A sellout crowd is heading to the Ventura County Fairgrounds on Saturday for the busiest day of X Games Ventura competition. Medals for Women’s Skateboarding Street, BMX Dirt, Moto X QuarterPipe High Air, Women’s Skateboard Park, BMX Dirt Best Trick, Women’s Skateboard Vert, BMX Park, Women’s Skateboard Street Best Trick and Moto X will be won during a 10-hour span from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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Some listen to music. Some take naps.
Bryce Wettstein prepared for her competitive moment by taking to the waves.
Before she attacked the vert ramp at the fairgrounds, the 19-year-old skateboarder from Encinitas surfed Ventura’s famous break.
“I surfed by the Pier,” Wettstein told the Star. “When I surf… it’s like nothing else. Everything out in the ocean stops for you… It’s hard to always feel that peace.”
Wettstein, who was a competitive surfer in her youth, has surfed three times during her short visit to Ventura.
“It’s part of my preparation,” Wettstein said. “Surfing, when I’m out there, helps me be clear minded.”
After finishing sixth in the Women’s Skateboarding Vert Finals Saturday, she hinted she might return to C Street to add to that number.
“Maybe tonight,” Wettstein said.
Wettstein spent more than a half hour after the competition to sign autographs and connect with the fans, delivering words of encouragement and even hugs. She was also one of the skateboarders who conducted a clinic last week at ATLAS Elementary School in Ventura.
Not surprisingly, Wettstein would like to see surfing included in the X Games in the future.
“Surfing should be in the X Games,” Wettstein said. “Just because it should.”
It cost him some forehead real estate, but kudos to 12-year-old Ryland Murphy of Ojai, who scored Tony Hawk’s autograph today at X Games Ventura.
X Games officials said 35,778 people attended the first two days of the X Games at the Ventura County Fair.
On Saturday, 23,151 people attended, almost twice the 12,627 attendance on Friday.
The games culminate Sunday.
— Tom Kisken
It took a lot to win the first women’s skateboarding vert held at the X Games since 2010.
Arisa Trew, 13, of Australia, spun in two complete rotations in her final run for the first 720 ever completed by a female in the X Games. Earlier this year, she executed a 720 at Tony’s Hawk Vert Alert to qualify for the X Games.
On Saturday, the acrobatics helped her best silver medal winner Reese Nelson, 10-year-old phenom from Calgary, Canada, who is mentored by Hawk.
The vert was eliminated because event officials said it hadn’t progressed enough and wasn’t attracting enough competitors. Skateboarders pulled out all the stops in the events return, spinning and soaring before a massive crowd.
And as Trew noted moments after her victory, another first was accomplished.
“For my first X Games medal to be a gold is incredible,” she said.
— Tom Kisken
The BMX and motocross competitions took a pause Saturday to pay tribute to Pat Casey, the three-time X Games BMX medalist who died in June after a dirtbike accident in San Diego.
BMX legend Jamie Bestwick delivered remarks to the assembled riders and family before a moment of silence on the BMX Dirt run.
“He was driven by his commitment, courage and an unwavering drive to prove impossible was absolutely possible,” Bestwick said. “He knew the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Many of the BMX competitors, staff and families wore “Pat Casey Forever” t-shirts
“Pat was a shining example of fatherhood and devotion to a woman and family that he truly loved,” Bestwick said. “For Pat Casey, today let’s go for gold.”
After winning the BMX Best Trick competition later in the day, Ryan Williams pledged to donate the prize money for the gold medal to Casey’s family.
The winner of the Moto X Quarterpipe High Air gave Ventura a shoutout.
“Thank you to all the fans for coming out,” Colby Raha said after his gold medal performance. “This place is packed. Ventura is rad.”
We know, Colby. We know.
The 28-year-old from Palmdale soared to all new heights Saturday topping his launch at 56 feet, 3 inches, an X Games record.
Colby knows rad.
Six athletes took their jumps sky high Saturday afternoon in the finals for Moto X Quarterpipe High Air. Riders could take as many jumps as possible in a 15-minute span. The goal: the highest jump.
As reporter Tom Kisken put it, “Everything out here is crazy. Moto X High Air is crazy squared.”
He has found his new favorite X Games competition.
It’s real.
Brady Baker, the 20-year-old rookie who sometimes trains at Sapwi Bike Park in Thousand Oaks, won gold in BMX dirt on Saturday. The win comes on the heels of his first-place finish in the elimination round Friday, making Baker the first top seed to win gold in the event since 2003.
Moments after the victory, Baker held the trophy aloft and repeated one word.
“Unreal,” he said. “This is the best day of my life.”
It was a pretty good day for Brady’s dad, Alex Baker, too.
“It’s a dream come true,” he said.
— Tom Kisken
“It’s a beautiful day, so let’s do this,” former champion Leticia Bufoni said to the X Games broadcast before the Women’s Skateboarding Street final, one of the marquee events of the weekend.
Teenage Olympic gold medalist Momiji Nishiya, who had the highest score at yesterday’s eliminations, took the lead after the first round of the Women’s Skateboarding Street Finals.
Liz Akama, who just took gold at World Street Rome earlier this month, took the lead from Nishiya after the second round. Staying hot.
But it was 13-year-old Australian Chloe Covell who dropped a 90 in the third and final round of competition to grab the gold medal. Akama won silver. Nishiya settled for bronze.
“It feels amazing to win my first gold,” Covell told the Star. “But it’s even just great being out here and skating with everyone.
“I love having all the people out here supporting me. Thank you to all of them.”
— Joe Curley
The Star’s Tom Kisken is known for his relationship with food on these grounds.
It may not be the Ventura County Fair yet, but Tom is ready for these bacon-wrapped hot dogs.
Even before the competition begins, there’s plenty to watch at the X Games. Just check out these motocross riders practicing.
— Tom Kisken
The gates are open for the second day of the X Games in Ventura. The first competition of the day, the Women’s Skateboarding Street final, begins at 10 a.m.
There were no issues getting to the Fairgrounds this morning, although traffic is expected to pick up throughout the day.
The Star’s Tom Kisken took the free shuttle from the Pacific View Mall from the Fairgrounds. While four people were on his early shuttle Friday, there were 40 people waiting at just past 8 a.m. this morning.
Here’s Saturday’s full schedule:
Arizona native Kevin Peraza won the BMX Street final with a 87.00, keeping Garrett Reynolds from breaking his tie with Shaun White for most all-time X Games gold medals. Reynolds settled for bronze.
After falling to Edouard Damestoy in Japan earlier this year, Jimmy Wilkins regained the top spot on the podium with his seventh X Games gold medal in the Men’s Skateboard Vert, wowing Tony Hawk in the process.
David Rinaldo won Moto X Best Trick with a score of 97.00, edging Jackson Strong by a point.
It was a good day for Olympic gold medalists. Both Momiji Nishiya and Yuto Horigome advanced in the Skateboard Street preliminaries.
Shiloh Catori, Chole Covell, Liz Akama, Mariah Duran, Paige Heyn, Leticia Bufoni and Hina Maeda will join Nishiya in the women’s finals Saturday morning.Ryan Decenzo, Gustavo Riberiro, Nyjah Huston, Jagger Eaton, Kelvin Hoefler, Giovanni Vianna and Shane O’Neill earned the right to join Horigome in the men’s finals Sunday afternoon.
Brady Baker, who trains in Thousand Oaks, advanced to Saturday’s finals of BMX Dirt, along with Logan Martin, Dawid Godziek, Jaie Toohey, Andy Buckworth, Ryan Williams, Brian Fox and Mike Varga.
— Joe Curley
