Sherwood, Pastrana and Adams stand tall on the X Games Freestyle podium.

Motocross legend Travis Pastrana pulled out every trick as he impressed the X Games 16 judges and brought the fans to their feet when he took the gold medal in the Moto X Freestyle Final at The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this morning.

“This is a great start to the X Games,” said Pastrana. “Out of the four events I am competing in, this is the last one I expected to win.”

As he entered his third run in the final, Pastrana had the score which would bring him gold but that didn’t stop him from giving the crowd an exciting finish. At times standing up and waving to the crowd, he smoothly executed the double backflip, a notable trick of his that earned him gold in Moto X Best Trick in 2006.

“When I saw the course, I felt that it really favored me,” Pastrana added. “It was a lot of fun, especially the wall rides, and I knew that the only way to beat everyone else was to bring back the double backflip.”

In his X Games debut, New Zealand native Levi Sherwood took home the silver medal, with Nate Adams rounding out the top three. This is Adams’ sixth Freestyle medal, his ninth overall.

Australia’s Robbie Maddison scored sixth after being eliminated from the final, starting strong early on with second position behind Pastrana in the qualifying run.

Defending champion Blake ‘Bilko’ Williams was ruled out mid-week, the Victorian battling a recent shoulder injury and being forced to abort his gold medal defense.