X Games skateboarder survives 50-ft. free fall

LOS ANGELES -- Despite an almost 50-ft. free fall from competitor Jake Brown, Bob Burnquist won gold in Skateboard Big Air in the opening night of the X Games on Thursday, scoring 95.6 on the final run of the competition.

Burnquist pulled off the trick in his fifth and final attempt just moments after watching silver medalist Brown slam to the bottom of the event's mega ramp and lay motionless for nearly five minutes.

A 30-year-old from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Burnquist rolled down the 80-foot drop-in ramp backward, did an ollie 180 over the 70-foot gap and launched more than 18 feet into the air on the quarter-pipe for a frontside 540 that vaulted him from second past Brown into first.

"That was hard to get back up there," Burnquist said. "I was going for something you have to kind of throw yourself into and say 'I don't care,' but after seeing that, I cared a lot."

Thinking Brown might be paralyzed, Burnquist said he seriously considered forfeiting his last attempt and giving him the gold, but decided to go on after watching Brown walk off.

It was the fifth X Games gold medal — first in Big Air — for Burnquist, who has one of the giant ramps in his back yard in Carlsbad, Calif.

As soon as he saw his score Burnquist sprinted into a Staples Center corridor to see off Brown, who was being rolled off on a stretcher.

"I broke down and cried for about five minutes after it was all over," Burnquist said. "It was just so built up."

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