The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret

When I was in school, everyone knew about Michael Jordan. Everyone knew who Nolan Ryan was. there was no argument, even from non-hockey people that Wayne Gretzky was the greatest to ever skate on ice. Ask anyone at the school I went to who was the best skateboarder in the world though, and you would be met with silence. Ask them who their favorite freestyle BMX rider was, silence again. 

All of that changed in the late 90's thanks to the X-Games, the success of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video games and the video masterpiece, Crusty Demons of Dirt. Extreme sports blew up. They made covers of Sports Illustrated. They made the late-night tv talk show circuits. They got all the sponsorships and endorsements they had dreamed of. Then, they got trading cards. To me this was a huge deal as I had always been a fan of collecting cards and extreme sports. to me, seeing some of these childhood heroes of mine immortalized on cardboard somehow made what they did more legitimate. 2000 saw the release of the first 3 extreme sports card sets. Sadly, those were also the last extreme sports card sets. 

First up was Fleer Adrenaline. Fleer was the only manufacturer that really had good pedigree going in. As you can see here, each base card also had a gold foil parallel. Right in the base, left is the gold parallel.

Compared to the other manufacturers, Fleer's checklist was rather lacking. Notables missing were Mike Metzger, Tony Hawk, Travis Pastrana, Dave Mirra, Eric Koston, Bob Burnquist and Jay Miron. They did jump the gun and get future MotoX standout Tommy "The Tomcat" Clowers in here though.

The base set came in at 100 cards featuring some great photography.

Like this great shot of in-line skater Matt Salerno.

An amazing aerial shot of Cory "Nasty" Nastazio.

And my favorite photo in the set... Louie Zamora.

Mat Hoffman. I wanted to be Mat Hoffman when I grew up. I even had one of his signature bikes at one point.

Adrenaline had a few inserts including The A List.

Big Air Club.

Medal Men.

and these mini posters.

After I entered my cards in over at Trading Card Database, here are my totals for this set.

Adrenaline Base-76/100

Gold Parallels-30/100

A-List- 2/10

Big Air Club-4/10

Medal Men-2/10

Mini Posters-7/10

The 2nd Extreme Sports set to emerge from 2000, was Press Pass Rage. a 72 card base set, with a 72 card Luminescent parallel set and a 72 card Sticker parallel set. The Dyrdek card on the left above is the base and the one on the right is a Luminescent parallel.

As you can see here, the parallels were numbered differently as well. LH3 compared to just 3.

The coolest thing about the Rage set to me was the fact that each sport got its own design, unlike Adrenaline. This is the design for in-line skating.

The design for BMX. BMX Legend Jay Miron finally shows up on some cardboard with this set.

Street Luge. This guy looks like a NASCAR driver.

I always called this sport death. I still get cringy thinking about it.

Press Pass also makes sure the surfers get their due.

And the first cards of the Godfather of Freestyle Motocross, Mike Metzger and Travis Pastrana. In case you didn't know, Metzger was the first person to do a clean backflip in a competition and Pastrana was the first to do a double backflip.

Inserts show up in Rage. Goin' Big.

No Limit. Press Pass were not afraid at all to use foil and etching.

And a sticker parallel.

Final totals in my collection for Press Pass Rage are

Base-17/72

Luminescent Parallels-7/72

CORE-0/11

Goin Big-1/11

No Limit-2/13

Stick It Stickers-5/72

And my favorite entry in the extreme sports card sets, Road Champs AXS. AXS was a 49 card base set [card on left], with another 49 card Signature Edition set[card on right]. These are not parallels as the photos, design and even card backs are different.

You can also see from the backs that these cards have no numbering at all. 

Great photography is pretty much the norm in this set.

I said great photography already didn't I?

Probably the second most famous snowboarder of all time, behind Shaun White. Now I need a Shaun White card.

First card of Motocross Legend Jeff Emig.

First card of my favorite skateboarder of all-time, Eric Koston.

Skate King Inserts are amazing! These things look like cards that would be worth alot of money.

Skateboard Classics features skateboarders skating as kids.

Standout Performance. This is also the only card of freestyle BMX Legend Dave Mirra that I own.

Sticker inserts, and the only card of the Minister of Defense for the Metal Militia, Brian Deegan, that I own. Deegan may have been the first guy to ever land a backflip in competition had he not got injured. he did end up being the first to hit a backflip/360 he dubbed "The Militia Twist".

Final Totals for Road Champs AXS

Base-22/49

Signature Edition-18/49

Skate Classics-2/7

Skate Kings-3/7

Standout Performance-2/7

Stickers-14/48

I have the ones I need in my want list over at Trading Card Database. I figure after 20 years, I need to try and finish these up. I picked up every box of these 3 sets I ever saw back in the day and haven't seen any of them anywhere since. None at card shows, flea markets, nothing. I find it kinda odd that no one has ever made another set either. First 3 ever in one year and 20 years later, I'm still waiting for a new set.