Altitude Adjustments

Skateboarders make their tricks look simple, but even basic maneuvers such as heel flips and kick flips are painstakingly difficult and take days, even weeks to perfect.

“But really, all it takes is a relentlessness,” said Paul Rodriguez of Chatsworth, who is preparing to defend his gold medal in the park, or street, competition when the X Games begin a four-day run Thursday.

“You have to keep trying, then try some more and still some more,” Rodriguez continued. “It’s really about how bad you want it, and if you can think about it in your head, it’s not impossible.”

That philosophy might apply as well to those who put on the X Games. A staff of 2,500 has been working for weeks to prepare the venues -- Staples Center, the Home Depot Center, Long Beach Marine Stadium and even Puerto Escondido in Mexico -- for the 11th action-sports and music festival.

As with skateboarding, it takes time to get things right, and Chris Stiepock, X Games general manager, said ESPN had progressed in trying to perfect the network’s single largest production. The numbers are supportive. Last summer, on-site attendance over the four days was 170,471, with a Saturday crowd of 79,380 setting a single-day record.

The telecasts, on ESPN, ABC and ESPN2, were seen in nearly 1 million homes, a 47% increase from 2003.

The most impressive trick, Stiepock said, was negotiated afterward: the signing of a contract extension with AEG that will keep the X Games in Los Angeles and its primary venues, Staples and the Home Depot Center, through 2009.

The games this summer will be here for the third consecutive year, allowing for improvements.

“Not only are we able to just get a little more comfortable and understand and build off of what we have done right the previous two years,” Stiepock said, “but we’re able to present a bigger and better event, and that comes from the little things, such as the repositioning of the Jumbotron and bleacher stacks.”

Los Angeles isn’t complaining; the economic effect of the 2004 X Games was estimated at $70 million.

And fans had plenty to cheer about: Rodriguez’s technical mastery on the street-course obstacles outside Staples Center, Nate Adams’ daring on the freestyle motocross course, Danny Way’s breathtaking 79-foot leap in the skateboarding big air competition.

But there was also some grumbling, mostly about overcrowding and difficulty in finding suitable viewing positions. These are among the wrinkles X Games personnel have been trying to smooth. Among the notable changes:

* Rodriguez and his competitors will find a slightly shortened park obstacle course of ramps, rails, steps and boxes. But in the primary change, the general admission policy, which led to severe overcrowding, has been scrapped in favor of a $10 reserved-seating format, and more bleachers will be added.

* Everything but the vert ramp, for skateboard and BMX competitions, will be removed from inside Staples Center. Last year, the moto X best trick and step up competitions were held adjacent to the vert ramp inside the arena, causing crowd flow problems and event disruptions.

The best trick event will be held outside Staples and a dirt-to-dirt 90-foot jump has been added.

The step up, basically a high-jumping competition on motorcycles, has been moved to the Home Depot Center.

* The supermoto race at the Home Depot Center has been lengthened from 25 to 45 laps, and a mandatory pit stop has been added.

Fans can buy $5 pit passes and mingle with riders before the race. Dirt has been added to the portion of track outside the stadium, and fan access outside has been expanded.

A giant screen has been installed outside the stadium to allow spectators there to view the action when the riders are inside.

* One of the most popular competitions last year was skateboarding big air on the mega ramp. The problem: too many skateboarders falling on the landing slope, thereby failing to negotiate the quarterpipe wall on which tricks are performed. This year, the landing area will be adjusted in hopes of alleviating the problem.

* After two years of surfing before live television audiences in knee-high waves at Huntington Beach Pier, X Games surfers will compete, starting today, in Puerto Escondido, south of Mexico City. The format pits the East Coast against the West Coast. The event will be shown, delayed, Saturday on Channel 7.

* A BMX vert best trick competition has been added, largely because of the popularity of the freestyle motocross best trick competition.

Athletes have been fine-tuning their routines and adding new twists. Ryan Sheckler, for example, has been trying to perfect the switch-360 flip, which entails switching stance, catching air, using the toe to flip the board while spinning a 360, and hitting the ground rolling.

Said the San Clemente skateboarder: “It’s not easy at all.”