When I heard Red Bull was going to celebrate the craziest son of a bitch ever I knew I had to be there. Mr. "I do anything Great" Travis Pastrana had his official Roast on Tuesday night at the Avalon in Hollywood. Red Bull went all out for Travis, they had a red carpet, life size pictures, fellow action sports heroes, celebrities that do absolutely nothing in life except appear at events like this, Mini Me, the least funny guy from Flight of the Concords, and of course an open bar with all the red bulls you can drink!

MINI ME

With everyone all hyped up on Red Bull, the night of madness did not disappoint, Robert Pastrana started off the evening talking about his son's lack of luck with the ladies. That seemed to be a constant theme throughout the night. Pastrana may be able to double back flip a motorcycle, jump out of an airplane with no parachute, roll a rally car and be happy about it, but he can't pull a chick if his life depended on it.

It's true though, when you first meet Travis, he might be the nicest and biggest dork ever, but don't let that fool you, he's a crazy son of a bitch. The best part of the night was Pastrana's epic red neck uncle contributing ALL of Travis' success in his career to his love of SNOW CONES. He would finish races as quickly as possible, or jump his bike as high as he can just so he can get a snow cone. So you're telling me, all it takes is frickin snow cones to do what he did, you would think my similar passion towards beer would allow me to achieve such accomplishments, NOPE!

Pastrana's signature Thumbs Up, it's hard to believe he has lady troubles? photo-samantha brandt

Travis is set to compete at X Games 15 this week in his signature Subaru. Rally is his new passion, and what a surprise, he's pretty good at it, he already has a gold and will be looking to win another. With anything he does, I'm sure he will find some way to take rally to another level, maybe he'll roll it, or even flip the rally car of the 70ft gap?

The night ended with a big announcement, which impacted me directly. I found out where I was going to be spending my next New Years, Pastrana is going to jump his rally car a world record distance in Los Angeles on Dec 31st.


Cory Bohan takes a backseat to his girlfriend Audrina, who does nothing on the Hills. photo-samantha brandt


Even though it was a Roast for Travis, Sheckler made fun of repeatedly for his constant crying on his MTV show "Life of Cryin" photo-samantha brandt


Travis Pastrana Toasted

He's double backflipped a motorcycle, rolled a rally car, jumped out of an airplane without a parachute, won nine X Games gold medals and has revolutionized pretty much everything he has ever tried and he's only 25 years old! On Tuesday, July 28, Travis Pastrana will be honored with a celebration of his career at Red Bull Toasted. Hosted by comedian Arj Barker, star of HBO's Flight of the Conchords, the event will bring fans, athletes and celebrities together to pay tribute to all that Pastrana has contributed to the world of sports at the Avalon in Hollywood.



Red Bull Toasted will feature special appearances by several iconic friends and family members of Pastrana, including Ryan Sheckler, skateboarder and star of the MTV hit reality series Life of Ryan, Supercross champion James Stewart and cast members from MTV's Nitro Circus. Never-before-seen outtakes from Nitro Circus, career highlights and even some - ahem - lowlights, will add to the revelry.

The evening will wrap up by revealing 'what's next' in Travis' career. We would tell you more, but the details are also a secret to Travis until he arrives. Shhh!

Red carpet arrivals will take place at 7:00 p.m. PT and Red Bull Toasted will begin at 8:00 p.m.

The event is open to the public (all ages) and tickets will go on sale on Friday, July 10 for $15 at www.travispastrana.com. This newly-redesigned site will also provide additional event information as well as information on Pastrana.

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."

As reported on www.forbes.com by Kurt Badenhausen

Snowboarder Shaun White was down to his last chance after falling during his first two runs of the men's half-pipe competition at last month's Winter X Games. It was the culminating event in the four day contest that drew 68,000 fans to Aspen, Colo. Once again, White delivered. He ripped off a stellar final run that included back-to-back 1080s (three complete rotations in the air) to win the gold.

