Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Look how high the start of this uphill BSTS is. Torey Pudwill is taking it all the way to the top

Thank you Mr. Maloofs for the glamorous skateboard party. No thank you for the $9 beers. Footage of a bunch of madness that went down all weeekend is on the SPoT Facebook Page

Dear Wife Beater Tan guy, please come to the Contest again today. Thanks so much for the laughs

The Am Contest time slot was short and in the middle of the day with harsh sun and heat. Everyone still ripped though. This is a quick gathering before the Contest to make sure everyone understands the format

That's Ryan Decenzo frontside flipping into the Rincon big four pit

The ams seemed to stay away from the up/down crooked ledge. That thing is tough to skate. That's last year's winner, Timmy Knuth

Chris Haslam had his own seating section

That's DJ Wade who was really far away from us and the announcers - we need to do something about that next year. That jumbo tron thing displayed scores after each heat, but the person doing the data entry wasn't so hot on the 10-key, so a few errors and incorrect results slipped in on both the Am and the Pro contest. Sucks that was embarrassing for us and not even our fault

Scott Decenzo - frontside 5-0 on the Rincon rail

Looks like Nick Merlino is going to be riding for Foundation as you can see here, or at least he's getting flowed by them. They should flow him some medicine, too. He's a little hyper

Lizard King knows all about the California medicine

Abdias Rivera made the cut to the Finals with tricks like this frontside halfcab flip down Rincon. Even after all these years, every time I see Abdias he's better and better

Morgan Smith did everything switch down Rincon like this switch backside 180

The World Industries cheering section includes Mike Franklin, Charlie Thomas, that one photographer on break, Lauren Perkins, and Dustin Blauvelt who had to sit this one out due to injury

If you've seen Debacle, you know about Shane O'Niell. Seeing him skate in person is just as amazing has his video part. This is a backside 180 nosegrind

Shane O'Niell - switch flip Rincon

Morgan Smith - switch flip Rincon

Vincent Alvarez was the first one I saw to go for this gap to the hubba

This was the first time I got to see Furby skate in person. That's a nollie flip down Rincon

Chris Haslam - pivot, backside 360, manual, backside 180 out. He didn't do the best in the Contest, but it was amazing watching him in practice

Shane O'Niell - big spin frontside boardslide

Here's a sample of the large group of people that are taking way better photos than me

The Contest is connected to the Orange County Fairgrounds where you can get turkey legs and deep fried bacon cheeseburgers with two Krispy Kreme doughnuts at the bun. Go large, America

Pedro Barros might be the last person on earth with one of those awful Red Bull helmets. At least he's not grabbing stinker

Jesse McDonald - mute

Italo Penarrubia got in the Contest last minute in someone else's place. He ripped. Earlier he was over on the street course trying to kickflip Rincon. That's a good looking lien air

Sam Beckett - frontside air the right way

That's Pedro Barros after coming in high speed from the Mini-Mega

Remember that Wieger Enjoi ad where he was riding the super long board? That's what Jordan Price's shadow looks like on this frontside tailslide

I saw Jordan Price kickflipping into this lipslide on the Mini-Mega rail. Did you ever make that, Jordan?

Nolan Munroe - kickflip indy

Paul Luc Ronchetti - 540 with that one photographer actually using his camera

A nice twisted up backside nosegrab by Dylan Taylor. I spy Sweet Feet

Ronaldo's faceplant made his helmet press up against his head for a nice gash that needs some stitches. He still skated in the next jam, though

Nothing wrong with a little skate coaching when your son is only nine. Once they get into the double digits, maybe that's when you should let them be on their own, unless their trick selection sucks and their gear is straight busted. Then you need to put the coaching hat right back on and set them straight no matter how old they are

As a skate coach, I would tell my son to get a new helmet

RP Bess was working hard on the banner duty and carried this World Industries prop with him everywhere he went. Here are Vert Finals results

David Loy won the OC Ripper of the Weekend award. The people organizing the OC Fair wanted to recognize someone from Orange County that was breaking the most bones

A classic cake face OC girl was giving out hugs and jugs at the Am Awards. Theotis' permanent smile got a little larger

Congrats to Felipe Gustavo for winning the Am

Baby Bastien got 3rd and $20,000 without even cracking a smile on stage. This is from the SkateDaily.net Twitter: "Found it a bit odd that Nyjah wouldn't share the stage with Sandoval and Cole during the MMC awards ceremony. Sour grapes?"

