XGames Xperience Opening Ceremony
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On July 1st Disney's California Adventure officially kicked off the XGames Xperience with a ceremony held just inside the park. Host Sal Masekela joined Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss, Head of ESPN Original Entertainment Ron Simeo and XGames atheletes Fabiola Da Silva., Jamie Bestwick and Bob Burnquist. The ceremony was capped off with Freestyle Motocrosser Mike Metzger jumping DCA's Golden Gate Bridge. Our coverage below includes pictures, complete video and a complete transcript of the ceremony.
The XGames Xperience runs at DCA from July 1 through August 10, 2003. For much more information, pictures and videos of the XGames Xperience itself, see this article.
Videos
Five videos are available. Together they make up the entire opening
ceremony. All are in RealVideo format for both low
bandwidth and high bandwidth connections. They are linked here and at the
relavant places throughout the article.
- Sal Masekela (2 minutes 1 second)
Low Bandwidth High Bandwidth - Cynthia Harriss (2 minutes 58 seconds)
Low Bandwidth High Bandwidth - Ron Simeo (1 minute 18 seconds)
Low Bandwidth High Bandwidth - Fabiola Da Silva, Jamie Bestwick and Bob Burnquist (3 minutes 49
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Low Bandwidth High Bandwidth - Mike Metzger Jumps the Bridge (27 seconds)
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Note: This clip is identical to the one in the earlier article - Ron Metzger (1 minute 18 seconds)
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The Suburban Legends entertain the crowd prior to the show
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Sal Masekela: Hey! Surburban Legends, ladies and gentlemen, dudes and bros. These guys are fantastic and they're willing to play your party. You can book them, I"m actually handling them. I'm just going to manage them from now on. Hi, I'm Sal Masekela. How are we doing this morning? The luckiest people in all of Southern California, right here for the kickoff of Disney's XGames Xperience at Disney's California Adventure. I'm the host of the ESPN XGames. I've been the host since 1998. I eat, sleep and drink action sports. I've been skating, surfing, snowboarding for the last year 14 years of my life. Some people would say I have the best job in the world. So to see the XGames come this far where people are going to get to come to Dsiney's California Adventure and experience what the XGames are all about between now and August for the XGames kickoff. This is fantastic! This is one of the greatest days in absolute history! Are you feeling me!?
X Games commentater Sal Masekela
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Video: Sal Masekela (2 minutes 1 second)
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They're like what did they put in his coffee this morning. Its a little bit crazy. Anybody who knows me knows that I don't even get up this early for much but I was up at 4:45a this morning to be here and I'm really, really excited. We have a really special show for you guys today so you know what I get paid to talk I do this all the time let's just keep it moving. Right now I'm going to introduce you to some very special peoples you're going to meet athletes and the like but first, I met this lady on the red carpet on Saturday night at the Pirates of the Caribbean. She is an absolute sweetheart. Her name is Cynthia Harriss and she is the president of the Disneyland Resort and all the way from the home offices of ESPN, the inventor, the man without whom there would be no XGames, please welcome the vice president of ESPN Original Entertainment, Ron Simeo. Cynthia Harriss and Ron Simeo.
Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss
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Video: Cynthia Harriss (2 minutes 58 seconds)
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Cynthia Harriss: Well good morning everyone. How are you
all doing today?
Yes! It's so good to see you all here on this glorious California day. And on
behalf of everyone here at the Disneyland Resort a great big welcome to all of
you. And I have to echo what Sal said, we are absolutely thrilled and excited to
be heating up the summer here at Disney's California Adventure with the
fabulous, brand-new X Games Xperience right here. And there's so much fun we're
going to have this summer and I'll just give you a couple of highlights of
things that we can look forward to.
There's the freestyle Moto-X Big Air Show and I saw this yesterday and I have to tell you, there is nothing like it. It is a spectacular display of big freestyle Moto-X jumps, back flips, and big air stunts. But that's not all. On top of it we've got the halfpipe bay show and that's a vertical ramp display where you'll see all the action of bike tricks, skateboarding and inline skating. And you know for those of us who wonder what its like to be an XGames athlete we're also going to have a great place you can check out, that'll be the interactive skate park. And that's where we will all learn those techniques from the pros and a few tips and even get a chance to check it out. But actually that's not all. All summer long there're going to be fun things going on including the Flatland Bike Team that you just saw out here, in addition to that there will be up close and personal Q&A's with the athletes and the stars as well as autograph sessions and just so much more.
But to top it all off, we're also very excited to offer our guests an opportunity, a chance to win great action sports prizes every time they come into Disney's California Adventure. That's right, this summer we're going to be giving away 10,000 incredible action sports prizes and they are big ones. They include Saturn Ions, Mongoose bikes, Yamaha motorcycles, ATVs and so much more.
So as you can see we're just looking forward to a very hot, action packed summer right here at Disney's California Adventure. So I have to say none of this would be possible without our great friends at ESPN, they've been incredible partners and because of their partnership, their expertise and inspiration this is going to be just an incredible event. So it is my great pleasure to introduce to you an individual that's going to give you a little bit more on what it means to be a part of the action sports world. It is the visionary inventor of the XGames, and it is my great pleasure to introduce to you our good friend and colleague from ESPN, Ron Semio.