X Games hype was high this year. There were some new faces in the Men's Vert contest this year. Anthony Furlong, Mathias Ringstrom and Jean Postec were all new faces, to me, anyway. Then the usual vert pros were there; Lasek, Burnquist, Macdonald, White, Glifberg and Pappas. The Team Pain ramp was insane! Another great job by Tim and the boys.

By the time the contest got underway, the hype had kind of fizzled out. With so much riding on the wonder boy, Shawn White, it came to be a little too much for him to carry and it seemed like he tried too hard and didn't complete a full run. As for the other riders, it was kind of like watching a re-run of last year's contest. Not a whole lot of people were trying new stuff. Sandro's winning run was insane to see and all the tricks he did were big and burly, but the contest as a whole was missing something. I though out of all the riders, Anthony Furlong was the most exciting to watch. I haven't seen him skate since the 2004 LG Championships at the L.A. County Fair. His madonnas were crazy. He rides fast and with power, like Sandro. I think this year's vert contest was missing some riders that may have hyped up the crowd a little more, Jake Brown is always fun to watch. I saw Buster Halterman skate the Red Bull ramp the week of the contest and he was killing it. And I would really like to see Lincoln Ueda in the X Games. Lincoln is the kind of skater that makes everyone step up.

Well, that's the end of my ranting for now. In the end it's just a skater/photographer's opinion which doesn't really account for much in the grand scheme of things. Hope you enjoy the photos. See you there next year.