About that Ramp: Men’s Vert Preview

Aug 05 2006 / Los Angeles, CA

The big bad Megaramp will get all the buzz, but this year’s Vert ramp is quite a spread itself.

PHOTO GALLERY Check out Andy Macdonnald and  the X Games 12 Men's Skate Street and Big Air Practice.  VIEW GALLERY >

The whole rig is over 130 feet long, with a big roll-in channel right on the hip and an odd quarter-pipe/loveseat protrusion interrupting the curve of the elbow. (Click here and scroll down for ESPN’s official diagram and other X Games course maps).
 
A banked section at one end leads up to a rail, ledge, and small quarter-pipe with pool coping – seemingly useless Vert contest distractions that nearly everybody but Shaun White seemed to be griping about. Bob Burnquist was absent from today’s proceedings but clearly has something in mind, since he had input on the design.
 
Above all, it’s big. At first it looked like it might be too big: during practice sessions today, the BMX guys spent a lot of time cruising around trying to take it all in and plan lines to hit each of the features, and the Women’s Vert competitors were wishing they had more time on it to prepare for their big moment tomorrow. But when the Men’s Vert practice session got under way, all that real estate started to make sense.
 
Shaun White – obviously at home in a Superpipe, snow or no – was the only rider effusive with his praise for the ramp and was also one of the only riders making much use of the rail feature during practice.
 
Not so much for Andy Macdonald: “The ramp is great. The street course is silly. It’s just going to force people to watch vert skaters struggle through awkward kickflips. I’m all for mixing it up for a vert contest – gaps, extensions, overhangs, whatever, and the quarter-pipe loveseat thing is great – but that over there? That’s just a street course.”
 
Time for a changing of the guard? Shaun White is ready, but he’s trying not to be too cocky about it: He’s been in two major contests so far this summer, with a first place win in Denver for the Right Guard Open and a dead-last finish in Louisville’s Panasonic Open to show for his all-or-nothing approach.
 
Either way, he’s in great spirits and happy just to be competing. He was overheard about a dozen times today telling various people, “Whatever happens, I’m just so stoked to be here.”
 

– Colin Bane