PLG at the ESPN Summer X Games 15

For 6 years now I’ve been climbing on a airplane, during the heat of the summer, and heading off to LA.  What is this mountain guy thinking?  LA in August….it’s flipping hot.  I can’t resist, the reason I go, year after year, is to participate in the ESPN Summer X Games.  Now I’m not one of those nut jobs backflipping motos or boosting that giant vert ramp, of course, I’m a photographer.  I’m lucky enough to be one of ESPN’s staff photographers.  That means I possess a credential that allows me to go anywhere and do anything I want (in order to get the photos) as long as I don’t get on TV.

The X Games, winter or summer, is an incredible explosion of the best athletes in the world, hordes of their fans and TV craziness all packed into four days of sheer mayhem.  I love it, capturing the amazing energy of such a beautiful disaster is one of my favorite assignments of the year.  But, I’ve done that now for years so this year I decided  to search for a quite moment, a shot that might express an athlete’s drive and determination without all of the hubbub.

I created this image at an evening practice for the Men’s Skateboard Vert competition.  There was one athlete (Pierre-Luc Gagnon) who continued  to practiced well after all the other competitors and fans all went home.  The moment was exactly what I was looking for.  Quiet, serene, yet intense.  Gagnon went on to win the Gold, in front of his fans and the TV and all of the beautiful disaster.