Not to get all deep or anything… but my life as a whole is kind of like skating. Some days I can land a sick trick, no problem. Some days I can’t even stand on my freakin’ board. The week we were filming episode five, things started off great. I had just gotten back from winning my third Dew Tour competition, two away from my goal to sweep all five. I had a great time kickin’ it with my younger brother…and things were going great with Julia. All of a sudden I had a super hot girl, who seemed totally chill with my crazy life. But like I said… it’s amazing what can happen in a week…That was the week of X-games, the biggest event of the year for me. Taking gold is a huge deal for a skater’s career, and I hadn’t done that in 4 years. I was determined to make it happen this year.

My plan was to bring all the support I could, have my entire family and all my friends right there with me. I got passes for the whole crew, even Julia. I hadn’t been on the road that much lately, so I had a lot of time to get to know her. But, things were about to get crazy busy again, and as soon as my attention has to switch from the girl I’m dating, to skating, things can get ugly really fast. But Julia seemed totally chill my lifestyle and excited to come to X-Games. It was a totally new thing to be with a girl I wanted to share this part of my life with.

I was surprised when my mom told me that my dad was bringing Christi to X-Games. I didn’t want any drama at that event. I was just getting used to the idea of my dad traveling to my skating events with me, which I loved, but I was still having trouble with him having a new girlfriend and I needed to be completely focused on the competition. When I met my dad for lunch, I tried to bring up my how I felt about Christi coming, but couldn’t think of any reason why she shouldn’t be there. I realized that having my dad there was all that really mattered. After that conversation I kind of felt like we were all starting to move on and it was a turning point for my relationship with my dad.

Steve warned me that having a girlfriend at X-Games might be bad news. I had no idea there could be so much drama without her even showing up. The first day there Julia called me all upset about something Tony had said to one of her friends. Apparently he told this other girl that Julia was “one of many”, and that I’d be done with her in a week. Nothing I said calmed her down. She was definitely not coming to X-Games… so much for not having any drama or distractions from skating.

Tony wouldn’t even talk to me about it. He denied that he said anything. All I could do was let it go… at least until X-games was over. Before I could even compete for the gold, I had to qualify for the actual competition. The preliminary round was that afternoon, and I wasn’t about to let something so stupid mess with my head. Only 9 of the skaters in the preliminary round would get the chance to skate in the finals on day two. And the rest of the guys looked really strong. Especially Chris Cole. He was on fire that day.

I started off really strong. I could hear the announcers saying how amazing I was doing. At one point I looked up and saw that I was in second place. Then, when going for a 360 kick flip off the jump, I went down hard. I smacked my head on the concrete floor and it was down hill from there. I barely landed another trick after that. I even slammed my hand down at one point, breaking one of my fingers really bad.

Waiting for the 9 names to be called took forever. Everyone was telling me I made it, that I did so well before I hit my head that there was no way I wouldn’t be in the top 9. I felt confident that I made it to the finals. But unfortunately, my dad didn’t fully agree with me and it kinda bummed me out. I love my dad but sometimes he just says the wrong thing at the wrong time. That just wasn’t what I needed to hear at that point. I was tired and hurt and all I wanted was support from my family.

When they called my name, I was psyched. I got out of there fast. I wanted to figure out how to deal with my hand, and prepare my head for the next day. I guess my dad was pissed that I took off without talking to him. He didn’t even show up the next day to support me in the finals and told my mom he was sick. I was totally bummed that he wasn’t there but I still tried to skate as well as I could. I’m stoked about getting 4th place out of all the best skaters in the world. I don’t know if I would have done better if my dad showed up. The thing is… he’s my dad and I wanted him there. I know now that he wasn’t sick and instead he thought I was mean to him. I guess I need to watch what I say sometimes, but really I think he should have still been there to see me skate in the Olympics of my sport.