HOLY CRAP! Where to begin?! Well, the Big Air Finals just wrapped up and it was by far the best Big Air competition to date. As predicted, Mirra unleashed his exclusive helicopter flip over the Big Air gap—not once, but twice!
He landed both flawlessly; the second one he followed up with a huge flair tailwhip on the quarter, which put him clearly in first place.
But just when everyone thought Mirra had clinched the gold, Chad Kagy anted up with a flawless run that will go straight onto the record books: He flip-whipped the 70-foot-gap and followed up on the quarter with his massive signature trick, a flatspin flair-whip that went almost 20 feet into the Staples rafters.
Cody York
Kagy, showing off his signature flatspin flair-whip to all the people sitting in the nosebleed seats of the Staples center.
All I know is that both Mirra's run and Kagy run were so ridiculous I'm glad I'm not one of the judges. They both deserved gold. Here are their comments on the night:
Dave Mirra
"Overall on the action, I'm really, really psyched. Everybody rode great. I'm psyched on silver. I thought that they judged the jump a little low, though. I thought that that was pushing Big Air, the gap. Everything else was flipped; we all know that, we all flipped it. At the end of the day, I think they judged the quarterpipe way too much. Yeah, vert's one thing, but the gaps another thing, too. There are jumpers in this world and there are vert riders, and there are people that can do both. I was a little discouraged, but at the end of the day what do you do? But I'm psyched that I pushed the gap—I didn't really see anyone do that. I guess I just gotta go a little bit higher on the quarter next time!"
Chad Kagy
"I'm stoked everything worked out well for me, but what I'm actually more excited about is that all 7 of us are walking away from that massive ramp. Dave, as always... I can't tell you, it surprises me 100 percent. He came in so motivated... Dude, a no handed 360 flip, 50-foot&perfect, two times! He's never even tried that thing before! I'm amazed. I'm just stoked everybody's safe, and 20-foot flair whips don't suck!"
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Contributors
Brian Tunney
This is Brian. He lives in Jersey City, rides BMX bikes often and somehow ended up in the X Games a few times. Facebook him if needed.
Cody York
From Cleveland, Ohio, Cody was raised on a steady diet of backyard jumps and skateparks and his photos have graced the pages of Ride BMX, BMX Plus!, Ride UK, and Dig magazines. Got something to share? cyorkphoto@me.com
Mark Noble
Mark is from the U.K., and has over 28+ years experience in BMX. He has launched, published, edited and written for more BMX mags than you can shake a bike at. He also runs Deluxe BMX.
Nick Ferreira
Nick Ferreira is a BMXer, photographer and zine maker from Taunton, MA. He has been extolling the merits of tucks and tabes in print and online for the better part of the past 10 years.
Pat Nugent
Born and raised on Long Island, the only outlet to BMX that Patrick grew up knowing was racing. For a while, he got into all those weird forms of BMX, but eventually returned to the race scene. He enjoys shooting races and snaking practice laps.
Steve Crandall
Hails from Ithaca, NY, created FBM in '93, paints pictures of eggs, soup and pigeons in his spare time, throws down a mean tabletop.
