Pete Thomas Outdoors

FMX star Robbie Maddison injured in Australia

Freestyle motocross star Robbie Maddison was hospitalized and placed in intensive care in Australia Thursday after enduring a fall while training for a Red Bull X-Fighters event this weekend in Sydney.

The extent of his injuries is unclear but they were serious enough for Maddison, an Australian and three-time winner of the X-Fighters event, to be airlifted from the practice facility to Royal North Shore Hospital.

On Friday in the U.S., a Red Bull spokesman issued this statement: "Robbie Maddison came off his bike during a competition practice session and was taken to hospital. The hospital has advised us that Robbie is in stable condition and they will keep us updated."

Maddison on Friday implied via Twitter that he's on the mend: "Wow feeling a lot better today, out of Intensive Care Unit, almost out of hospital. Hope I make it to the event to cheer on the rest of them?!"

That, obviously, came as great news to Maddo's many fans.

-- Video courtesy of Australian News Broadcast

Expansion of X Games a reflection of mainstream acceptance

The announcement Tuesday by ESPN that the X Games will expand from two major events in the United States to six global events staged annually underscores how deeply action sports have penetrated mainstream youth culture.

As part of the "Global X" initiative, expansion will occur in 2013, with Los Angeles and Aspen, Colo., remaining as venues for summer and winter competitions, respectively. Tignes, France, will be a second Winter X Games location, and the remaining venues will be determined through a competitive bidding process that began Tuesday. (Host cities will be announced sometime next year.)

Scott Guglielmino, ESPN's senior vice president in charge of programming, called this the biggest announcement regarding the X Games since ESPN announced the event's debut in 1995. He added that each of the six events will showcase local culture and "have its own kind of flare."

Travis Pastrana, an 11-time X Games gold medalist and arguably the world's most popular action sports athlete, said the expansion reflected the booming growth and mainstream acceptance of action sports.

"It used to be that schoolteachers and parents and other people with a big influence on kids were saying there's no future in it," said Pastrana, a freestyle motocross legend and rally racing star. "You found, really, that the true passion in action sports comes from that, but what's awesome is that it's now accepted more socially.

"It's giving kids the opportunity to really chase their dreams and parents the opportunity to see that these are legitimate sports with real money [involved]. And at the same time it's still core and fun. I'm super pumped about the expansion."

X Games competitions have been held abroad in recent years but as lower-profile events. Under the Global X plan all six events will be similar in size and scope, and a website will be created to devote year-round coverage to all things related to the events.

Unlike the U.S. Dew Tour, a summer and winter action sports series run by NBC, each Global X event will be stand-alone, with no points or standings determining a series winner. Each, Guglielmino said, will be regarded as a major, like the PGA Tour's four majors.

The bidding process will begin next year and the most likely scenario is that there will be four summer and two winter Global X events, but it's possible that there will be three summer and three winter competitions.

Core sports will remain the same at each venue. For example, the gargantuan mega-ramp, used for immensely popular big-air skateboarding and BMX competitions, will be featured at each summer venue.

But it's also possible, according to X Games creator Ron Semiao, that sports will be added at specific venues where certain sports are important to a specific area's culture. For example, if Australia were to land an X Games, surfing might be added as a discipline for that event.

Semiao does not believe the expansion, which will include 130 hours of live programming for the six events, is a gamble. Rather, he said, the timing is perfect because action sports have worked their way into the mainstream youth culture to the point where they're as accepted, if not more so, than traditional sports.

"You now have a situation where if you go into a teen's garage, you will see a football and a basketball and a baseball and a snowboard and a dirt bike, a BMX bike and a skateboard along with a soccer ball," Semiao said. "They are all part of sports and have worked their way into the generally accepted sports culture, particularly with youth."

The timing of the expansion comes shortly after it was announced that freeskiing halfpipe competitions -- staple X Games events for men and women -- will debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Freeskiing star Sarah Burke acknowledged that her already busy schedule will become more hectic, but said she'd work the X Games competitions into her itinerary. "The X Games has always been the main one; the dream that everyone strives to be part of," she said. "I know it's going to be the top event on everyone's schedule and they'll make room for it. And I think everyone's really excited to see how it goes."

-- Travis Pastrana image (top) courtesy of Dom Cooley/Shazamm/ESPN Images. Sarah Burke image courtesy of C. Van Hanja / ESPN Images

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FMX rider Jeff Kargola dies after crash in Baja desert

A pall hovers over the freestyle motocross and off-road racing communities as news spreads that Jeff Kargola, a popular athlete from San Clemente, Calif., died Friday of injuries sustained during a crash on the second day of the Rip to the Tip adventure ride down the Baja California peninsula. Kargola was 27.