Some football player showed up and everyone went nuts. Or was it baseball?

During the pro, someone would blast an airhorn right when the time ended for each jam, even as people were two feet away from snapping their last trick off Rincon. Finally, someone stole it and trashed it, but not before they passed it around so we could all get a photo of it. Maybe it was the football player's idea to have the air horn

Kurtis Colomonico was an airhorn victim having to bail right right as he was jumping down the big four

When you're good at what you do like Ty Evans here, you get a personal shading assistant

Heath Kirchart with the Emerica bosses - Timothy, Justin Regan, and Jeff Henderson. Looks like Justin just finished up one of those deep fried bacon cheeseburgers with the Krispy Kreme buns

Chris Haslam - back overcrook

Of course Lizard is taking a foot off. This time it's over the Rincon bar

After Pete Eldridge perfected his switch heel snap down the stairs, he then took it over the Rincon bar

Lizard King was the first one I saw doing tricks over the hubba gap to flat. That's a kickflip

Alex Olson ollied over the bar to get into this backside 50-50. You know how sometimes when you watch someone try a super dangerous trick you get scared yourself? I felt that for for like 10 solid minutes during this crazy ass jam. Some seriously dangerous skateboard moves went down

Me want turky leg. Clem want turkey leg. Koston want turkey leg. It's hard not to get all caveman on a turkey leg at the fair

It's so easy even a caveman can do it. Of course, Tommy Sandoval want turkey leg

Right after I shot this photo, Tommy Sandoval turned the mic sideways and bit into it like a turkey leg. Nah, Tommy probably eats human legs. He destroyed it all weekend. It was a pleasure as usual watching Tommy skate

I think Torey Pudwill should have gotten second and Baby Bastien should not even have been in the Contest, but that's just my opinion

I've never seen Silas Baxter Neal skate in person either. That's a backside tailslide across the ledge gap

Terry Kennedy is one of the nicest guys out there. He always makes it a point to say what's up even to people he's just a minor acquaintance to like me. Because of that, I'm a fan of this guy

Sometimes I get skateboard overdose/burnout and I'm over it behind the lens. Porpe took over for a bit. This looks like Mikey Taylor on a crooked grind

David Gonzales - lipslide

Porpe is not yet familiar with the zoom feature of the camera. That's Mark Appleyard kickfliping from the deck into the bank

Looks like Peter Ramondetta on a back smith here

Ramondetta kickfliped that rail so perfect

During Best Trick, despite some goonie ass DJ playing either techno or no music at all, Mikemo switch 3 flipped the Rincon gap. Then he switch flipped it and switch backside flipped it. The DJ continued to wonder why everyone was yelling at him all weekend. Next time get DJ Wade or someone who has somewhat of a clue. Thanks for leaving me with OC jock rock stuck in my head

That's all for Porpe's skate photos. Now we're on to my chill and party photos. Curtis made the jumbotron. Oops, wait, sorry another jumbotron typo. I mean Boosh made the jumbotron. Yeah, Boosh

Brian Anderson had the best boardshorts in the house after his jam was over. Are those Fourstar shorts and how do I get some?

Mike Carroll did the same thing we did - barge the etnies section until someone came and kicked us out

This here is Baby Busenitz. In about two years, he's going to be better than you at skateboarding

Brandon Westgate, Nick Dompierre, Josh Kalis, and Stevie Williams. What a rock star chill fest it was all weekend

They love trucks like this in Orange County. This one has a skate park made for 40 year old men on the side of it. Fill it with water

This is the VIP spectator section. That's Sam Smyth there next to the sexy leg that was poking out all day

Enough skateboarding, let's go party. Everyone got your wristbands?

