For every X Games hit, there was an equal number of misses along the way.tony florez photography
One of the biggest challenges Ron Semiao faced in getting the X Games up and running was convincing skateboarders and snowboarders that ESPN would treat their sports with respect.
“Some people I called rejected it immediately because the idea of a national TV network running an extreme sports event sounded way too corporate for them,” Semiao said.
Before the X Games’ 1995 launch in Newport, R.I., Semiao was giving a tour of the venue to Kevin Thatcher, one of the guys who launched Thrasher magazine. Semiao was trying to get some of the press outlets that covered extreme sports to buy into the X Games concept.
“While our backs were turned, all of a sudden he just left,” Semiao said with a laugh.
Semiao also whiffed on some sports. Here are four events that were part of the early X Games that no longer are around:
Kite Skiing
Semiao saw a story in Details magazine on people who kite-skied. They had skis on in the water with a metal harness that was attached to a kite. Semiao called the person featured in the story and asked if he could get the 10 best kite skiers in the world to travel to Newport for the first X Games. The guy said he would.
“What he didn’t tell me is that the only two people who knew how to kite ski were him and his brother,” Semiao said. “We had that sport in the first X Games and guys are getting blown all around. One guy was blown so far down the shore that when he made land somewhere, he took a cab back to the venue. He puts his kite ski in the trunk of the cab. That was one of the misses.”
Bungee Jumping
Semiao called a guy in New Zealand who claimed to be a bungee expert and asked him to bring the best bungee jumpers in the world to Newport. The bungee expert asked how much prize money was available, suggesting that the world’s best bungee jumpers would only travel to Newport for a big enough purse. Semiao assured him that the amount would be worth his while — the total purse was $40,000.
“He took us to the cleaners — there was never a prize purse for bungee jumping anywhere else in the world,” Semiao said. “It’s an amusement-park ride. It’s not a sport. We put it in a category called freestyle. We had guys going off the tower in Elvis costumes. One guy was literally strapped to a toilet seat with a newspaper.”
Street Luge
“I didn’t realize it was illegal,” Semiao said. “People would go and bomb the hills late at night until they got chased away by the cops. For one week a year, we took something that was illegal and made it legal. The street lugers are all good people, but they are kind of hard core.”
Super Modified Shovel Racing
Remember the scene from “It’s a Wonderful Life” when the Bailey boys slide down a snowy hill on a shovel? Super Modified Shovel Racing was like that … just more dangerous. People would make contraptions that looked like spaceships. They were legal as long as they had a shovel that touched the snow.
Racers would compete side-by-side. The first one down the hill would win and advance. Semiao OK’d the event for the first Winter X Games. The U.S. Navy was a sponsor and it let ESPN use one of its aircraft carrier catch nets at the bottom of the hill to catch the shovel racers.
“This thing wasn’t really developed too well,” Semiao admitted. “There were some crashes that just went cartwheeling. It was unbelievable. …
“There’s this big red contraption that literally looked like a rocket ship. The racers are up at the top of the hill and are waiting to go. One racer asked his partner, ‘Did you put the brake fluid in?’ The other guy said, ‘Uh.’ And boom! This thing went flying. At the bottom of the hill before the catch net we placed all these big bags with Styrofoam peanuts. This rocket ship flies through the bags like a hot knife through butter. All you can see from the point-of-view camera on their vehicle was Styrofoam peanuts. It flies into the aircraft carrier catch net, which stops jets. The net stopped it. But we had a volunteer who was there to make sure pedestrian traffic didn’t go through when the vehicle comes down. He’s standing there and the net stretches and almost hits him. He just picks up his bag and leaves. He’s done.”
