This past weekend was the Extreme Thing in Las Vegas. Extreme Thing is an annual event promoted by a major LV radio station. Each year there is a BMX comp ran in conjunction with wrestling, roller derby, skateboarding, and live music. Bad Religion headlined this year and the crowds were insane. I rolled out there with Chris Raceles and Pete Demos. Chris shot some cool video but slept most of the time in his full clothes, and Pete shot some amazing photos. Here's how our trip went...
We rolled in to Vegas about 7pm on Thursday, checked into our hotel and headed straight to Anthem Skate Park. It was a blast but really windy. I ended up OTB and with 5 stitches above my right eye which was pretty cool. Even better was being at the clinic til 1:30am getting them. Friday morning was a big session at TJ Lavin's yard. A lot of guys showed up and made for an all day riding session. You can see in the picture of Nastazio below just how rad TJ's yard is right now. Lines every where. It's BMX paradise.
After we rode all day we headed to go see Steel Panther which is an 80's hair metal cover band/comedy show. The guys play old Motley Crue and talk all kinds of trash about randoms in the audience between each song. They're amazing and you should check them out if you have the chance.
Saturday was the event which turned into an all day gig. There were two rounds of qualifying with over 50 guys entered in the contest. Ryan qualified first which was rad. The final was pretty insane, we had 2 video cameras so look out for a web edit coming soon. Everyone was going big. Ryan tried a huge transfer in his final run and bailed, his bike took out a camera man who was in a bad spot between the jumps. I got it on video which was pretty amazing. Thankfully both Ryan and the photo guy were alright. When the results were in it was Darden with the win and Nyquist with the second. Pretty cool. Cory had a couple crash runs in qualifying and didn't make the final but he still rode good. Below are some photos of the event and the jam at TJ's the day before. Click on any of them to enlarge. -dB
