Nitro Games

I could sit here and tell you that it was awesome.  That the competition level was so high that I left feeling inadequate as an “action sports athlete”.  But truth be told, I left happy that I had a good night with my oldest child, and stoked she enjoyed watching motorcycles.

Ill start with the scooters.  We showed up late enough that we missed them, so moving on.

Skate best trick.  Something needs to happen here.  Each skater had six opportunities to pull their best trick,  and amongst the group each skater landed about one trick.  My from lost interest in the event very quickly and only perked up when she could see the triple jump BMX riders prepping for their comp.  I do enjoy watching the skaters, but the failure rate is to high and the expectation of not pulling a trick is too high.

BMX triple.  take this event out, add dirt, and judge on style.  Im pretty much over video game tricks.  Most of these guys are really ugly on bikes.

Moto Freestyle.  The from loves her some big air, huge tricks, and the smell of two stroke in the evening.  This excites me to watch her get so excited and the riders were pretty rad.  I like the format where they have their tricks laid out.  Most of the riders utilized all the ramps and whips were thrown.  I have no idea who any of the riders were, but as par for the course some dude with a mullet won.  So theres that.

Moto Big Air.  These guys are nuts, certifiable.  Each rider getting two runs, and if they land the first one they have the option not to do the second.  This is the highlight for me.  The amplitude they were getting off this ramp was insane.  This jump brings back the fear element into Moto X freestyle.  To me, it has become such a show of acrobatic skill and robot like trickery, that I often wonder if they still get scared like I do when I ride.  Enter this 15 foot tall lip and 30 foot tall landing.   So rad.

BMX big air.  Ugh.  Nitro has seemingly built their branding of this competition on the shoulders of R willey, the scooter kid turned BMX kid.  His level of trickery is beyond video games, and I can appreciate that at a certain level, but when other riders are going higher, not doing the same tricks they did last year, and when the live scoring shows the score, well, the proof is in the pudding.  The Polish dude threw a massive 720 no hander front flip, well above the landing and lip, and nailed it on his 4th run.  Catapulting him into the number one slot, above R Willey.  It was awesome, the crowd loved it and seemingly approved.  The announcement of who won never came during the rest of the competition, but rather when the everyone was exiting the stadium.  I overheard the announcement and was immediately disenfranchised with the whole thing.  Even the riders eventually become the judges they bitched about in their youth.

When all was said and done and we got back to the truck, we hopped in, and the first thing out of the groms mouth was “now I have to wait a whole year for Nitro games”.  So yeah, we will back again next year.

-jh