It wouldn't be a party without DJ Wade and Hunter from Nike SB. Looks like they're really been partying

Vern Laird and Shuriken Shannon. We saw Shuriken's part in the new Black Label video on Friday night. The whole video is super good

John Lucero with a Diamond hat on?

Where there's a party, there's a foot fetish. That's Robin from Vans who normally is not seen in a dress. Thanks for hiring us yet again for the Vans Downtown Showdown September 26 in Hollywood

If you don't have drink tickets, a beer at the After-Party is nine bucks. That poor OC girl back there must have just received the news. Matt Beach should give her a drink ticket

I think Ashely Harrison might be a bad influence on Mikemo, but that's just me

Repeat: I think Ashely Harrison might be a bad influence on Mikemo, but that's just me

How do Ashley and Sierra end up at more contests than most skaters? That's Shane O'Niell. Is Shane 21 or is Sierra being a bad influence on him?

Repeat: Is Andrew Langi 21 or is Sierra being a bad influence on him?

Wow, Branen Fitzgerald! Where ya been? Branen is going to try to get back into it by skating Damn Am Canada. Hope to see you there.

Abdias Rivera, they geek from the stripper pole that made someones beer fly after flipping upside down to get on it, and DJ Wade. $9 beer highs are much cooler

Andrew Cannon was in the World Industries cheering section

Professor Schmitt, Bobby Worrest, and Matt Milligan. Not how I had to man handle Bobby to put him in place for the photo. Looks like I had some drink tickets. Note for next year: drink tickets are just regular generic tickets you can buy at Office Depot

Girls dressed like this were walking around everywhere. They need to invite The Senator to represent Ybor city at one of these parties

We are ending this trip with a phone fetish. Thanks everyone for having us, giving us the right credentials, and throwing a ripping skateboard shindig. I had a great time. Clements needs a new phone

Work, work, and more work. I’m not complaining. Our work is good work. There’s that work that you really dread, the stuff you truly don’t want to have to do. But there’s “good” work, too. That’s what we get to do at Skatepark and SPoTlight…good work. That doesn’t take away from the long ass hours that we put in sometimes though. I feel like haven’t had a break since I woke on Wednesday morning at 4am in Tampa, FL and now it’s 4pm on Saturday and I’m sitting at Starbucks across the street from the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA. The past four days have literally flown by and seem to be one big blur to me now.

But this is when I have to buckle down and get serious about attempting to translate what has happened thus far. Basically, SPoTlight Productions got hired by the Maloof Money Cup to run the am portion of their gigantic event. Sure, it was a little weird not operating the whole event, but we’re team players and we love skateboarding, so we had to jump on the opportunity to be a part of something like the MMC.

First off, the conditions couldn’t have been more different than what we’re used to working under. For example, at Tampa Pro we are literally in charge of everything. We have to get the sponsors, hang the banners, run all operations in the Shop, cook at the food tent, be “security,” do registration, judge, announce, clean up, and the 100 other things that go along with any type of event.. At Maloof, we have to handle literally none of the operations whatsoever. Meaning, we are only in charge of the actual Am Contest portion of the Cup.

But getting simple things done on a grand scale can be quite a challenge. And “grand” is definitely the best way to describe the Maloof Money Cup. You’re obviously going to see it all in Rob’s pictures, but the vert ramp and street course could be described as gigantic works of art. The street course, designed mostly by Geoff Rowley, with input from several other pros, was basically a collaboration of famous street spots from around the world. There was real granite/marble on top of several of the ledges and what didn’t have that had the slickest, most buttery paint I’ve ever grinded. I don’t know what the builder, California Skateparks, uses, but we need to get a hold of some of that product for back at home at SPoT.

