BAY $MOG – GASSIN from Felipe Gonzalez on Vimeo.

SE Bikes Welcomes Luke Parslow from SE Bikes on Vimeo.

ESPN, the leading action sports content provider, and creator of the X Games, today announced at a press conference at Winter X Games Aspen the nine cities that remain in consideration to host one of three new X Games events to be held outside of the United States beginning in 2013. The three winning bid cities will join current events in Los Angeles, California; Aspen, Colorado and Tignes, France.

Since the formal bid process launched last May, ESPN has received

significant interest from around the world. Initially, more than 40 entities from 21 countries were qualified to bid. Nearly 20 of these entities participated in a two-day workshop at the X Games in Los Angeles in August 2011 which was designed to educate qualified applicants on the vision and long term strategy of the X Games. Official bids were due and submitted on January 2.

Hit the jump to find out where the future X Games might be held…

Today ESPN announced the following finalists will move into the final phase of the bid process.

· BARCELONA, SPAIN
· FOZ DO IGUAÇU, BRAZIL
· LISBON, PORTUGAL
· MUNICH, GERMANY
· QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO
· RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
· SANTIAGO, CHILE
· SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
· WHISTLER, CANADA

“Action sports is unique in its participatory nature and passionate support around the world, and X Games represents the very best action sports competition, lifestyle and content,” said Russell Wolff, executive vice president and managing director, ESPN International. “We’re thrilled with the response from cities around the world, and the strong interest in bringing X Games to a diverse collection of great cities. Our growth around the world has been driven by local relevance and in building a passionate connection between fans, our brand and our partners. The X Games is a key element of that growth into the future.”

ESPN will conduct meetings and site visits with each of the finalists over the next two months. In April, three cities will be selected to host the X Games from 2013-2015, and they will work closely with ESPN to produce the events.

X Games Global Expansion
The X Games events will continue to spotlight the world’s best action sports athletes in BMX, Skateboard, Moto X, and Rally Car Racing at the X Games; and Skiing, Snowboard and Snowmobile at the Winter X Games against the backdrop of the host city and country. Each X Games event will take on its own distinguishing character that will set it apart from the others, including the introduction of new sports and cultural elements that are drawn from the host cities themselves.

This expansion will bring the full scope and scale of the X Games brand to markets around the world. In the past the X Games has successfully organized smaller action sports events, qualifiers and demonstrations in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Philippines and UAE.

Photos by Devon Hutchins.

Chase’s signature Tomahawk stem is also available now.

Last week our good friend and athlete, Greg Watts, suffered a horrific crash, while wrapping up his section for “Barred For Life 2″. The crash happened around 1:30pm at Woodward West, while in rotation for a double back flip. Unfortunately going into the second rotation Greg tried to eject from his bike and fell 8 feet onto his back and neck. Right away, everyone ran to the scene to make sure Greg was okay, but we knew at that moment that something went super wrong. When he finally caught his breath he told us is neck and back were in tremendous amounts of pain.

We quickly reacted by calling up our friends at Woodward for a backboard and neck brace, as we waited for the “Tehachapi” fire dept and ambulance to show up and assess the situation. When they arrived at the scene, the Tehachapi ambulance paramedic suggested that due to Greg’s serious condition, that he be transported to “Bakers Field Hospital” that was an hour and a half west of our location.

Needless to say, “Bakers Field” is an experience that no-one needs to endure! This was an ordeal all on its own and unfortunately Greg was going to have to deal with it. The paramedics dropped Greg off in the ER in Beakers Field and since this was “Bakers Field” it just happened to be full of convicts from the local prison who had just happened to have a 100 man riot that very day. This meant that Greg was going to have to wait for 6 hours before any attention or answers would come regarding his current condition. Also, to make matters worse, his friends had to wait out in the waiting-room and couldn’t help him out in anyway as they were restricted to wait out front.

By the time we were able to see Greg he was still in “over flow.” A.k.a. – out in the middle of the hall with no answers. We would then have to wait for another three and a half hours before finally seeing some X-rays to help understand what he was dealing with. From this point the doctors were very helpful in giving us some insight into Greg’s condition. The doctor walked Greg and myself through what had happened and we were able to record our overview of the X-Rays to show Greg. Unfortunately the X-rays showed two fractured vertebrae – the “C1″ neck and “T3″ in his back.

