Way Inside ESPN's X Games

by Shelly Youngblut

Big and brash, Way Inside profiles those activities deemed "far beyond the bounds of moderation," but it could easily be a cultural studies textbook on what happens when graduates from the MTV School of Publishing decide to write a book. Large, multicolored font types, in-your-face photographs (such as x-rays showing off broken bones suffered by X Games participants), and brain-candy sidebars should capture even the shortest of attention spans. Even the index favors images to text; stick figures in various athletic poses represent different chapters in the book. But regardless of the book's tumultuous layout, Way Inside ESPN's X Games offers a thorough examination of extreme sports (skateboarding, skysurfing, downhill in-line, aggressive in-line, street luge, wakeboarding, barefoot jumping, bicycle stunts, sportclimbing, big air snowboarding), explaining their evolution and why they've become popular enough to merit ESPN's Olympic-style coverage. Bios on the sports' tattooed and pierced stars are interspersed with a slang glossary and profiles on pricey, high-performance equipment. --Rob McDonald

Paperback

First published June 17, 1998