White's payday for winning one of his sport's biggest competitions: a paltry $30,000. By comparison, Geoff Ogilvy earned $1.1 million for winning golf's 2009 opening event, the Mercedes-Benz Championship.
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But the snowboarding and skateboarding phenom crowned the Flying Tomato will get his money. We estimate that White earned $9 million in 2008 thanks to lucrative endorsement deals with Burton, Hewlett-Packard, Oakley, Red Bull and Target. His earnings are almost entirely from sponsors, as yearly prize money for skateboarders and snowboarders rarely tops $100,000. White's endorsement take is greater than any baseball or football player outside of quarterback Peyton Manning.

CLICK HERE FOR A SLIDESHOW OF THE HIGHEST-PAID ACTION SPORTS STARS IN PICTURES

White is the Tiger Woods of today's action sports stars. He wins more than anybody else, and his fame far eclipses that of his competition. Other action sports stars are starting to get noticed by a broader audience, and that has meant bigger paychecks, thanks to rich sponsorship deals.

With this in mind, we decided to take a look at who makes what in action sports. Through interviews with industry experts we estimated 2008 earnings for the top stars in the more traditional sports like snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing and BMX. We excluded Motocross racing, which straddles the line between action sports and motor sports and top riders like Chad Reed and James Stewart can make as much as $5 million racing around a dirt track.

The top 10 earners in 2008 were all male. Top female snowboarders like Torah Bright, Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter make as much as $750,000 annually, but that fell short of our $1 million cut off.
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Shaun White is the top earner among the current crop of action sports stars, but the highest-paid guy in the game is still Tony Hawk, the godfather of action sports. Hawk retired from competitive skating in 1999 at the age of 31, but he has built a thriving business that earned him $12 million last year. Hawk dominated skateboard competitions through the 1980s and '90s, winning 71% of the events that he entered during his 17-year career. Despite his success, Hawk found that he could not support his family financially by just competing, so he launched his own skateboard company, Birdhouse Projects, in 1992.

Hawk parlayed his skating success into a business empire that includes his own Boom Boom Huckjam action sports tour, a clothing line available at Kohl's and Tony Hawk's Big Spin roller coasters at Six Flags. He also created a videogame with Activision, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," that launched in 1999. It is one of the best-selling videogame franchises of all time with $1.2 billion in sales since its launch. The latest version hits stores in October. Today, Tony Hawk Inc. employs 30 people at offices outside of San Diego. Last year, Tony Hawk branded product sales were $200 million.

Hawk is still a big name with teens, despite being retired for 10 years. TRU, a market research firm focused on the under-30 set, does an annual study on awareness and likability of celebrities. The top athlete in its 2008 report amongst teens was Hawk, ahead of the likes of LeBron James and Derek Jeter. That is why companies like Activision, Quiksilver, Sirius and T-Mobile are still quick to partner with him.

Corporate money has been pouring into action sports in recent years as the popularity of these sports has taken off with consumers. Participation in skateboarding increased 74% between 1998 and 2007 to 10.1 million participants, the fastest growth of any sport in the U.S. Snowboarding registered the third fastest growth over the same 10-year period, up 42% to 5.1 million participants according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

"These sports are so much fun for participants and accessibility is much better than 20 years ago," says Bob Klein, an action sports pioneer who built the first snowboard half pipe and later became an agent for boarders including Shaun Palmer and Danny Kass.

Walt Disney's ESPN has been hugely influential in expanding the reach of these sports through the X-Games. ESPN launched the first summer competition in 1995 that was billed as the Extreme Games, featuring sports like bungee jumping, eco-challenge, sky surfing and street luge, all events that no longer exist. The Winter X-Games joined the party in 1997.

NBC launched its own action sports competition in 2005, the Dew Tour. The tour features five-stops over four months with prize money totaling $2.5 million, the biggest purse in action sports. Big sponsors on last year's Dew Tour included Sony, Toyota and Wendy's International.

The latest big brand to enter the fray is Gatorade. The sports drink leader announced plans for its first big push into action sports earlier this year. The PepsiCo subsidiary signed three up-and-coming action sports athletes to endorsement deals including 14-year skateboarding phenom Chaz Ortiz.

Peter Carlisle, who heads the Olympics and Action Sports division of sports agency Octagon, says, "Action sports provide a unique platform to reach the masses and the younger demo that is particularly hard to reach through mass marketing."

Good news for today's action sports stars.