How's This for a Timeline:
- January '09: After watching the '09 X Games the Moore family (brothers Colten and Caleb, plus father Wade) became interested in Sled-X.
- June '09: The brothers decide to seek Sled support from longtime ATV sponsor Polaris.
- December 15, 2009: Polaris delivers two sleds to Texas.
- December 16-23, 2009: the sleds are ridden on dirt and jumped into a foam pit. The sleds are parked for Christmas before heading to Michigan for actual snow practice.
- December 28. 2009: the brothers ride snowmobiles on Snow for first time EVER.
- January 4, 2010: Two separate online videos are released in a bid for Winter X.
- January 6, 2010: Both brothers are accepted to the 2010 Winter X Games.
- January 28, 2010: The Moores take Winter X by storm.
When it comes to action sports, nothing comes close to the prestige of ESPN's X Games. X is the proving ground for aspiring athletes, the primary focus of marketing budgets for just about every "hip" company and the place where kids like the Moore brothers from Krum, Texas, go from relative obscurity to being household names.
The star-making potential of the X Games is unmatched, which is why X regulars like Travis Pastrana have long outshined even the biggest names in supercross. Exposure-wise, no platform can put you on the fast track to superstardom than the twice-annual X events (Summer and Winter X Games). While the games themselves are built around a handful of board sports and disciplines (skateboarding, snowboarding, etc.), it's Freestyle that has stolen the show (dirt bikes in Summer X and snowmobiles in Winter X).
Being the best ATV freestyler in the world means about as much as being the best guy typing this article if no one knows it. Therein lies the conundrum facing brothers Caleb and Colten Moore, who are widely considered the top two ATV freestylers in the world. Sure, the duo have more passport stamps than most flight attendants and have literally stolen the show in every H-Bomb Films release they've appeared in, but "household name" status isn't achieved by simply doing demos, regardless of how many countries you visit. Knowing the value of X Games exposure and somewhat frustrated by the exclusion of ATVs, the Moore brothers decided to try their hand at both dirt bikes, and snowmobiles. As luck would have it, the crossover to sleds went smoother than expected.
Smooth might actually be a bit of an understatement, amazing might be more accurate. Within a mere 20 days of taking possession of their Polaris sleds, the brothers not only had an innovative arsenal of tricks, they were both accepted into the Winter X Games. Just to clarify, two guys who live in an area that averages 2.6 inches of snow annually, with zero prior snowmobile experience whatsoever, were deemed worthy of the biggest stage in freestyle based solely on tricks they perfected in just under three weeks (10 to 12 actual riding days, with six of those taking place on dirt). To say there was hype surrounding their arrival would be accurate, the level of hype was what was astounding.
In order to experience the historic crossover and phenomenon that is Winter X, we headed to Aspen as well. The Moore brothers, their family and girlfriends, Polaris mechanic and Bomb Squad entourage set up camp in Aspen, where they would all be taking a crash course in X Games 101. The first lesson learned was that coming in with "hype" just means that all eyes will be on you, and not all of those eyes are wishing a happy ending to your Cinderella story. Luckily for Caleb and Colten, they would be scripting their own ending to this fairy tale.
The H-Bomb crew strategizes...
The H-Bomb crew strategizes runs and feeds off of each other's confidence while seeking asylum from the blistering cold temps.