Interview with X Games and Skateboard Legend Bob Burnquist

Well, I mean, I was at the event in Montreal years ago, and I've always told Micah that it's a really good vibe, good cultural event, you know, and being able to be here at Virginia Beach, you know, finding the time and then actually skating with all the kids and the guys, you know, like New Generation Strong on Bird. So I'm loving it. I love seeing all the other activities too. Obviously love base jumping, skydiving, just, you know, different stuff is great. Hey, the ramp's solid. It's a really good ramp, a good event ramp. You know, it's hard because it's set up on the beach, so it could be, you know, kind of flimsy, but it's not. You know, it's solid. Everyone's skating well. I watch it from afar because I've been in Brazil. But, yeah, it was, it's always good to see. You know, the more events, the better. You know, and X Teams is one of those, like, traditional long-time ones. So, yeah. Oh, I think it should expand worldwide. It should go everywhere, you know. That's the type of event we want. I mean, with the Olympics in the mix, you know, it's a breath of fresh air to have something more, you know, cultural that's actually on the other side of it. You know, and it's great to have all the other events, you know, but it's like, you have to have that one that kind of feels like it represents you. And I think Jackalope does that. You know, it's cool, man. I mean, to be still being called and invited. You know, Tony's always been, you know, so gracious and, you know, for being in the first one. And then now we're in 2025 and they're doing a remake. And here we are. I think it's launching like July 11th. And, you know, I'm looking forward to it. You know, I think it wasn't so much of a trick, but like a little gee fell into the tree. Like, you know, he didn't make it across the gap. So it was right in the beginning when he was skating. And I think he was just kind of thinking it was no problem. You know, and then when that happened, I think reality kind of hit and then he started attacking it differently. But it's like the almost makes. And I think Yaki Olsen flipped and almost hit his hand like on the landing. So it was kind of another scary. Tricks in itself, great. But those in-betweens and falling is like not cool. Well, I was just always, you know, looking to progress and think of new things. And obviously Danny Way was a huge inspiration. Matt Hoffman for actually bringing that whole mentality of like the bigger the ramp, the bigger the air. That was him back in 93, you know, and that inspired Danny to bring it to skateboarding, you know, and then I was involved in a lot of those events from the beginning, you know, and then seeing it finally put together. And I had the opportunity to build one in my backyard. And it was just like, you know, I was skating all the vert events and I did all that. And it was kind of getting old in the sense of like, well, what else? You know, I kind of get bored quick and I just want to progress into something else. And MegaRamp gave me that whole new excitement in skateboarding, you know? So then having it from backyard and be able to think of different things and, you know, create different obstacles, try to bring the street to the Mega, you know, kind of with that relation. I mean, it was just, it was a great, you know, segue into this next phase, you know? And I still dig it. It's amazing. It's hard to, you know, and when I'm skating in my backyard and I'm looking around and to this day, it's like, it's hard to believe, you know? I'm like, wow, I got this thing right here, you know, so it's cool. I feel like the programming in skateboarding, you know, how it works is, you know, each generation shows up and what is possible is what they see, right? So unless you bring in the impossible or bring in something new, you know, other people don't see it. So once Tony landed the nine and made that, you know, a possibility, it just kind of becomes a base, you know, and then you see them just, and I feel like a lot of the smaller kids, they spin really fast because when you do a 900, you got to get small, that's the whole point, you know, and you got to grab and get small and spin. And if you're already small, you know, you get into that really quick spin. But the fact that they're doing it, I mean, I saw like, I don't know, four or five of them already, you know, just two in practice, you know, just like throwing them down. So it was great. A loop is definitely more dangerous. Yeah, the loop is dangerous. The first time I skated Mega was, was over at Danny's at Point X and it was hard for me to like commit to the landing. It wasn't that the trick on the, you know, gap was hard because it's not, it's actually a lot easier, but it was, I knew that once I landed, I had to face the quarter pipe and the quarter pipe is where the danger lives, you know, so that's what was hard, that first like quarter pipe hit. And then after that happened, then you're, oh, okay, you get that into your head and like, then you just start progressing. But yeah, and, you know, a lot of times, the big jump when X Games came around and we're doing, you know, for a competition at that level and skating the big jump was always super scary and it wasn't something I looked forward to. It was something I did cause I had to and then that was it. But yeah, MegaRamp's a whole nother beast. There's kids in skating that I haven't seen ever, right? And then I get to see this new generation, meet them, interact and hang out. They love the course design. You know, it's like that artistic vibe, you know, that's always good. And obviously you have the theme. You got the pirate ship, you know, and I think that that's really where skateboarding and culture connects and how events should go down, you know, so yeah, I'm glad that I was able to find the time this year and, you know, I'm happy I did cause this is super fun. You know, it's different. I mean, I can get hyped to watching another sport. Like I can get hyped, you know, watching Travis Pastrana. What you're getting hyped on is that, you know, the commitment and the energy, right? So that you can transfer onto your thing. You know, obviously skate videos, watching new parts, you know, Tom Schaar just put out an amazing video part, you know, and that's like, it gets you back into that. Oh, all right, you know, you wanna skate. So that's it.