The following morning we went to the Viking Hotel where ESPN had the press room set up. They were announcing the arrival of Team Kobeer, one of the Extreme Adventure Teams. We'd been following them all week and after five days they were in first place, several hours ahead of the next team. One member of the team was a 53 year old woman who tore a ligament in her knee during the race. Unable to put weight on it, she had to drag herself over rocks as her teammates carried the canoe to the shoreline. These guys had been racing through the wilderness all week and we were dying to see them finish. Since we missed their arrival we wanted to make sure that we caught the next team coming in. They didn't expect the next team until much later that afternoon, so we hung out by the skateboard practice session and then headed over to the in-line street finals. We were sitting near AJ Jackson, one of the pioneers of aggressive skating. His presence and positive energy magnified my feeling that this group of skaters seemed to lack the qualities one would normally associate with a professional athlete: mental and physical preparation, strength, agility, competitive spirit, and most noticeably cardiovascular endurance. Each skater only has to perform one 75 second run and then after a ten minute break, a second. We watched, totally amazed when the skaters, unable to make it through their runs, stopped to rest. They'd adjust (or pretend to adjust) their pads so that it looked like they were busy when, in fact, they were gasping for breath. They were simply unable to keep skating for 75 seconds. It also looked like they were making up their runs as they went along.

I was sitting there bummin' out and beating myself up for being surprised. What was I thinking? I've seen them smoking cigarette after cigarette. I've heard the stories about their drinking binges. And I've heard the rumors that some of them get high before competing. Although I was pleased to find out that Arlo Eisenburg, the guy that took first, doesn't drink or smoke. But he is known as "the bad boy" of aggressive skating. Why you might ask? 'Cause he has a pierced wiener. Brian tried to cheer me up by explaining that in-line isn't a sport, it's a lifestyle. Oh please. Give me a break and all that. I mean, I'm stoked to see Chris Edwards get amazing air and Matt Mantz land a fakie 720 and to watch while Michael Pallack (I think that's his name) try and try and try (but never succeed) to gap the death rail from the quarter box--stale japan 180--that is, fly in the air over a rail and spin around while grabbing one leg and holding it underneath himself, but I can't help think about how awesome it would be if they worked out, trained with coaches and choreographed their runs. While I appreciate the guts it takes to do the things they do, I can't help dream about how absolutely nuts it would be if they incorporated traditional athletic training into the sport.