Arizona 14-year-old best friends to compete in X Games

From the hundreds of hours spent perfecting their skills at a Mesa skatepark to the X Games kicking off Thursday, Alana Smith, Jagger Eaton and Trey Wood have ridden to the top together.

They haven't even started high school, but the Valley youths are already enjoying the trappings of fame — TV appearances, endorsement deals, international travel, world records.

Alana, Jagger and Trey are world-renowned, record-breaking skateboarders. They're best friends. And they're 14 years old.

They will compete against athletes from around the world in Austin this weekend as part of what is considered to be the Olympics of extreme sports. The X Games last summer drew 160,000 spectators to Austin — nearly half of attendees were 12 to 24 years old — and it reached 32 million viewers on TV.

Their age is rare in the sport but not unheard of. Among Alana's competitors is 14-year-old Pamela Rose of Brazil, while Trey goes against 38-year-old skate legend Bob Burnquist.

ESPN launched the X Games in 1995 in Rhode Island and added the Winter X Games in 1997, which now are held every January in Aspen. They were instantly popular and have been a competitor to the Olympics, which added snowboarding in 1998 in an effort to recapture young viewers. They're a platform to catapult action sports and its stars into global fame and fortune.

The road to Austin

Alana just ate it — hard. The kind of fall where you have to walk away for a minute to put the world back together.

But when you're trying to perfect a kickflip back lip for the X Games, it comes with the territory. Within minutes, the Mesa teen lugged her skateboard back up the ramp, dropped in, jumped and slid flawlessly across a rail.

Alana and Jagger have been practicing endlessly at Kids That Rip in Mesa, the skateboarding school that taught them all. Trey joins them whenever he's in town: he's from Queen Creek but began living part-time in Carlsbad, California, last year to have better access to bowls used in the vert style of skating.

SEE THE TEENS IN ACTION

All have competed in the games before – Alana won a silver medal at X Games Barcelona 2013, becoming the youngest X Games medalist ever at 12 years and 6 1/2 months old. Alana will be the youngest competitor at the Austin stop of the X Games this year.

Jagger made a world record at X Games Los Angeles 2012 as the youngest-ever invited athlete, at 11 years and 129 days old.

It all started long before they met, when they picked up skateboards between 5 and 7 years old.

Jagger was 5 when his dad, Geoff Eaton, bought him and his older brother, Jett, their first skateboards and built a mini ramp. Alana was 6 when she saw her first X Games and begged her dad to let her skate like the girls on TV.

After seeing his sons' growing interest, Geoff Eaton opened Kids That Rip in 2006 next door to Desert Devils Gymnastics, which he also owns. Jagger, Trey and Alana were among his first class of students, and by 2009, 450 kids were taking classes there every week, he said.

"That's insane to me that he did that," Jagger said of his dad. "I worked hard too but I mean, to do this, that's amazing. I wouldn't have been anywhere without him."

Their first games

Soon, the preteens were summoned to perform in front of millions.

"My first invite to the X Games, I was 11 years old. I was at the pool," Trey remembered. "I got a phone call and an email. I couldn't even talk. I was stoked. It was like a dream come true."

The X Games Barcelona in 2013 were Alana's first time leaving the country, and where she celebrated her silver medal the way any 12-year-old girl would: An all-girls sleepover.

"A sleepover with a lot of my friends and ate a lot of ice cream, a lot of movies, staying up 'til about 12 o'clock and falling asleep on a sugar high," she said, giggling.

Their wins electrified Kids That Rip, Geoff Eaton said.

"That's what's cool because I feel like the first time I went to the X Games it really opened eyes to what kids can do," Jagger said. "Kids can open their eyes and be like, 'I could be a pro skater too' and I hope they get the same spark I got."

The awesome perks

Alana has been featured in Teen Vogue and recently starred in a Clean and Clear commercial where she talked about being a female skater in a man's world.

"There's been people that have literally come up to me and been like 'why are you here?' I just wait and drop in and let them see why I'm here," she said in the commercial.

Trey and Jagger were stunt doubles in a Hyundai commercial that aired during the Super Bowl in 2013, though Trey stumbles on the brand when he talks about it – he can't drive, so why would he be able to pronounce Hyundai?

Jagger has made the most TV appearances of them all. He voices his own cartoon character on "Wild Grinders" on Nicktoons and recently was a guest on MTV's "Ridiculousness" and "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory." All shows are the work of Rob Dyrdek, who is a skate legend and Jagger's mentor.

Together they have a collective 81,000 followers on Facebook and 235,000 on Instagram, all before any of them have begun their freshman year of high school.

Such dedication comes with a demanding schedule – all three do school online about four hours a day, which frees up their time to skate five to eight hours every afternoon.

It also lets them travel the world. They've been to Barcelona, South Africa, China, Australia, Brazil and Sweden, the last of which Alana said has the coolest girl skaters.

Another perk is celebrity exposure; all have met some of skateboarding's biggest legends. Last September, Alana met rappers Drake and Lil Wayne at their concert in Phoenix.

"When I went to go talk to Lil Wayne it was crazy 'cause he's super into skateboarding too," she said. "He was coming up to me and he said my name before I even introduced myself and knew who I was, so I was freaking out!"

The teen years have brought new challenges for the skaters, especially Alana. She recently got her first tattoo – with her parents' permission – a small drawing of a skateboard with a heartbeat in between the wheels. It's a promise to herself and her mom that she won't do drugs or drink, instead choosing to focus on her passion for skateboarding, she said.

"I've always been hated on for being a girl skateboarder but I've never thought of it as 'I'm a girl skater.' I just wanna think of it as 'I'm a skater,' not identifying it by gender."

Alana is unlike any other girl in the sport, said Kids That Rip skateboard coach Kyle Adams, 32, who has known the teens for three years.

"People are gonna compare girls to her now. She's kind of in a league of her own," he said. He's amazed by the teens' dedication every day.

"They take it really seriously," he said. "It's not the coaches, it's not the skatepark, it's them. It's just their talent and they're like, not from this world. They're like, alien. It's so crazy."

Watch the teens

Events will be aired on ESPN/ABC.

Jagger Eaton: He will be competing in Skateboard Street Amateurs which will not be televised on ESPN or ABC. Live results, video of competition runs and photo galleries can be found on XGames.com.

Alana Smith: The Women's skateboard street Round One and Final is 11 a.m.-3 p.m. local time Saturday, June 6 on ABC.

Trey Wood: The America's Navy Skateboard Big Air Round One/Final is 4-8 p.m. local time Friday, June 5 on ESPN.