This morning, I woke up, read over the list of people invited to skate at X Games 13, and picked Mark Appleyard at number one on my list of "Wow, he's skating at X Games?" guys. Mark Appleyard is one of my favorites, and he's the kind of guy you might not necessarily expect to see here. The fact that he is, and that there are others like him, is testament to something... The X Games must be doing something right, and the first thing I noticed is this: The street course looks like a ton of fun this year, much better than last year's. Appleyard is Transworld's 2007 Skater of the Year (see pic above), a distinction he also held in 2003, when he received the same big nod from Thrasher. The year before that, he also took Transworld's Rookie of the Year award. It's worth pointing out that these accolades come from pure street skating -- well documented on videos -- and not contest triumphs, so it was cool to see Appleyard taking charge and claiming first place in today's X Games Selection Session. By X Games tradition, last year's winner Chris Cole automatically qualifies in first place. Eric Koston, P-Rod, Greg Lutzka, Jereme Rogers, Ryan Sheckler, Tommy Sandoval, Nick Dompierre, and Andrew Reynolds round out the list, making it pretty much a dream-list of guys you'd love to see skating around Los Angeles together, and not just in the tidy little course in the Home Depot Center Velodrome venue. More later... this should be good, better than I was thinking it might be before today.