-side backflips over the 50- and 60-foot gaps: A fitting end to a week of thrilling moments, and a nice reminder that a bit of competition between friends doesn't always have to end badly.

– Colin Bane