Issue Date: August 19, 2001

Going to X-Tremes

"Alternative" or "traditional"? Which type of sport has the hearts of your kids? If you haven't asked lately, you may be surprised.

By Tim Wendel

For his ninth birthday, Stanton Tentnowski could have gone to the bowling alley or the movies. But he begged to celebrate here, with eight of his buddies, at the skate park inside a Moorestown, N.J., shopping mall.

Unlike earlier generations, which headed to the ballpark, these athletic extremists favor their local skate park in Orange, Calif. Pictured, from left: Cody Rosecrans, 11, Lauren Perkins, 12, and Dorian Rosecrans, 8.

"This is where I wanted to be," Stanton says, beaming from beneath his bright-red protective helmet and ready to take on the halfpipe ramp at Vans Skatepark. "This is the best birthday party I could dream up."

This summer, no sporting event is hotter with the young or young of heart than the X Games, a competition whose evolution from marginal event to mainstream phenom would make Darwin's head spin. In a span of just a few years, so-called extreme sports -- including skateboarding, in-line skating and freestyle biking -- have moved from cable to network, from small-town sidewalk to suburban driveway, and from tattooed teen to prepubescent boy -- very possibly yours, if you have a son between the ages of 5 and 15. Even the moniker "extreme" is outmoded. "Action" or "alternative" is now the fashion.

"It's becoming one of the four or five major sports," says Nadine Gelberg, of the market research firm Harris Interactive. Action sports are "integrating the music, the lifestyle, the sports into one experience. That's already had a dramatic impact on other sports, because they are going to have to provide that same experience."

Still not convinced that those scruffy-looking kids sporting calf-length "shorts" and listening to Blink-182 are at the forefront of an entirely new culture that could redefine sports as we know it? Consider what happened at this year's Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The winner of the Favorite Male Sports Star category wasn't Tiger Woods or Shaquille O'Neal or Kobe Bryant, even though they all were nominated. It was Tony Hawk.

Don't know him? He's the Michael Jordan of action sports, the skateboarding champ with a best-selling autobiography, two top-selling namesake video games and, yes, his own line of gear and clothing.

"Athletes like Tony Hawk are very hip," says sports marketer Brandon Steiner. "Their equipment is cool. And, let's face it, from a visual standpoint their sports are very cool, too."

Some 300,000 people are expected to attend this week's X Games, with 25 million or more households tuning in on television. That's a far cry from just a few years ago, when the event was a cable TV start-up whose disdained sports -- boarding and blading -- were banned by many communities, and parents were loath to buy the required gear for their children.

What a difference a couple of years make. Today, a new generation of Tony Hawk wannabes is fueling and financing a blockbuster industry. "The Wall Street Journal" reported that participation in skateboarding has jumped 118% in the past eight years (compared with soccer, for example, which has grown 8%). Skateboard sales have tripled to $72 million since the X Games started in 1995. Today, not only are once-disapproving parents financing their children's newest obsession; some are even encouraging it.

"My son is very, very small for his age," says Anna-Maria Tentnowski, Stanton's mother. "The fact that older kids and grown-ups make a fuss about what he can do on a skateboard has been great for his self-esteem."

As for safety concerns that once plagued parents, they seem to have faded, although not entirely.

"The image of these sports has changed, but I still have mixed feelings about their safety," says Deborah Schaaf, a transportation planner in Philadelphia. She plans to take Neil, her 14-year-old skateboard enthusiast son, to the X Games. "I'm happy he's active. I'd rather have him out practicing his tricks than watching TV or playing video games."

There are those who go so far as to suggest that -- perish the thought! -- today's sidewalk stunts and baggy pants could translate into tomorrow's Monday night blade-and-boarding, toppling the cultural prominence of professional sports as we know them. Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University in New York, posits that baseball, football and basketball "could take a real hit in the short period of a generation or two." His reasoning does make sense. Every sport has the same objective: to hook fans when they are young. And nobody has done a better job of that than the extreme sports.

"The X Games are the televised expression of these kids' passion," says Peter Land, of Edelman, the sports and entertainment public relations firm. "The struggle will be how to appeal to these kids without alienating the generation that has to pay for it."

Whether the X Games ever become as big as the Super Bowl or the World Series may be beside the point. Already, at the kids' level, a new avenue has opened up. Their wide world of sports is no longer defined by parents and traditional coaches.

"Kids have another option," says freestyle BMX biker Dave Mirra, an 11-time X Games medalist. "They can skateboard or bike and not have people saying: 'There's something wrong. He's antisocial. [He's] not really into the mainstream.' "

That's what administrators at Woodward Camp in central Pennsylvania heard when they built ramps and jumps almost 20 years ago to attract more kids. The camp used to cater solely to gymnasts, drawing about 2,800 campers each summer. This year, more than 10,000 kids between ages 7 and 18 will attend. Seventy percent will be action sports participants.

"That's how far this has come," says Gary Ream, the camp's director. "It wasn't that long ago that a kid on a skateboard meant trouble. You had to keep an eye on him. Now he's the coolest kid on the block."

ESPN's Ron Semiao, the father of the X Games, compares the popularity of the event to another phenomenon that once raised eyebrows among parents.

"Remember the British Invasion of rock 'n' roll?" asks Semiao, who once worked for Capitol Records. "At that time, you had mainstream music critics and parents saying: 'This isn't real music. These aren't real musicians. This is just a fad that's not going to last.' But the kids dug it. The same thing has happened with the X Games."

Soon after the first events aired six years ago, ESPN knew it had a hit. The X Games prompted rival competitions on MTV and NBC. Summer and winter versions of the X Games now are held annually.

From a marketing standpoint, the event has been pure genius. The new sports have helped advertisers reach a younger, especially male, audience. The lines between sports, fashion, music and video continue to blur. Mountain Dew, Taco Bell and AT&T are just a few of the corporate sponsors that have invested in the alternative sports phenomenon.

"The allure of the X Games is something people can attach themselves to in those crucial years when they are really inventing themselves," says Thompson, the pop culture professor. "In our totally fractured marketplace, this has become one of our most important subcultures."

Without a doubt, the influence of the X Games already has soared far outside the lines. Kids may not be able to skate or rollerblade, but they want the latest Tony Hawk video game. They'll quaff Mountain Dew and nosh on Chalupas, dressed in cargo pants and T-shirts, because that's what their new heroes do.

"These kids grew up on the adrenaline rush of video games," says Patrick Meyer, a youth marketing consultant. "Now they're putting that into practice in the streets and the playground."

And, let's not forget, Philadelphia. The city landed the coveted X Games in part because of the efforts of a determined supporter with close access to Mayor John Street: his 13-year-old son, Akeem. Weeks into his new administration, Street began talks with TV executives and even praised the X Games on "Oprah".

So what does Street tell parents who are concerned that action sports are too rough or too dangerous for their children?

"I tell them, 'Welcome to a whole new century,' " he replies. "It's just part of the change that's going on in the world of athletics, and the sooner people get adjusted to it, the better off they'll be."

"Athletes like Tony Hawk are very hip," says sports marketer Brandon Steiner. "Their equipment is cool. And, let's face it, from a visual standpoint their sports are very cool, too."

-- Tim Wendel last wrote for USA WEEKEND Magazine about attitudes among out-of-work dot-commers. His most recent book is Castro's Curveball: A Novel.