Last weekend in Tokyo, watchmaker G-Shock held Japan's biggest action sports competition of the year, the 31st annual Real Toughness event. Forty of the world's top BMX riders, skateboarders, and break-dancers—all of them younger than 25 years old—competed on teams representing their home countries: Japan, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, South Korea, and the U.S. G-Shock also brought in some of Japan's most popular DJs, musicians, and artists to create a free-to-the-public showcase of action sports and street performances.
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Four teams competed in each discipline. The U.S. won BMX and break-dancing, and Japan won skateboarding. The event also included a flatland BMX demo. Between the action sports comps, graffiti artists filled a blank wall with mural-size images, a soccer-ball juggler performed onstage, and a high-speed jump rope squad did its thing with unconventional creativity. At the after party, DJs turned tables above gyrating crowdsText and photos by Aaron Nardi. Follow him on Istagram: @aaronnardi
The Opening Ceremony to Real Toughness was a wild scene with lights, fire, and smoke around the athletes and their country flags.
Devon Smilie gets techy with his barspin to grind in the BMX street competition. Smilie and Tyler Fernengel won the event for the U.S.
Tyler Fernengel's foot jam to fakie on the judging tower was by far the biggest trick of the day —no one else attempted to get up there.
In the BMX flatland demo, Viki Gomez glides a perfect Plastic Man mid link. Gomez, from Spain, is one of the most impressive flat riders in the world.
Japan's Yohei Uchino, arguably the best flat rider in the world, rides a snake-spin during the flatland demo. The flatland BMX riders were in Tokyo ahead of next week's Flat Ark competition, which is the discipline's biggest event of the year.
The Pow! Wow! live art exhibition at Real Toughness showcased the art of Cook One, Jay Shogo, Jeffrey Gress, Kamea Hadar, and Shizentomtel.
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Though you rarely see any graffiti or street art in Japan, the country has some highly talented artists. Pow! Wow! puts on art exhibitions all over the world.
Ryo Sejiri, one of the top-ranked skaters in Japan, helped seal the skateboarding victory in front of his hometown crowd.
America's Paul Heart made heavy use of the rails that intimidated more than a few of the other top skaters. Heart stood out as one of the best skaters in the contest.
A member of the renowned Vagabonds Crew, Mounir, made the trip from France to judge the break dance competition, as well as put on an impressive demo.
Kaku, who represents Japan and the Mortal Combat Crew and judged Real Toughness, took head spins to a whole new level during the break dancing demo.
DJ Sarasa and XLII spin together as XXX$ during the Real Toughness after party. Sarasa, who was born in Tokyo and raised in New York City, has taken her hip hop DJ-ing on stage with some of the biggest names in the industry.