The X Games

Will the big air events ever get too dangerous?

Two days after Jake Brown survived a harrowing 45-foot fall to the bottom of the mega-ramp inside Staples Center, some extreme-sports athletes were questioning the worthiness of the big air events.

The apparatus features a choice of two roll-in ramps, one measuring 60 feet and the other 80 feet, then a pair of ramps that lead over gaps of 50 feet and 70 feet. But the portion of the ramp that caused nearly all of the accidents during the skateboard and BMX big air competitions, including Brown's crash, is the 27-foot-tall quarterpipe that follows the jump.

"It's kind of fun to do the ramp, but I'm not too psyched on the quarterpipe," said BMX rider Gary Young, who opted to skip big air and compete in the freestyle event. "A foot off one way or the other can be real bad."

In the BMX big air competition Friday night, world record-holder Mat Hoffman went out of control above the quarterpipe, but managed to land on the padding on the top deck. Still, he dropped about 18 feet and was walking with the help of a cane Saturday.

"The quarterpipe plays a huge issue," said Kevin Robinson, who won his second consecutive gold medal in BMX big air Friday night. "If you mess up, you don't come down from it safe that many times. It's not something you can just get on and keep crashing."

The skateboarders who compete in big air have the advantage of practicing on the ramp over a longer period of time. Danny Way, a three-time gold medalist in the event, first constructed a mega-ramp in 2002. Since then, others have gone up, including one in the backyard of Bob Burnquist, who won the skateboard big air event Thursday night.

But Way, who once used a mega-ramp to clear the Great Wall of China, says his big air invention is just the start.

"On this, you feel as though you have no cage and no limit," Way said in the past. "You can go as big and as far and as crazy as you want."

Added BMX gold-medalist Robinson, "I still think there is a long way to go. I think we're going to come back next year and show you more and people are going to be blown away."