The ESPN X Games 16 are upon us. The courses have been built, the rider list has been released and practice has already started. This is one of the most complicated skate contests out there because of all the different divisions, 11 to be exact. Not to mention all the skateboarders that are invited, and all the different little side stories that are guaranteed to ensue each year.

We'll be breaking down each division, and help you with what to look for all week. To get it started, here's 5 Q's of X...Skateboarding.

1. Will the flakes show? It's no secret that skateboarders tend to be unpredictable, and rich and famous skateboarders, with management, are even are even more prone to be MIA when the contest starts. Now, Shaun White is no flake when it comes to snowboarding, but in skateboarding he has been known to play hooky. Just recently emails were sent out that stated White was confirmed to be skating the vert ramp at the Dew Tour Boston. When the tour rolled into Beantown White was there, but claimed he wasn't going to skate due to injury. It has been over a month since then, has healed enough to skate? We'll see. How about Ryan Sheckler? How about a confirmation he's going to skate Maloof NYC followed by a no show at Maloof NYC. Then there's guys like: Brian Anderson, Mark Appleyard, Leo Romero, Nick Trepasso, Johnny Layton, Sean Malto and Alex Olson. These are not your typical contest guys, and are the most likely to not show. Take the last two on the list Malto and Olson. Malto was invited and didn't show up last year, he opted to film with his sponsors for an upcoming video. Then there's Olson. He has to be the biggest liability on the whole list. Anybody who knows the guy knows he does what he wants, and the X Games are not a big deal in his life. He drives his sponsors nuts by not using their products, and contest directors are even lower on the list of his cares. He would much prefer to be at a photography show in Williamsburg Brooklyn rubbing shoulders with the more artsy A list celebrities of the world, than at an X Games event getting his shoulders covered in D list dust by one of the girls from The Hills.

2. How will the young guys do? As in X Games first timers, Curren Caples and Pedro Barros. Caples who at 14 years-old is the youngest competitor in the games, and will be skating in the Skate Park division. This being a relatively new event to the X Games and has only one winner, Rune Glifberg, who has won both years it has existed. The Park may just be the most popular event in the skateboarding portion of the games amongst actual skateboarders. It is a course built for creating a line, maintaining your speed and just killing transition. And if there's one thing Caples can do it's skate tranny. Pedro Barros is Bob Burnquist's little creation. He also kills transition, but what makes this kid not your typical young skateboarder is he will be competing on the Mega Ramp in Skate Big Air. When it comes to anything Mega, there aren't that many guys in the world who can compete at an X Games level. There will be only 10 participants in the Big Air contest, and at 15 years-old Barros is almost half of all their ages. He will also be competing in Skate Park, and is an alternate in Men's Vert. Will this be the year he becomes the household name that he is destined to be?

3. Will Ryan Sheckler get revenge on the X Games Street course. It was at last year's X Games that he broke his foot, which sidelined him for months. He was forced to pull out of a handful of contests that he has been a regular contender in, and only recently has gotten back to his competitive form with a 2^nd place finish at the Dew Tour Boston. He was a no show at Maloof NYC (see Question 1), and hasn't won a major contests in over a year. That said, you can never count this guy out, he has everything in his bag of tricks, and we all know he can go huge. Plus, the reality television star will have his usual cheering section of teenage girls when Sheckler Mania rolls into LA.

4. What will go down on the infamous Mega Ramp? This section of the X Games is almost cartoonish to most skateboarders. It is something, that when you pick up a skateboard for the first time, you can pretty much be guaranteed you will never do. More so than really anything in the X Games; Freestyle Motorcross is crazy and everything, but people who start dirt biking always have that option to floor it and start attempting flips and what not. Mega Ramps on the other hand, are so rare that you really have to go out of your way to find one. That said, when Danny Way, Bob Bournquist, Jake Brown and the rest of the mega field start hucking themselves off of that creation of epic proportions, headlines are bound to happen. We've had huge falls like the legendary spills of Brown and Way, that have brought silence to the Staples Center. To epic performances, like that of you've guessed it, Brown and Way, who put those falls behind them and gave us two amazing performances at last year's event. What will be the skateboarding mega story be this year?

