Waaaay back in '93, the cable TV pooh-bahs recognized that all those infernal kids with their skateboard and snowboard doohickeys represented the Holy Grail of marketing: young, talented, good-looking people who came from a seething underground athletic community. So in 1995, the first Extreme Games came alive on ESPN (the "anchors" were dressed in leather jackets to appeal to the kidz) and it's been a rowdy, corporate-logo-festooned bonanza ever since.

But ignore the manufactured 'tude and the commercial excess, and focus on the world-class athletes in the middle of the circus that is Summer X Games 13. Take, for example, the Skateboard Big Air competition, to be held at Staples Center. Nowhere else on Earth will you see so many people hurling their bodies down ramps and up into the air – while slouching. Let's see Shaq try that!

Then there's the Moto X SuperMoto event at Home Depot Center, which features dirt bikers racing each other around an earthen obstacle course. Could this be more perfect for a young L.A. audience? It features chase scenes and rad aerial tricks, and it comes from a tradition where many men wore mustaches.

And, remember those sidewalk bike ramps you and your friends would construct with a slab of plywood and a pile of four-by-fours? Well, the guys zooming around the cavernous half pipe in the BMX Vert event are laughing at you. And they are calling you names.

So bust your hoodie, get your Dickies sag on and head out to the Staples Center or Home Depot Center. If nothing else, you'll probably get some bitchin' swag from the vendor booths.

When: August 2-5

Where: Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles and the Home Depot Center in Carson (check here for the games schedule)

Why: It's like the Olympics, the circus, and middle school all rolled into one