All About the Tricks at Winter X Games

Jan. 27, 2008 — -- International speed demons and tricksters are gathered in Aspen, Co., this weekend to show off their 1280s, whiskey flips and rodeos at the 12th annual ESPN X games.

Though you may need a special glossary to understand some of these popular moves in the competition, which is like the Olympics for extreme sports, once you see these athletes in action, you'll know that they all defy gravity.

Big Air skier Jon Olsson has already won one gold medal at the competition for executing a particularly difficult trick; he calls it the "switch hexelfoot 900."

"It's a really scary maneuver. I can't go halfway. If I succeed it will be great. it will be a nice gold medal, but if I don't, I end up in the hospital," he says. "The level of jumping is getting so high, we are doing stuff this year that two years ago we were saying 'it's impossible, it can't be done'."

Every year the tricks get more technically complex and the death-defying air time can sometimes result in bone-crunching crashes. Still, it seems like nothing can keep these extreme athletes down. After a horrific crash that nearly left him crippled three years ago, Big Air skier Simon Dumont is back this year and getting more hang time than ever on the Super Pipe.

After a major showdown with his rival, Tanner Hall, Dumont got the silver medal despite flying more than 21 feet over the lip of the pipe. The crowd was awestruck at the sheer height of his maneuver, but the judges were looking for more than just big air; they wanted the technical perfection that earned Hall the gold.

"The bigger the tricks that you do back-to-back, that gets you the best scores," says snowboard master Shaun White, also known as the "Flying Tomato" for his ginger mane of hair.

White is the face of the X games. He was one of the youngest to join the competition at the age of 15 and now at 21 years old, he's a veteran -- and the one to beat.

"It's so dangerous, but to be at the level where these guys are at, they are pushing the limits, but they are so calculated in everything they do," says snowboarder Keir Dillon, an ESPN analyst and, with White, a member of the Burton brand global team.

"You don't have an amazing career by just giving it. You really have to think out what you are going to do. So, when you see Shaun White going 15 — 20 feet out, he's done it a million times. He's practiced for 15 years. So he's pushing the limits, but he's pushing it within himself."

As amateurs watch these pros fly off the superpipe into a backflip, the warning from the experts is, "Don't try this at home — without A LOT of practice."

But fans can sit back and enjoy the "switch hexelfoot 900" as these extreme athletes compete and push themselves and their crafts to the edge.