5. Will Bastein Salabanzi shock the world? He made his first real debut to the skateboarding world as that amazing teenage sensation in Flip's Extemly Sorry, where he opened his part by kickflipping a set of stairs and landing cross-footed, then proceeded to technically dismantled rails, ledges and stair sets around the world. Since then he just about disappeared. The Parisian was on a bit of a self-induced sabbatical in his home country of France. Recently though, he showed up out of the blue, and decided to skate the Maloof NYC. He had more of the actual skateboarders in the contest pulling for him than anyone, because as we all know "real recognizes real," and he managed to place forth. Then, he really freaked skateboarding out when he showed up at this year's Dew Tour Boston. He skated through the trials and into the main event, and once again finished forth. According to the list of skaters who are going to compete in Skate Street, Salabanzi's event, there is no name of Cole, Rodriguez, Lutzka or Pudwill listed. Translation; there are only the two skateboarders who have finished ahead of Salabanzi in the past two major contests (Maloof NYC and Dew Tour Boston), Ryan Sheckler and Chaz Ortiz. Will the X Games Street celebration consist of banquettes and wine?

Photo: CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/Shazamm ESPN Media

Ok, before we start talking X Games Big Air, let's get one thing out of the way, BIG AIR IS CRAZY and the guys that do it are out of their minds.


Nestled inside of Staples Center, the Mega Ramp has a giant roll in, if you safely make the drop, you then get to choose either a 50ft or 70ft gap to clear, those who successfully clear the gap are greeted with a 27ft quarter pipe. It's hard to truly appreciate the massiveness of the ramp until you see it in person. The mega ramp has a mysterious way of making those who choose to tackle it, an instant celebrity. You don't always have to make the jump to be a hero, as we saw a couple years ago when Jake Brown got the speed wobbles as he approached the quarter pipe and fell 50ft in the air to flat bottom. Miraculously Brown walked away and became an instant hero for surviving the worst fall in X Games history.

At X Games 15, Big Air has changed, a sign of progression in the sport. There's your standard Skateboard Big Air which Bob Burnquist will most likely win his 3rd consecutive X Games gold, Kevin Robinson and Chad Kagy will go as high as ever in BMX Big Air, but this year, the first ever woman, Lindsey Robertson is charging the mega ramp. Also Danny Way is leading the charge in Big Air Rail Jam. That's right they're putting a rail in the middle of the gap, for the skaters to rail slide before they hit the monster quarter pipe. As if it's not hard enough to stay alive, they needed to add another level of difficulty.


Yesterday during practice everyone was killing it, going ridiculously high. I have a good feeling that you're going to want to tune in and see what happens...

Predictions for Big Air-
I'm not really going out a limb here, but it's hard not to think Burnquist will win his 3rd straight gold, in practice he was doing things I didn't think were possible. But my sleeper pick is no name Elliot Sloan. I saw him training 2 years ago for this moment; I'm pulling for him.

Kevin Robinson continued to go bigger than everyone else, plus he drops in from the very top, which makes him even gnarlier.

The God Father of Big Air Danny Way will continue his brilliance and win Big Air Rail Jam.

ESPN and Disney will release the first sports-themed 3D film this summer with a special, limited one-week theatrical run starting Aug. 21. ESPN Films will produce and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will distribute X Games 3D the Movie nationwide into digital 3D theaters around the country. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Steve Lawrence (Down the Barrel), the film will use groundbreaking digital 3D techniques to immerse sports fans into the world of action sports and its top stars. Iconic action sports personalities chronicled in the film are: Shaun White, Travis Pastrana, Danny Way, Ricky Carmichael and Bob Burnquist.

"ESPN is extremely proud to join Disney in bringing the 3D experience to action sports fans," said Ron Semiao, senior vice president, ESPN Films. "The proximity of the cameras to the action combined with the amazing performances by the athletes provides a jaw-dropping, storytelling encounter for fans of all ages."

Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, said, "There is absolutely no sporting event better suited for the Digital 3D medium than X Games. ESPN continues to break boundaries by using digital 3D to put sports fans literally in the center of the action: preparing to launch down the big air ramp with Danny Way, racing downhill on Shaun White's snowboard and flying through the air in Travis Pastrana's Rally car. And Disney is proud to add X Games 3D the Movie to its robust, industry-leading slate of 17 other upcoming Disney Digital 3D releases."

The full-length feature film will capture the drama and spectacle that play out every year at the X Games events and will also tell the stories of the featured athletes showing the sacrifices they make in pursuit of glory and progressing their sport on the industry's biggest stage.

"I'm excited to be involved with ESPN and Disney on this project," said Shaun White, X Games and Olympic gold medalist. "I think the style of filming will bring something new to viewers."