The X Games are here – July 29 through August 3 – and skate fans are discussing their favorites on blogs and forums everywhere. Some people have predicted winners, while others think it’s too close and unpredictable to call.Events will include:

• men’s and women’s street skate
• men’s big air
• men’s and women’s vert skate
• men’s skateboard superpark
• vert skate for amateurs

Here is a complete list of participating skateboarding athletes and here is a source of skateboarding news at the X Games.

When you need info about skateboarding protective gear, head to the XSportsProtective learning center.

At the learning center for skateboard protective gear, you’ll find these articles:

• What Skateboard Protective Gear do I Need?
  Which items are most important?
• How To Choose: Skateboard Helmet
  Skate only? Skate and bike?
• How To Choose: Skateboard Knee and Elbow Pads
  Slip-On, Easy-On? Hard shell, soft shell?
• How To Choose: Skateboard Gloves and Wrist Guards
  Gloves? Standard wrist guard?
• How to Choose: Skateboard Padded Shorts
  Pad thickness? Hard shell vs soft foam?
• Skateboard Protective Gear Useful Links
  Articles on and resources about protective gear

If you need help choosing the right skateboard helmet and other skateboarding protective gear, call us at 1-800-930-4084 or email info@XSportsProtective.com.

By doing a quick Google search, you can find all kinds of information about mountain biking trips, as well as information about how to mountain bike with your children. Mountain biking news for families includes:

• An article on GORP called “How Safe is Mountain Biking for Children?” This article reminds parents that children should always wear mountain bike helmets while riding, along with mountain bike gloves for protection during falls.
• An article on Away.com that is an excerpt from the 2006 National Outdoor Book Award Winner Extreme Kids: How to connect with your children through today’s extreme (and not so extreme) outdoor sports. This article shares:
  • How friends of the author got their children started in mountain biking
  • How the author’s family got their children started in mountain biking
  • Specific sites to take children for a terrific mountain biking experience, including Moab, Utah and Crested Butte, Colorado.
  • How to choose the best bikes for your family
  • The importance of good hydration for children

Ready to follow up the terrific recommendations made about mountain biking protective gear in these informative articles?

The recommendations made were for quality mountain bike helmets, mountain bike gloves, and hydration systems for your entire family. You can find these items at XSportsProtective, your mountain biking protective gear expert. Order today to enjoy a wonderful summer and autumn with your family!

Nothing says “I love you” more than a gift of skateboard protective gear that helps protect your loved ones from injury.It’s likely that you have a skateboarding fan in your family, too. In 2002, a report by American Sports Data indicated that there were 18.5 million skateboarders, with 85% of them under the age of 18. Meanwhile a report from the October 2002 issue of The Journal of Trauma recommends skateboarding protective gear as the solution to greatly reduce skateboarding injuries.

Some great skate gifts include:

• Skateboard helmets, including helmets that are exclusively for skateboarding or combination bike / skateboard helmets

Besides skateboard protective gear, you can bake a delicious skate cake, topped with refreshing ice cream.

Wondering how to create a birthday cake in the shape of a skateboard or a skateboarding park? Here are several great ideas. Or, if you already have a terrific idea for a skate cake and want to share it with others, you can submit your skateboarding recipe to the Coolest Birthday Cakes website. We’d also love it if you posted your skateboarding birthday suggestions on the XSportsProtective blog!

We’ve written about Jake Brown before, including shortly after his scary accident in last year’s X Games. When he crashed from a height of at least 45 feet, his shoes went in two entirely different directions and then he was flat on the ground for several minutes – only to get up and walk off the course.Well, Brown has healed from his injuries, which included fractures of his wrist and vertebrae, a lung contusion, and a potentially fatal liver laceration – and he’ll be back to compete this year in the X Games.

More X Games skateboarding news: a new skateboarding event, SuperPark, will be added to the slate of competitive events.

According to event organizers, “The SuperPark disciplines will highlight the all-around abilities of the world’s best transition skaters.” Definitely something to watch!Chris Stiepock, X Games general manager, adds this comment: “We are constantly striving to present new sports and disciplines at the X Games that accurately reflect the state of action sports and participants.”

Even the top skateboarders in the world recognize the importance of skateboard protective gear and they wear the gear during the X Games.

I don’t want to imagine what would have happened to Jake Brown if he hadn’t been wearing the most important piece of skateboard protective gear: the skateboard helmet. Choose the best skateboard helmet here before you begin to skate!

This year is providing lots of BMX news, with BMX Street and BMX SuperPark events being added to the X Games. The 2008 Summer X Games will be held in the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, from July 31 through August 3.According to X Games officials, “SuperPark will be a 100 percent transition-focused design, blending a variety of terrain and obstacles into one seamless course.”

This year, Mat Hoffman, a BMX legend, is organizing the BMX X Games events. Hoffman has said the following about this year’s format: “The very core of BMX is to explore and be creative. This new format will promote this progression, providing the opportunity for the best riders to expand Park and Vert to new dimensions.”

Today is the best day to buy top quality name brand BMX safety gear for the X Games stars of tomorrow.

We predict that large numbers of teens and children will be inspired by the Olympics and the X Games and will want to be part of the BMX scene. The best thing parents can do is to provide them with the BMX protective gear that allows them to be creative while also being protected.If you are just starting out in ordering BMX safety gear, choose the most important piece of BMX protective gear: the helmet. Here are some excellent choices in BMX helmets:

• ProTec Ace BMX Bike Helmets
• Fox Transition BMX Bike Helmets
• Fox Flux BMX Helmets

See you someday at the BMX Superpark?

