July 7-13, 2005

mixpicks

What Goes Up

extreme sports

Chances are the GOP isn't hardcore enough to tout their next national convention as Logic Jam 2008. After all, you have to be of an exceptionally extreme ilk to name your chosen profession's major summit after the one thing you're dead-set on defying. But that won't stop professional bikers and boarders from descending upon Philly for the summer Gravity Games, which run July 11-13 at FDR Park. Fresh off its renovation, the South Philly skate sanctuary will host skate park and true street events; for the pedaling set, a bike dirt and park will be nearby. No, they're not the X Games, but the seventh-year Gravity Games are advocating a return to the gritty roots of extreme athletics by holding their competition at one of the most legit locales in sports. The space, which lies below I-95, was set aside by the city as an alternative to Love Park, but construction on the concrete and metal oasis was completed by the boarders themselves — an accomplishment made more impressive when you recall that the Eagles weren't required to lay bricks for Lincoln Financial. And for the revenue that will be generated by such an event, maybe the city could say thank you to the skaters that made it possible. If only there was some way they could repay them.

Gravity Games, July 11-13, FDR Park, Broad and Pattison sts. (skate park is under I-95 at Broad St.), visit www.sas.upenn.edu/~blathrop/fdrsplash.html for directions and www.gravitygames.com for event schedules.

—Nick Norlen