However, it looks like action sports athletes don’t have much interest in visiting the capital of sports.  In fact, when ESPN went calling to try and find skateboarders and BMX riders to help christen a new $500K skatepark opening in the town this weekend.

“We did make an effort to get some action sports athletes here, but were unable to do so,” said ESPN spokesman Rob Tobias.  “Their schedules are pretty tight.”

No doubt if the skatepark was being opened in a place that wasn’t hours from civilization, those tight schedules would open up (I suspect I have at least half-a-dozen pros in my cell phone who are doing nothing this weekend).

ESPN (home of something called the X Games) did try and make up for its inability to bring in anyone of note by donating some safety gear and skateboards that were used when Bristol hosted the X Trials (a prelim comp for the X Games)…  back in 2001.  I guess no X Games decks were left over from this year’s thousands that were given away and sold at the event…

This country has come a long way since the days before Suffrage.  It was a depressed time when women in this country were not allowed to take part of one of this nation’s proudest privileges, voting.  Now look at where we are.  Opera Winfrey is one of the most powerful people in the country, Lisa Leslie from the LA Sparks dunked a basketball, and we might have a pig with lipstick in the White House.  What a landmark moment that might be. 

Well in addition to all that, ESPN is proud to announce that the X Games and Winter X Games will feature equal prize money for both men and women in 2009. ESPN has been a leader in promoting and programming women’s athletics, and this recent action sports prize purse increase is the latest example. This past summer saw the X Games feature women’s motocross for the first time, and the upcoming Winter X Games will feature a host of female Olympic medalists from several different countries. Starting with Winter X Games 13 in January 2009, men and women athletes at all X Games events.

Just when I mentioned yesterday that skateboarding, rollerblading, extreme segwaying, and other ‘extreme sports’ needed more funding to grow and become part of the mainstream; ESPN answers my prayers by announcing the birth of the ESPN Action Sports Network.  You can’t get any more straight to the point.  The new hub will be launched in the fall and will encompass a bunch of other online sites with coverage not usually covered in the mainstream media.  Like Fox News.

“We felt like we were under-delivering on a year-round basis,” said Dave Finger, director of action sports for ESPN Digital Media. “We felt like we were missing out on covering action sports with the same voice and authenticity that we bring to stick and ball.”

You can go ahead and check out the LATIMES.com to read more details.  And unfortunately for myself and ESPN after just reading the article, it looks like they are not including rollerblading or segwaying.  Can you believe that!?  When will these sports be recognized as real action sports?  The only thing now that I can see taking the place of those two sports is the Winglet.  So ESPN, if you read this, please consider what I say.  It will be huge.

The article is called “Just Another Lonely Millionaire Skateboarder,” and that should give you an idea of the tone it’s taking.  There’s plenty of acknowledgment of Sheckler’s ability to polarize skateboarding fans.

“Every time somebody calls me out or tries to start something, it’s motivation. I want to give them more reasons not to like me,” Sheckler says in the article.

The magazine also has an overall X Games preview including stories about the Metal Mulisha, Kevin Robinson and other X Games-related stuff.  The magazine should be out pretty soon so you can look for it if you care.  Or if you want to get ready for your fantasy football team this season (the magazine’s other big feature).

Attention: anybody out there who wants to use the letter X in any design better watch out. ESPN apparently owns it.

The cable company has sued Quiksilver over its use of a stylized “X” design used on some of the company’s apparel designs. It sounds as though ESPN previously complained about the logo, but Quiksilver has “willfully” expanded its use of the design.

You can read more here but there’s not much info yet. No word from Quiksilver on the lawsuit as of yet.

We did a little digging and found one of the designs (pictured above). Yep, it’s an X.