Although Donny Robinson announced his inclusion on the team on June 25, the official announcement didn’t happen until July. Robinson, who is currently ranked number 1 in the world for BMX, joins Kyle Bennett and Mike Day to complete the men’s US BMX Olympic team. Bennett, who is a three time BMX World Champion, earned his spot by topping the USA Cycling’s 2008 BMX rankings, while Day won the US Olympic team trials event.

Here’s even more BMX news, this time in 3D!

The Olympic BMX course will be 370 meters in length for the men and 350 meters in length for the females; the races will take place on August 20 and 21, 2008. To get a good sense of the challenges faced by these Olympic athletes, check out this 3-D model of the BMX Olympic course found in this About.Com text: “Here is a 3-D look at the Beijing track

Just as you trust About.com and Gene’s BMX sites for competitive BMX news , you can count on XSportsProtective, your expert in BMX protective gear.

XSportsProtective provides:

• excellent customer service
• competitive pricing on BMX safety gear
• broad selection of sizes, styles, fabrics, and colors in BMX protective gear, in
• brand names that you know and trust in BMX safety gear: SixSixOne, Crash Pads, ProTec, EVS, and more!

To place your order or talk with a specialist, call (800) 930-4084 or email info@XSportsProtective.com today!

RealBuzz.com posted an article about the “health benefits of climbing every mountain” and here is a quick summary of them:

• Builds leg strength: quad, calf and glut muscles, plus your tendons
• Optimizes fat burning: this takes place when your heart rate is between 65% and 75% of your maximum heart rate – which is 220 minus your age for men and 225 minus your age for women
• Works the cardiovascular system: your heart and lungs work more efficiently when you’re fit

Here is mountain biking news you already knew: mountain biking is fun for the entire family.

You can mountain bike with your children or with your spouse or with friends. It’s a fun way to spend the day – or an entire vacation.

Remember to wear your mountain biking protective gear, especially your mountain bike helmets, every time your family rides.

That way, you’ll be able to enjoy the health benefits of mountain bike riding, plus the fun you’ll have sharing an activity with friends and family – while being protected.Here is more information about mountain biking protective gear, including mountain bike helmets.

In the Baltimore stop of the Dew Tour, ten top professional skateboarders went for the gold in a best of three runs format. Canada’s Pierre-Luc Gagnon won the first run, with a score of 93.50. So how does Lasek respond in run # 2? By “flipping, twisting, spinning, and even breaking out a brand new fastplant spin for the occasion to push ahead with a score of 93.75.”As Bucky put it, “I wasn’t here to get second place and I wasn’t here to go home hurt: I was here to win it for Baltimore.” And, that he did – with real style. Nobody could catch Lasek in run # 3 and he celebrated with a victory lap – and then he added some breakdancing moves, as well.

Wondering where the next skateboarding news will take place?

The next stop on the AST Dew Tour is Cleveland, Ohio, in July – and the Summer X Games will be held in August in California. Skateboarding categories at the X Games are street/park, vert and luge.

If you like what Lasek did on the Dew Tour, you’ll love his skate helmet

Lasek’s ProTec Classic skate helmet has 70s styling and the hard-to-find translucent color with exposed stainless steel rivets. This key piece of skateboard protective gear comes in 4 different shell sizes for a custom fit, plus a comfortable two-stage liner. The skate helmet comes with a sticker sheet of Bucky’s sponsors, too, so you can customize your own skateboard protective gear – with your own unique style.Check back in . . . I suspect we’ll be watching Bucky Lasek make even more skateboarding news this summer!

Read more about the skateboard protective gear you need to stay protected.

You can’t get any better BMX news than that! Fox has a great reputation as a company that provides premium MTB and BMX protective gear – and I can tell you that this reputation is well deserved, which is why I’m so excited about making this announcement.

At XSportsProtective, you’ll now find the following MTB and BMX Fox protective gear:

• Fox BMX helmets: Flux Fox BMX helmets or the Transition Fox BMX helmets
• Fox BMX gloves: Digit gloves, Mojave gloves, Unabomber Fox BMX gloves or Sidewinder BMX gloves
• Fox BMX shin guards, knee guards and elbow guards
• Fox BMX body armor: the Launch BMX body armor

Now, let us know your BMX news. Where are you riding this summer? What’s been your biggest adventure so far?

Email us at info@XSportsProtective and let us know your BMX news. If you already rely upon Fox BMX safety gear for your riding protection, what is your favorite piece of Fox BMX safety gear? Why? How has it protected you? What would you recommend to people who will be trying out BMX protective gear from Fox for the very first time?

Thanks!

On June 14^th, Mike Day competed in a race to earn a slot on the Olympic team. USA Today called Day’s run “the race of his life” and a “dominant performance”. His lead was so big and the final heat of the day was cancelled. No one could mathematically catch up to him, anyhow.That means that Kyle Bennett and Mike Day – and a third rider, who won’t be chosen until after June 25 or maybe not even until July 1 – will head to the Olympics in
Beijing, China. USA Today predicts the third man to be Donny Robinson, the world’s top ranked BMX racer.

What do you think? What BMX news and predictions have you heard?

BMX news from the Los Angeles Times: more than 100 friends and family members came to watch him clinch his Olympic spot.

In the LA Times newspaper article, Day was quoted as saying that he spent much of the week before the race calling people and asking them to support him on June 14^th. Jill Kintner, the female racer who will be representing the United States in the Olympics, designed bright yellow Mike Day Fun Club shirts for this occasion – and his fans sure weren’t disappointed!

I also have some exciting news about BMX safety gear . . .

I’ll soon be announcing the addition of even more top quality name brand BMX safety gear, though, so please check back often.