As for the vert ramp, it looks like the Maloof Money Cup is trying to dig a hole and bury the days of regular old back and forth vertical skateboarding. They not only had various extensions and areas of the ramp that were “set back,” but constructor, California RampWorks, decided to incorporate the Mini-Mega while they were at it. And jumping the 30’ gap wasn’t nearly enough, so a rainbow rail was installed on top of it. Talk about taking the streets to the vert! It was basically simulating skating a flat bar on top of any pyramid you ride at any skate park in any city…but the roll-in for this one starts at about 45’ in the air. Schaefer was claiming he was going to jump it, but even the Mini Mega is pretty damn intimidating and he changed his mind after taking in the view from the top platform. I can only imagine what it’s like skating the “real” Mega Ramp. Forget it.

The weather was perfect for the event all weekend long. It was cool in the mornings, pretty warm in the afternoons, and got chilly fast when the sun went down each evening. Of course not a raindrop was in sight because it never rains in sunny, low-humidity SoCal. The stands filled up and music blasted through the towers of speakers. The second year of the Maloof Money Cup was on!

Between the ams, pros, and girls all skating in Qualifiers, Semi-Finals, and Finals over the course of three days, we had a pretty packed schedule. Each Contest/Division/Jam had its allotted timeframe that needed to be adhered to. What I’m getting at here is our defense on how we ran the Am Street Qualifiers, which consisted of four-minute Jams of four skaters each. We received some criticism on how that went down, but that was pretty much the only way we could make it happen with the 40 or so entrants. So sorry guys…it’s tough to make everyone happy. Either we cut down the number of skaters, which we don’t want to do, or we have more time to run the event, which wasn’t possible this time around.

Before I get too far along here, let’s break down how we came up with the invite list. There was an actual committee that chose the skaters. The criteria was to choose skateboarding’s next pros. This wasn’t for the local heroes, but for the top of the top…the ams that are getting coverage in the mags, recent video parts, being pushed by their sponsors in ads, etc. So if your guy didn’t get in or we straight up denied you, that’s why.

With that being said, literally every skater in the Am Street killed it. One of the guys that I was hyped on that didn’t make the Finals was Furby, who I finally got to see skate in person. Also, I can’t neglect to mention Ben Gore, who simply makes skateboarding look good. Finally, another ripper that I really enjoy watching is Tyler Bledsoe, but he didn’t make the cut either. The competition was fierce, so if you didn’t bring your a-game, you weren’t moving on.

Out of the 40-some skaters, we took the top 12 to the Finals and broke those 12 skaters into three, four skater heats. They got a one-minute intro run that counted for 25% of their score and then an eight-minute Jam representing the other 75%. Here’s how it broke down with the dust settled:

• 12th – Vincent Alvarez – he was a no show in Finals, with the excuse being a traffic jam. Rob said, “Everyone must use that excuse out here in the LA area.” Who knows if it was bulls&!t or if Vincent really was in traffic? We sure missed him either way
• 11th – Andrew Langi – no longer riding for Chocolate because “someone wasn’t feeling him” over there, Langi was riding a Mystery board on his blunt to fakie on the gnarly tranny to wall
• 10th – Nick Merlino – he might have not gotten the nod from Baker, but Foundation is backing last year’s King of LA. You’ll be seeing a lot more of Nick and his switch bs 360 ollies in the near future…I know these things
• 9th – Morgan Smith – Blind’s finest had the entire street course covered. From tech mannys to jumping down the big four, Morgan is well-rounded
• 8th – Manny Santiago – I want Manny to start doing a bunch of different manny tricks so I can say, “Manny kickflip nose manny.” Until then I will have to read his blog at mannyslaysall.com
• 7th – Louie Lopez – you can’t watch Louie skate and not love the kid. He’s always smiling and although he’s about 4’ tall, he’s skating like a grown-ass young man
• 6th – Theotis Beasley – it’s been said so many times, but EVERYONE BE LIKIN’ HIM! Theotis has a presence like none other and is a true class act. I look forward to my hug everyday I see him
• 5th – Davis Torgerson – $200 Zumiez Gift Card – we met him a few years back at Damn Am Minneapolis and Davis has been on the tear ever since, gaining much momentum as time passes. Theibaud was calling him “Torgie” and I think that it might catch on
• 4th – Abdias Rivera – $200 Zumiez Gift Card – wearing his “Tampa kit,” which consists of an entirely black outfit from head to toe, SPoT’s own ABUBU fs shove-it to bs 50’50’d his way right into 4th
• 3rd – Ryan Decenzo – $200 AmEx card and $200 Zumiez Gift Card – former Tampa Am winner and Canadian ripper, Ryan Decenzo turned it on again and landed in the top three
• 2nd – Shane “Nugget” O’Neill – $300 AmEx card and $200 Zumiez Gift Card – Australia is a long ways away, but jet lag must not effect Nugget because he qualified first and only bumped back to 2nd
• 1st – Felipe Gustavo – $500 AmEx card and $200 Zumiez Gift Card – yet another former Tampa Am winner in the top three, Felipe was unbeatable. He’s a cool-ass kid from Brazil who is working hard on what it takes to make it in skateboarding