Witnesses said the crash, on a bumpy section of desert, did not appear to be serious. But Kargola, who had been wearing a helmet, was knocked unconscious for about 30 minutes and was said to have also suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung. The exact cause of death has not yet been determined.

Cody Stuart, friend of Kargola's who is part of the event's U.S.-based support team, said a helicopter film crew had been following Kargola and nearby participants in the early stages of the 1,500-mile ride from the border town of Tecate to Cabo San Lucas at Baja's tip. The incident occurred near Diablo Dry Lake, about 50 miles north of San Felipe.

The crew picked up Kargola and delivered him to a small San Felipe hospital. Plans were made to fly Kargola across the Mexico-U.S. border to a trauma center, but he perished before that process began.

Leah Steiger, executive director of the American Freestyle Motocross Assn., told ESPN: "I received a call at 8 a.m. and at that point he was unconscious and we were trying to coordinate a Medevac lift for him. But Medevac has to be able to stabilize you before they can even get you in the air. Unfortunately his injuries were just too great, and he passed at Buen Pastor hospital in San Felipe, Mexico. Now we're just trying to get him home."

Kargola, nicknamed "Ox" because of his large stature, was a member of the Metal Mulisha team of FMX riders, which in 2009 mourned the loss of another popular accident victim, Jeremy Lusk, who died of injuries sustained in a crash during a competition in Costa Rica.

Jeremy Lusk memorial ride is Wednesday at Pala Raceway

Freestyle motocross star Jeremy Lusk died two years ago of injuries suffered during a crash in Costa Rica. Lusk was only 24 and the incident sent the tight-knit FMX community into a prolonged period of mourning.

On Wednesday, to honor the memory of Lusk on the two-year anniversary of his death, the Metal Mulisha will host the "Second Annual Lusk Ride Day" from 9:30 a.m.- 2 p.m. at Pala Raceway in North San Diego County.

A statement on the Metal Mulisha website, on which people can print a discount flyer for entry to the raceway, reads: "Come hang out, ride, eat some Chronic Tacos and make the best out of Lusk's Memorial Day Ride!"

A large crowd is expected.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of Jeremy Lusk courtesy of Metal Mulisha

Twitter: @Pete_Thomas

Cam Sinclair to star at X Games a year after near-fatal crash

Cameron Sinclair is fortunate to be alive and able to walk, much less compete at a top level in the dangerous sport of freestyle motocross.

But the Australian FMX star, who experienced a near-fatal crash a year ago in Madrid, has climbed back onto his bike and expects to be standing on the podium after Friday night's X Games Moto X best-trick competition.

It's remarkable considering the horrific fall he endured during the 2009 Red Bull X-Fighters competition in Spain. He under-rotated a double backflip and landed chest-and-face-first.

He suffered severe head injuries, a ruptured liver, extensive internal bleeding, a broken shoulder and cheekbone. His situation was touch-and-go for days during what would become an extended hospital stay, followed by months of rehabilitation. Doctors predicted it could take two years for him to fully recover.

But Sinclair, 25, was back on his bike eight months later. He recently performed his first double backflip since the accident during an event in Australia (see video below). Last week he made an emotional return to the same X-Fighters competition in Madrid, where he did not feel up to trying a double flip and finished 10th.

Just showing up at the venue, he said, was important from a mental standpoint. "At the moment there are loads of tricks I would love to do, but I am not physically where I would like to be, so I don't want to risk getting hurt again," he said before the competition.

Sinclair, however, has implied that he'll bring a variation of the double flip to the X Games' best-trick competition. His run will be highly anticipated and preceded by several anxious moments for him and his many fans.

Brian Deegan to climb into stock car and 'march on NASCAR'

News item: Brian Deegan, a freestyle motocross legend who switched to off-road truck racing after cheating death once too often on his dirt bike (three times by his account), has decided to climb into a stock car and try to become a star NASCAR driver.

Reaction: If NASCAR was in need of fresh blood, consider Deegan a qualified donor. It's a logical next step for the married father of three, who apparently cannot shake his addiction to screaming engines and open-throttle competition. It'll be a boost for NASCAR because Deegan, as founder of the Metal Mulisha (a racing team and clothing/product brand), has a cult-like following and will deliver his hard-edged fans to stock car racing. Deegan will join the NTS Motorsports' driver development program with the hope of qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series circuit as soon as possible.

