X Games will appear on both ESPN, ABC

Dudes, ESPN’s X Games are upon us.

For any self-respecting thrill-seeker, that means four days of radical sports, including inline skating, motocross, skateboarding, surfing and wakeboarding.

For the first time in summer X Games history, the event will be televised live on ESPN and ABC, Thursday through Sunday. “SportsCenter” also will report live from the games, with Linda Cohn hosting the show.

In addition to the 14 hours of programming on ESPN and ABC, ESPN2 will present daily late-night highlights.

This year, the X Games, celebrating its 10th anniversary, will feature a finals-only format consisting of the 10 best action sports athletes per discipline. The only sports that will have more than 10 competing athletes will be motocross, supermoto and surfing.

Big air has been made part of the X Games skateboard category for the first time. Skateboard big air consists of a jump that involves a 60- to 80-foot takeoff ramp, followed by a gap jump, landing and quarter-pipe at the bottom.