Jagger Eaton
Jagger Eaton is a sponsored amateur skateboarder best known for being the youngest ever X Games competitor and as a Mega Ramp competitor.[1]
Family
Eaton and his brother Jett (two years his senior) are the sons of Geoff Eaton, owner of the Kids That Rip Skateboarding School and both started skateboarding under their father's tutelage at a young age; Jagger at age 4.[2][3] The school trains a number of junior X Games competitors.[4]
Competitions
At age 11, Eaton competed at the 2012 X Games in Los Angeles, becoming the youngest ever X Games competitor ahead of Nyjah Huston who had held the record since his participation at the 2006 Games.[3] The previous year, Eaton had competed at Bob Burnquist's Dreamland MegaRamp Invitational and had tied for 3rd.
- X Games Los Angeles 2012: Big Air - 12th place.[5]
- Global X Games 2013 Munich, Germany: Big Air - 4th place.[6]
- Global X Games 2013 Barcelona,Spain: Big Air - 6th place.[7]
- X Games Los Angeles 2013: Big Air - 4th place.[8]
- Kimberly Diamond Cup : September 28th & 29th, 2013 - South Africa.
Vert and Big Air (combined): Jagger finished 8th in the Vert Competition [9]and tied for 2nd in the Big Air competition. [10] His final overall ranking was 8th for $2500.
Jagger also competed in the Street Competition finishing in 17th.
Jagger finally competed in the Big Air Best Trick Gap competition and finished in first place winning 50,000R (approximately $5000 American). [11]
Sponsorship and public reception
Along with his brother and fellow junior skater Tom Schaar, Eaton is sponsored by DC Shoes as part of their 2012 initiative, the "DC Youth Division".[12]
Already sponsored by DC, in 2010 the brothers were invited by Colin McKay to "skate the new vert ramp in Southern California". Transworld Skateboarding's Blair Alley called the brothers " the future of vert skating".[13]
A number of regular skateboarding commentators have been critical of Eaton's participation at professional-level skateboarding events including Burnquist who believes competitions should establish separate junior divisions.[14] David Daniels of the Bleacher Report suggested Eaton's entry (and that of others his age) in professional competitions hurt the credibility of skateboarding as a sport.[14]
Sponsors
- DC Shoes
- Red Bull
- Monster Cable Products
- Plan B Skateboards
- Bones Wheels
- Independent Truck Company
- Kids That Rip Skateboarding School
Appearances
On August 17, 2013 Jagger and Jett were invited to attend The Retreat presented by Skatelite. The Retreat was a skateboarding and bmx event held on Lopez island in the state of Washington.[15]
References
- ^ X Games invites youngest athletes By Keith Hamm (ESPN, 25 May 2012)
- ^ Arizona skateboarding phenoms to compete in X-Games (Fox News Phoenix, 23 July 2013)
- ^ a b Jagger Eaton, 11, ready to take on MegaRamp at X Games by Bob Putnam (Tampa Bay Times, 27 June 2012)
- ^ Smith blurs skateboarding gender lines by Isabelle Khurshudyan (EspnW, 1 August 2013)
- ^ http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/summer/2012/results/_/eventId/1060/skateboard-big-air-men
- ^ http://xgames.espn.go.com/events/2013/munich/results/400469840/skateboard-big-air
- ^ http://xgames.espn.go.com/events/2013/barcelona/results/400462240/skateboard-big-air
- ^ America's Navy Skateboard Big Air - Final (Results) (X Games)
- ^ http://www.kimberleydiamondcup.com/2013/09/vert-world-championship-prelim-results/
- ^ http://www.kimberleydiamondcup.com/2013/09/big-air-championship-kimberley-diamond-cup-results/
- ^ http://www.kimberleydiamondcup.com/2013/09/big-air-best-trick-results/
- ^ DC Shoes: Rediscover Youth (Transworld Skateboarding, 5 October 2012)
- ^ DC Shoes, The Future Of Vert by Blair Alley (Transworld Skateboarding, 14 July 2010)
- ^ a b Jagger Eaton: 11-Year-Old's Rise Hurts Skateboarding's Credibility by David Daniels (Bleacher Report, 29 June 2012)
- ^ http://www.islandssounder.com/news/220361371.html