He said to reporters Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway: "When NASCAR chairman Brian France told the world that NASCAR is a contact sport, we're going to loosen it up, I'm not sure Mr. France knew what he was getting into.

"I took that as a personal invitation for guys like me. I love racing, I love going fast, I love pushing the limit and that's what I'm going to bring to NASCAR. I have been designated as the General of the Metal Mulisha and the Metal Mulisha army is going to march on NASCAR."

Deegan will start off with in a Super Late Model race later this month at Irwindale Speeday in Southern California. He'll stick with late models until fall, when he hopes to move up to the Camping World West Series.

He said he'd do "whatever it takes" to make it onto the Sprint Cup Series circuit.

-- Pete Thomas

FMX star Robbie Maddison soars across Corinth Canal in Greece

As a world traveler, Robbie Maddison enjoys a view of the planet's iconic sights like no other human--from the seat of a motorcycle.

Last year the Australian freestyle motocross star performed a back-flip over the Thames River in London using an open Tower Bridge drawbridge as a launching and landing platform.

The year before Maddison leaped upward 100 feet onto the Arc de Triumphe in front of the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. (Before that he had set a distance-jumping record of 350 feet.)

Today in Greece the Red Bull-sponsored rider cleared the 279-foot-wide Corinth Canal while soaring 300 feet above the canal's surface.

The daredevil described the challenge as something "I just could not resist," and added that the jump "involved the highest consequences I have faced so far."

Having landed safely, Maddison returns to a comparatively humdrum season of competition on the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, which kicks off Friday night in Mexico City.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of Robbie Maddison jump sequence at the Corinth Canal in Greece courtesy of Red Bull

Travis Pastrana to soar 250 feet in a rally car tonight in Long Beach

I once rode in a rally car with Travis Pastrana around a tight X Games track and the experience was a harrowing blur, not unlike a ride on a mega-roller coaster.

I would not like to be in Pastrana's car tonight as he rings in the new year by jumping his street-legal Subaru more than 250 feet from a ramp on the Pine Street Pier in Long Beach to a barge near the Queen Mary.

The freestyle motocross legend and perennial X Games star, who now races rally cars professionally, told me the idea was born on the simple premise of how far a person might be able to fly in a car. He plans to jump between 250-270 feet, shattering the world record of 171 feet, set by friend and fellow adrenaline junkie Ken Block.

The jump is part of the annual Red Bull: New Year, No Limits extravaganza and will be televised on ESPN beginning at 8 p.m. PST.

Pastrana, who will use a hand-brake and throttle to control his car's trajectory, will play the wind much like a golfer. But if his shot is errant, he concedes, it's the player who will suffer the consequences, which could be serious if you consider he'll hit the takeoff ramp at about 100 mph and will travel more than 25 feet over water and must land smoothly in a sweet spot to avoid ending up in the chilly harbor.

FMX star Cam Sinclair back on bike, hoping to bounce back in 2010

Cameron Sinclair is back on his motorcycle and some might call that inspirational, while others might say the freestyle motocross rider is crazy, having cheated death and debilitation at least once already.

But the Australian FMX star, like others of his kind, is a passionate athlete whose life revolves around the high-flying, gravity-defying sport. So he is riding again, five months after under-rotating a double back-flip and planting himself face- and chest-first into the dirt, leaving doctors, family and friends wondering if he'd walk or talk again.

Fans might recall the aftermath of an accident that occurred during a competition in Madrid. Cam experienced bleeding deep inside the brain. He could barely move the right side of his body and he could not breathe on his own, so tubes emanated from his mouth and nose during much of his hospital stay.

Here's part of a news release issued a week before Christmas by Cam's team: "The past two weeks he has been easing his way back into riding, by spending some time on a YZ250F at Southside HQ Motocross and Supercross tracks. For the past three days he has been riding his YZ250 Two Stroke again and building up to jumping ramps again at his close friend Bilko’s house.

"It makes me really proud to say that Cam’s return to FMX over the past few days has been fantastic. He pushed the ramp back to 75 feet this morning and began nailing some of his better tricks right away including double grabs and Hart attacks, etc."

The video, which will make you cringe, is posted on Cam's website and on Tuesday was posted on the Metal Mulisha website. He talks about his recovery and looks forward to competing in 2010. Here's hoping he comes back healthy--and stays healthy--and enjoys a truly memorable year.

-- Pete Thomas