TRAVIS PASTRANA PULLS OFF 1st COMPETITION DOUBLE BACKFLIP AT XGAMES

I am not really an adventurous person, despite the kayaking. I am a stay-at-home, live-vicariously-through-the-experiences-of-others person. I love to watch adventure races, crazy expeditions on the Travel or Discovery Channel, and the XGames. I could never do the cool stuff they do in the XGames. But I loooove to watch it. So when Travis Pastrana, a sort of geeky-looking stringy kid, rides his motorcycle in the XGames events, it makes it extra-fun, because (God bless him) he just doesn't look like he belongs there. All the other competitors are covered with piercings and tattoos, and here is this tall, lanky, big-eared 21-year-old (around that age, anyway) who beats them all but looks like a member of the chess team.

The best thing about the double backflip wasn't even how amazing it was or the skill it took. It was the kid's attitude about it. Before he tried it, he told his mother he was going to go for it, and if something happened to remember that he was having fun. And then, after the glorious completion, it showed him hugging his mother and apologizing to her for scaring her like that. What a fantastic kid! And then, he got really excited, not because he just pulled off the greatest motorcycle trick in the history of the sport, but because skateboarding god Tony Hawk waved at him and gave him a thumbs-up. He was just enthralled that his extreme sport hero (not even in the same discipline as he is) was impressed by his trick.

What a great kid! Of course, I'm sure his mother is proud, and horrified. In the back of her mind she's thinking Why couldn't I just have a little girl with pigtails and Barbie dolls? But she has to be pleased that he ran the idea past her first, that he apologized for scaring her (bet she's heard that a million times), and that everyone is so impressed not just by Travis Pastrana's mad skillz (he also won gold medals in the rally car racing and the moto freestyle along with his best trick gold) but by what a nice young man he seems to be.

I like this new generation of extreme athlete, the Travis Pastranas and Shaun Whites. It gives me hope that I'll be living vicariously through them for a long time.