Zumiez Destroyer Award – Shane “Nugget” O’Neill – our boy from the Outback not only got 2nd in the Contest, but he was also deemed the Destroyer, receiving a $1,000 Zumiez Gift Certificate and a customized Sawzall to make skating those skate-stopped spots that much easier to infiltrate

We all know that the future of vert skateboarding is looking grim. Bucky, Bob, and so many of the other top dogs are in their mid-30’s. We’ve got PLG in his late 20’s and Alex Perelson at about 19, but what are we going to do when others start retiring? Well, there is a little hope at least. About half of the skaters in the Am Vert are easily on their way to being pro in the next few years. But hey, the bottom line here is that there are not that many am kids that rip vert. I don’t really know what to say about it, but there are literally 1,000 kids out there that could have hung in the Street, but the top am vert skateboarders in the world were ALL there. All of them! Okay, so maybe I’m forgetting about an am vert skater or two or maybe one is undiscovered still, but the overall future of vert skateboarding is on life support right now simply because very few kids are doing it.

Since we had so few entrants, there was really no need for Qualifiers, which meant we went right to the Finals. The 13 skaters were split into two heats and everyone got a “mandatory” drop-in on the Mini-Mega and a skate-until-you-fall first run. Out of the 13, most of them could at least boardslide the rainbow rail, which was pretty sick to see from such a young group of guys. The Am Vert Contest was exciting and fun and the kids are getting better and better every year:

• 13th – Tom Schaar – little nine-year-old kid from SoCal that could jump the gap on the Mini-Mega
• 12th – Dakota White – won entrance into the Contest by submitting a video
• 11th – Jesse McDonald – representing Garden Sk8 out of West Orange, NJ, he’s got some interesting tricks. I haven’t seen a pogo in a while
• 10th – Dalton Dern – our pal from Florida is always up in the Finals on the vert ramp
• 9th – Nolan Munroe – out of New Hampshire, he had the bs blunt on the banked extension
• 8th – Jordan Price – ATV ripper from the east coast of Florida. Jordan did an 8’ heelflip Indy after lipsliding the rainbow rail
• 7th – Italo Penarrubia – since there was room we were able to squeeze him into the Contest at the last minute, so the trip from Brazil was worthwhile
• 6th – Ronaldo Gomes – after taking a hard slam resulting in a huge gash on his forehead that needed stitches, Ronaldo came back in the second heat to make it all the way to 6th
• 5th – Dylan Taylor – I hadn’t seen Dylan skate in a long time, but he’s got a great style overall, especially on his backside ollies
• 4th – Sam Bosworth – only 14-years-old and from England, we couldn’t help but think “Tom Boyle” with his powerful style
• 3rd – Paul Luc Ronchetti – $200 AmEx card – huge bag of tricks from the other side of the pond, otherwise known as England
• 2nd – Sam Beckett – $300 AmEx card – wait, a third skater from England? Yep. They must be breeding the vert shredders over there
• 1st – Pedro Barros - $500 AmEx Gift card – I can’t imagine that he’s going to be skating too many more am contests considering Pedro’s domination of the entire ramp. He goes high and skates with speed and control

