By Leigh Ramsdell, Mongoose Sports Marketing Manager
The 2024 summer X Games once again resided in the scenic coastal city of Ventura, CA. For the second year in a row, we were treated to Moto, Skateboarding and of course what we all came here for (to this site at least) - BMX!
The festivities kicked off with a X Games first – the inaugural Women’s BMX Park competition! Everyone was excited that this finally happened, and Mongoose was pumped to have our pro Nikita Ducarroz in it. The park was more of a bowl setup that had plenty to offer in transfers for endless flow, and big quarters and jump lines for those amazing tricks! All the women threw-down and showed the world that they belong in X Games and any BMX event, really. When it was Nikita’s turn to drop-in she wasted no time attacking the course with good flow and great tricks like stretched no-handers, barspins, tailwhips, and she even brought back the 540! On her second run she nailed everything but came up just a little short on the 540 and slid out. For the last run she did a flawless 540 but missed a few tricks and ended up with a more than respectable 5th place! It was great seeing her out there stoking all the young women who look up to her! Congrats to powerhouse Hannah Roberts for grabbing that gold in the inaugural BMX Women’s Park!
After Women’s Park, we moved over to the BMX Street course where Mongoose pro Kevin Peraza was there to defend his gold medal from last summer. This year the way the event was judged was a little different. The riders had two :45 second runs and the best of those runs counted for half their score. Then all the riders rode in a 20-minute Best Trick jam on one obstacle where their best trick counted for the other half of the score. Kevin had a good :45 second run that put him in 5th place. The gold medal was looking a little slim, but after pulling a peg grind to hard 180 (his opposite spin) downside tailwhip to flat in best trick so cleanly, he shot up to first and won his second consecutive gold medal in BMX Street.
For Day 2, Kevin moved over to the park course for Men’s BMX Park! Last year he rode away with silver, so he was going to try to step it up for gold. Kevin brought his unmistakable style mixed with incredibly difficult tricks to the course, which was finished off by pulling a risky 540 flair landing fakie over the box jump and making it look easy. But at the end of the day there was no stopping Marcus Christopher with his back-to-back insanely hard tricks giving him gold and Kevin taking the silver.
For the final day of the X Games, Kevin’s last event was the highly anticipated Dave Mirra’s Hard Trick in the park course. We know that Kevin got gold last year, but could he hold on to it? When I asked him what he had planned he said he wasn’t sure, leaving me not as confident as I usually am, ha-ha. In his first attempt, he slipped his hand off his grip on a set-up to the hard trick causing him to fall. Then his next two attempts at something he fell, and it was not looking good for medal position. But you can never, and I mean never, count out Kevin Peraza! With seconds left on the clock, he changed gears and headed for the box jump to do a 540 flair with a tailwhip to fakie! He pulled it with Peraza style and took gold! For those counting, he placed the exact same in each event as he did in last years X Games.
It was great to see both Kevin and Nikita riding, but even more impressive to see how they interacted with the fans whether they were signing autographs or taking photos! The producer kept trying to get Kevin over to his interview, but he just couldn’t leave the fans without hanging out with them. Those two are true professionals right there! I hope this year’s X Games does to you what it did to me… makes you want to get out and ride!
Photo credit Our BMX & Leigh Ramsdell