We have attached a little video shot on Greg’s iPhone. This gives you a good perspective of the injury that he sustained.

This was obviously very bad news to hear, since we were all hoping for a popped disk or kinked neck. However it was a blessing in disguise to know that he wasn’t paralyzed and will make a full recovery. The doctors informed us that Greg will have to wear a two piece neck and back brace for the next 3-4 months. After that he will continue with his rehab on a strong path back to his bike. The full recovery is expected to take up to 5-6 months before Greg will be back to full health and throwing down.

With that being said, we have been working very hard to get behind our good friend in-order to raise money to help him out with his hospital bills and for any other costs that he might endure on his road to recovery. We will be holding an auction on the www.chainlinkclothing.com to raise money for Greg. So far we have had an over whelming amount of support from his sponsors and friends within the industry.

Below is the line up of great companies that are standing by Greg at this difficult time… ALL PROCEEDS RAISED THROUGH OUR ONLINE AUCTION AND GREG’S NEW SIGNATURE BADGE TEE WILL BE GOING STRAIGHT TO HIM!

Recovery Badge Tee | Pre-order Now

Auction Items:

Haro Bikes
·         Full 4130 chromoly frame w/ internal head tube, Euro BB shell, removable cable guides, and our “Six-Shooter” interchangeable dropout system
·         Pivotal seat and post
·         Tektro Draco hydraulic rear brake with 160mm wave rotor
·         Alienation Skylark double-wall rims
·         6000 series alloy CNC’d Thin Pedal w/removable pins and sealed bearings
·         Syncros FR38 OS double-butted alloy riser bar and FR50 V2 OS alloy stem
·         Three-piece chromoly 175mm 8-spline cranks w/ 6000-series alloy 25t sprocket
·         X Fusion Velvet R 80mm travel suspension fork with X-15 tool-less 15mm thru axle
·         Available in two sizes: Short (21.8″” TT) and Long (22.3″ TT)
·         Ritchey Logic Zero Comp internal headset

FOX Shox: 831 Fox Fork

FiveTen Shoes: 2 pairs of shoes (size and model of your choice)

Gamut: 5 Gamut chainguides

Rockstar Energy Drink: Signed Rockstar BMX helmet

Smith Optics: 3 signed Smith goggles

Easton: Aluminum wheel set (hub spacing of your choice)

Giro: Full Face Carbon remedy helmet and a half shell section (both in sizes of your choice)

Camp of Champions: 5 day Camp with coaching lunch and compound access . Prize Value $645.

Greg Watts Images (Photos by Sven Martin): Printed on Archival Photo paper 12×18″ size. Limited 1 off signed prints.

From Greg:

“Special thanks to Ryan Howard, Tyler McCaul, Bjorn Aunet, and Andrew Taylor for helping me out while I was in the hospital as well as at the scene of the accident. I’d also like to thank everyone who gave me words of encouragement and positive thoughts as well as my sponsors Haro, Rockstar, Giro, Easton, Chainlink Clothing, Fox Shox, Gamut USA, Five Ten, Maxxis, Smith, and Shimano for sticking by me through my time of recovery. I’ll be back with a vengeance before you know it!”

Tyler McCaul:

“Sometimes watching one of your best buds hit the dirt is worse than actually hitting the dirt yourself, and last Wednesday was one of those moments for me. Watching Greg bail out on a double flip was scary as hell and is something that I wish I could erase from my memory, but I’m grateful that we took the proper precautions to get him in an ambulance and off to the hospital safely. He’s a tough mother F’er and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll bounce back from this and continue to make the impossible look possible on his bike in the very near future. Sometimes even the best make mistakes, but it takes a true champ to get back up. Heal up homie, you’re a champ!”

Bjorn Aunet:

“Seeing one of your best friends go down is never a fun time, so I’m just glad we can all be there for him on his road to recovery. Greg’s a strong dude and I’m sure he’ll be back stronger than ever in no time!”

Follow up on Greg’s recovery status at :

http://www.facebook.com/chainlinkclothing

From your CLC family…”We wish you a fast and healthy recovery, brother!”

AUCTION INFORMATION – Place your name, email, and the amount that you would like to bid on each page in the form. It will then post to that page and once the deadline for all bids is reached, we will take the highest bid and contact you personally. HAPPY BIDDING!