There were Qualifiers that were broken down to Semi-Finals and then Finals. I watched the Qualifiers, skipped the Semis, and then watched the entire Finals on the big-screen while glancing down at the street course to catch the pros warming up. It was actually pretty cool to experience the Contest like that. Behind me you could hear the actual skating a split-second prior to it showing up on the screen and the sound coming through the speakers. I heard a SMACK! close behind and then would see Alex Perelson doing a huge Madonna on the jumbo-tron. After a Jam on the rainbow rain and then another jam on the rest of the ramp, here’s how it broke down:

• 7th – Rob Lorifice – $4,000 – the new breed of tranny skaters. Check out his part in The Blind Video to see what I mean
• 6th – Adam Taylor – $5,000 – he was really excelling on the rainbow rail and every time I see him he’s adding to his bag of tricks
• 5th – Bucky Lasek – $6,000 – Bucky is always killing it
• 4th – Andy MacDonald – $10,000 – never count out Andy Mac. He’s been around forever and is still doing it
• 3rd – Bob Burnquist – $20,000 – Bob always has the most creative runs. I love watching him because you really don’t know what he’s going to do next.
• 2nd – Pierre Luc Gagnon – $35,000 – he’s been down with SPoT since forever and used to skate Tampa Am every year way, way back-in-the-day. When he was receiving his award on the stage, Pierre just kept congratulating Alex. I like his style
• 1st – Alex Perelson – $75,000 – I can’t even begin to describe the domination. On the rainbow rail he had the smoothest bs smiths and a gnarly kickflip 50-50. And then after he did his first 900 ever in the Finals, he blasted an 8’ high Indy 360 to fakie over the 16’ gap. The crowd was backing him and 1st place was undeniable

• 5th – Marisa Del Santo – $ – I found out that Marisa is Elissa’s current favorite girl skateboarder. Elissa said that Marisa reminders her of herself when she was 17 because all Marisa can think of is skateboarding
• 4th – Amy Caron – $ – all I can remember is Amy taking some hard slams and getting up and going for it again and again
• 3rd – Elissa Steamer – $4,000 – she’s 33 years young, from FL and living in SF, and forever my favorite female skateboarder
• 2nd – Lacey Baker – $6,000 – my girl out of Covina, few know that Jeff Marshall is actually her half-brother. But most know that she’s got a better hardflip than half of the pros out there
• 1st – Leticia Bufoni – $25,000 and $10,000 Nixon watch – out of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Leticia is young and looks good on a skateboard

Zumiez Destroyer Award – Alexis Sablone – out of Connecticut, we haven’t seen much of Alexis because she just finished up an architectural degree over the past four years. Had she landed the kickflip fs 50-50 on the hubba she was trying, amongst other things, she’d have been up there a little higher. But at least she got the Destroyer Award with the $1,000 Zumiez Gift Certificate and custom Sawzall

You can say that pretty much every professional skateboarder, even the ones that notoriously don’t skate contests, make the effort to be a part of the Maloof Money Cup. If they’re not skating, they’re announcing like Braydon Szafranski, or hanging out in the crowd like Dan Murphy. However, you do have to be invited to even get to skate. I can say that there are literally no busters or questionable pros at all participating in the MMC. Okay, maybe one or two, but that’s pretty damn good considering how many self-proclaimed pros we have in our industry.

