Brown wipes out competition, not self

LOS ANGELES – Jake Brown finally has something else to talk about.

The skateboarder whose grisly, 40-foot fall to the floor of the X Games mega ramp two years ago drew gasps and became a viral video sensation, won gold Thursday night in the same Skateboard Big Air competition at Staples Center.

“Feels great, I guess,” Brown said.

The 34-year-old Australian earned a 94 on the third of his five runs with a backside 360 over the mega ramp’s gap into a 20-foot-high McTwist over the half-pipe for his first X Games gold.

Brown’s 2007 spill knocked him unconscious and left him with a broken wrist, a cracked vertebra and a bruised lung.

It was six months before he got back on a skateboard. Despite the near-death experience, he was the first to roll down the ramp last year.

Two-time defending champion Bob Burnquist of Rio de Janeiro, who made his winning run in 2007 just after watching Brown’s slam, managed to tie Brown’s winning score, but Brown had a better second run.

“I remember when he went down like that I could see him coming right back out,” said Burnquist, whose backyard mega ramp Brown used to get back in skating shape. “His type of skateboarding and his type of personality was just perfect to erase that and keep going. Now he’s sitting here with a gold medal. That’s insane.”

Rob Lorifice of Encinitas, Calif., won bronze.

The competition had its usual spills but nothing close to Brown’s fall or last year’s pair of crashes from mega ramp creator Danny Way that sent him to the hospital for several days.

“That was the best part of the whole contest, that we’re all sitting here and talking and no one’s in the hospital,” Lorifice said.

Hawkins impresses judges

Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins won gold in the X Games Skateboard Women’s vert competition despite a routine full of blown tricks.

The judges looked kindly on Hawkins’ repeated attempts to land the first McTwist, or midair 540 spin, in women’s competition.

Hawkins, 19, had been working with McTwist master Tony Hawk on the maneuver and had several near misses.

“We’re all really pushing each other right now,” Hawkins said. “I’m not even going to be able to snowboard this winter, because I’m going to have to skateboard all year round so I can practice and stick even more tricks next year.”