The competition was fierce in the Austin X-Games with multiple corporations battling for mind share in the critical 16-25 year old male consumer category. Some mind blowing social media tricks were unveiled in marketplace competition for the first time. Crowds cheered as skillful, death defying advertising strategies were executed at will. And there was some skateboarding too. Monster Energy wants you to know how well their guys placed in the . Pierre Luc Gagnon and Curren Caples scored a gold while Tom Scharr got a bronze. They sent photos too, in case you don’t believe them. That’s right, we’re not afraid to toe the corporate line. UPDATE: Adding pics as they send them, Nyjah Houston, etc…

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, my plane got delayed and TAM Linhas Aéreas lost my luggage. It took a while to get things sorted out, but I’m happy now, and tripping out cause I’ve never been in the southern hemisphere before. The toilets flush backwards! What???? Crazy! Anyway, I finally got the go ahead to post a couple of pics I took of Jake Brown. Holy cow, he landed the world’s first backside 720 Ollie over the gap in during the Big Air contest…

Hey, it’s Pierre Luc Gagnon at the X games in Los Angeles back in June. He won. I guess you should go buy some Monster Energy drink. Tune in next month for this month’s Street League results.

A guy in South Africa of all places was commissioned to illustrate different events for the 2011 X Games. I don’t know why I’m surprised. If guys in India can do our programming, guys in South Africa can certainly illustrate the X Games. Check out Jordan Metcalf’s portfolio. – Thanks to MC for the tip.

I subscribe to email news updates from the free 3D modeling app Google SketchUp. Included in the highlights this time were links to the past X Games park in both model form and reality as provided by California Rampworks.

It may not be portable, reusable,or around anymore, but it looks fun. 50-50.com has a gallery of the park and a few action shots too.

It may not be environmentally friendly, but it sure looks fun. Thanks to Brian Baade’s nameless friend Brian Forwood for the photo.

ESPN has let out a few photos of the skate structure for X Games 17. They chose the now more commonplace method of pouring a concrete over a wooden substructure. This kind of facility is temporary and seemingly very wasteful, although the concrete and wood can be “recycled” into new concrete and new ramps. However, I’m pretty skeptical that they are going to store all that wood somewhere until the next time they use it. Landfill seems more likely. On the other hand, the Dew Tour is going a different route via a familiar name in precast concrete. Don’t confuse this with ordinary prefab, these massive pieces are cut with the aid of lasers and designed to be interchangeable and self aligning. The plan is to eventually build up a large library of interchangeable parts. If you’re confused about the strange look of these, then join the club. We’re supposed to get more information shortly, so stay tuned. SPeaking of the Dew Tour, I heard a rumor that PDX local Dave Tobin was being flown back to judge!

It’s conceivable that these trucks might work well enough for a beginner. The technology dates back to the 50’s here, and believe it or not, I think there are some dirtboard, excuse me, mountainboarding trucks out there right now that are based on the same design. Still, call me cynical, but have to believe the decision to used these wacky trucks was based purely on profit motive. Maybe at the time these were a dollar cheaper than a traditional truck. May not sound like much, but multiply by thousands and then some in projected sales… On the one hand, the X-Games provide a way for an immediate group of skateboarder to make a living off of skateboarding, and a larger group through association. On the other hand, they peddle crap like this, or at least they used to. I don’t think they make this anymore. – Thanks to Matthijs van Wijk for the tip.

Opening today at selected theaters and running for a week is XGames 3D the movie. Freestyle motocross, vert BMX, skateboarding, snowboarding and Rally Car driving are featured and there is plenty of gnarly action. There are featured personalities and highlights from last year’s events as well as memorable moments from previous events. Jake Brown and Danny Way’s mega ramp slams are crazy to see on the big screen. I have not seen any of the recent crop of 3D movies. XGames 3D The Movie is a large scale application of the 3D effect but after a while I forgot about it. I probably would have enjoyed it just as much as a normal big screen experience, although you do get a good sense of the scale of the MegaRamp. It was great to see some of the Danny Way milestones, as well as Matt Hoffman’s BMX backflip and the first moto double backflip in competition, presented at that scale. I was quite moved by the Megaramp finale – with Danny Way continuing to compete after a bad slam – even though I had watched the thing whole thing on YouTube a year ago. I’ll rate it better than Harry Potter…