Carson, USA — Brian Deegan and his band of freestyle motocross riders called the Metal Mulisha wore black and were covered in tattoos. They brawled, cursed and stirred up trouble. In their sport, they were the bad guys.
So when Deegan was baptized, he wondered what his fans would think.
After a near-fatal crash in 2005 while attempting a back flip during filming for a television show, he lost a kidney and four pints of blood, and found religion. When a surgeon told him he might not survive, Deegan, 34, who has won more freestyle motocross medals at the X Games than any other rider, made a pact with God. If he lived, he would mend his ways. When he finally pulled through, he sought a pastor, began reading the Bible and “gave his life to Christ,” he said.
Soon his fellow freestyle riders Jeremy Lusk, Ronnie Faisst and Jeremy Stenberg, who is known as Twitch, began attending Bible study with Deegan.
“All the heavy hitters of the Mulisha are born-again Christians,” Deegan said. “I started tripping. ‘What are the fans going to think?’ I started getting nervous.”
Action sports like freestyle motocross and skateboarding were founded as antiestablishment activities. But events like the X Games, taking place this week in and around Los Angeles, have made them more mainstream. And as the sport’s culture has changed, some have recognized a greater profile for religion.
It is difficult to chart when attitudes toward religion began shifting in action sports. But several years ago, ESPN began receiving credential requests for members of the clergy to accompany athletes at the X Games.
The case of Nate Adams is instructive, too. As a Christian, Adams was part pariah during the early days of freestyle motocross.
“We tried to pick him apart,” Deegan said. “But you had to respect him. He always ripped on a dirt bike. And now Nate Adams is one of our best friends.”
Skateboarding, too, has been transformed somewhat.
Christian Hosoi, 41, was a high-flying rival to Tony Hawk during the 1980s. On Sunday, he will compete in the Legends event at the X Games.
“I was such a rebel against conforming to government or society because we skateboarders were so radical and we wanted to be outlaws,” he said about his professional heyday. “We were totally individuals, image-driven. It was more a lifestyle.”
Drug addiction derailed Hosoi. He spent nearly five years in prison after pleading guilty to possession with intent to distribute crystal methamphetamine. He was released in 2004 but not before embracing Christianity.
“There wasn’t another option back in my day,” Hosoi said about the image he fostered as a professional skater. “It was either you were hard core against it all, or you’re not cool and you’re out.”
Today, Hosoi is an associate pastor at a church in Huntington Beach, Calif., and he travels the world as an evangelist.
“I’m using my popularity, the history, my image and my accomplishments to preach the gospel,” he said.
Deegan is on a similar mission. At an X Games tribute to Lusk on Saturday before the freestyle motocross finals at the Home Depot Center, Deegan said a short prayer, thanking the Lord for Lusk’s talent on a motorbike. Lusk, who won the gold medal in freestyle at the 2008 Games, died of head injuries sustained in a crash during a competition in February.
Before taking part in the ceremony, Deegan weighed the potential effect on his image.
“In the end I said, who’s more radical than us?” Deegan said. “Everything we do is full-on. Once we went to church, we were full-on Christians, too. And we’re going to go for it. On the mic, I’ll say it. On TV, say it. The next thing you know, I have way more people pumped on me.”
But for many in skateboarding, proselytizing carries a stigma.
“There are Jews and Muslims and Buddhists,” said Jake Phelps, the editor of Thrasher magazine, which covers the sport. “They all have their own special brand of what they believe in. As far as where its place is in skateboarding, it’s pretty much don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Jereme Rogers, 24, a skateboarder who has competed in the X Games and proclaimed his faith in tattoos, is an exception. He was arrested in May after preaching naked from his apartment rooftop in Redondo Beach, Calif. Rogers apologized, and he retired the next month.
Paul Rodriguez, who won his third gold medal in skateboard street Saturday at the X Games, considers himself a nondenominational Christian. With a tattoo of Jesus on a forearm and a Day of the Dead graphic on his board, Rodriguez, 24, won the event with a series of tricks down a dozen stairs.
Nyjah Huston, 14, of Huntington Beach, Calif., won silver and Adam Dyet of Salt Lake City, earned bronze, the first X Games medal for either skater.
During competitions, Rodriguez removes his hat and says a prayer before a run, sometimes repeating the ritual. “It calms me down,” he said.
His agent, Circe Wallace, initially had reservations about Rodriguez’s spirituality, saying that she was “concerned as management how his relationship with God would affect his career, in terms of certain people’s perception or judgment, and kids not as enthusiastic about buying his products.”
Rodriguez, who says he does not talk about his faith except to those who ask, took more grief for signing an endorsement deal with Nike. Some skaters contended it amounted to selling out.
“When people think like, How does this affect your career, sales, and this and that, you’ve just got to be you,” Rodriguez said.
For Deegan, that means living as he believes a Christian should and trying to set a good example for those around him.
“I wouldn’t say our whole team has been saved,” he said. “We still have our punk rebel dudes that sin, but I’m not going to judge.”
NOTES
In the BMX freestyle park finals Saturday, Scotty Cranmer of Jackson, N.J., won gold, his fourth medal in the discipline at the X Games, landing a double back flip tailwhip in the final seconds of competition. Diogo Canina of Brazil won silver for the second straight year, and Gary Young of San Diego earned the bronze. ... In the skateboard vert final, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, 29, won the gold medal for the second straight year. With a little more than a minute remaining in competition, Gagnon, of Carlsbad, Calif., broke a tie with Bucky Lasek, who won the silver medal, by executing a run of powerful spinning maneuvers. Gagnon finished with a score of 93 to Lasek’s 91. Andy Macdonald, 36, who has competed at all 15 X Games, won bronze, his 18th medal, the most by any skateboarder.