Summer X Games 12

Last night, my two week adventure of supporting this year's Summer X Games ended. Finally! While the four days of the Games themselves were fun, the preparation leading up to the event was long and tedious. Six co-workers from my department flew out from Bristol with a TON of equipment to support both the Home Depot Center and Staples Center. It was our job to wire both facilities for network connectivity back to the mothership in Connecticut as well as provide support to the production trucks during the actual broadcasts. It was a lot of work but the event was successful and I got to experience lots of the Games close up so in the end it was worth it....I think.

Highlights of the two weeks include:

-Full access to all of Staples Center and Home Depot Center
-Seeing Tony Hawk walking around with his family
-Watching Travis Pastrana's incredible double back flip on a motorcycle from the floor of Staples about 45 feet from his landing
-Checking out Sandra Bullock and hubby Jesse James up close
-Standing in the production trucks watching motorcycle racing commercial free
-The amazing number of tattoos and fake boobies on display
-Kick ass car rally ending including the race leader rolling on the second to the last turn, but righting his car and driving to a second place finish
-Standing on the dirt track watching the Moto Step Up finals and getting on TV in the process
-Learning about the Metal Mulisha, Deegan, Twitch and a host of other X Games athletes/characters
-Standing two feet from moto legend Jeremy McGrath
-Being introduced to Patron tequila by my co-workers, Smoooooooth

In all it was one of those experiences that I enjoyed now that I can look back at it. Many days it was "hurry up and wait" which drove me crazy to no end. But once I got into the flow of it all, things improved and I found my way through the days. And now I am fan of many of the events and competitors. Next year you will have to join me for Summer X 13.

Check out my Summer X Games 12 Photos on my Yahoo site. Too many to publish here via Flickr. Let me know if you want any of these in high resolution.