The format had the course broken into three sections. The first was around the outside, the second was what you would call the tech area, and the third was the Rincon replica and roof gap. Here are some highlights from the Qualifiers and Semi-Finals:

• Kalis was there. We’ve been a fan of that dude at SPoT for as long as I can remember. It doesn’t even matter what he does anymore…dude is borderline living legend status
• The mysteriousness of Heath Kirchart never ceases to amaze me. Whenever I see him I don’t know if he’s going to yell at me in a drunken, aggressive manner, or quietly say, “Hi Ryan”
• If he put his mind to it, Billy Marks could do much more than the most perfect nollie inward heels down the big four. Actually, he did do much more than that, but I mean ever more
• Here’s a guy you don’t see in a contest everyday: Chris Haslam. His fs crail on tight quarter-pipe to vert wall was a keeper
• Brandon Westgate is the new pro on the scene and if you’ve seen his part in Unbreakable, let me tell you that he’s even more impressive in person
• Rowley, Appleyard, and David Gonzales were all in the same heat in the Semi-Finals, so you can just call it the Flip Demo
• Thrasher’s Skater of the Year, Silas Baxter-Neal, was there. This dude barely skates demos, much less contests. It was great to see him
• He ain’t so “Lil’” anymore, but Stevie Williams was there and always has a great presence

The Qualifiers were on Friday, the Semi-Finals were on Saturday, and the Finals were on Sunday. The 12 finalists were broken into two heats of six skaters. This was definitely some of the most amazing skateboarding I’ve ever witnessed in one place at the same time. MMC bills itself as the “World’s Greatest Skateboarding Contest” and I think they just may be onto something:

• 10th – Mark Appleyard – $2,000 – his interview in the new TWS really sheds some light on the positive energy of Apps and seeing him skate in person is always a true pleasure
• 9th – Paul Rodriguez – $2,500 – if you haven’t seen Street Dreams yet, head to the theater to check it out. I didn’t get to see P-Rod do the “NAC” in person this time around, so I had to settle for the switch flip bs lip on the handrail
• 8th – David Gonzalez – $3,000 – the former gymnast from Colombia has all of the basics and some unique moves, too, like the fakie airwalk down the big four
• 7th – Greg Lutzka – $4,000 – although we missed the After-Party in the mansion on the beach hosted by Lutzka, we did get to see the usual ripping he throws down in every contest he skates
• 6th – Sean Malto – $5,000 – seriously, Malto is so rad to watch. I can’t believe how easily he ollied over the rail to fs crooks on the Rincon rail
• 5th – Ryan Sheckler – $6,250 – he was by far the crowd favorite and had the skating to back it up. I always have and always will like the kid. He’s been nothing but polite and respectful, and always gives 100% on his skateboard
• 4th – Torey Pudwill – $15,000 – coming off a 1st place finish at Copenhagen Pro a couple of weeks ago, T-Puds is on a contest ripping rampage, but in a very, very cool way
• 3rd – Nyjah Huston – $25,000 – now riding for I&I Skateboards, which I’m assuming is his or his father’s company, Nyjah is growing into his own. In a couple more years he’s going to be a very powerful skateboarder
• 2nd – Tommy Sandoval – $40,000 – most definitely the “sleeper” of the Contest. I didn’t think that Tommy would end up in 2nd, but he always let’s his skating do the talking. He told Rothmeyer that he has a “cosmic connection” to SPoTlight. Yeah Tommy!
• 1st – Chris Cole – $100,000 and $10,000 Nixon Watch – if you read our coverage of this event last year, we thought that Cole should have taken it then, too. But we’ll 100% agree with the judging this time. Cole can pretty much do anything he wants

Zumiez Destroyer Award – Torey Pudwill – I’m sure you already know this, but Torey really has some snaps. He also some serious combos on flat bars: bs smith to bs feeble and bs smith to boardslide to name a couple. Now he’ll be able to de-knob the rails in San Fernando Valley with is custom Sawzall and buy all of his friends gear with his $2,000 Zumiez Gift Certificate

Last but not least it was the Best Trick on the Rincon replica. So many tricks went down performed by Sierra, Mikemo, Eldridge, Pudwill, and many more but this was a true “best trick” in the sense that it was judged on only one trick. That one trick that took it was a kickflip bs tail on the big rail by Adam Dyet. Needless to say he was very hyped on the $10,000.

As I begin this list, I know that I’m going to forget someone, but here it goes. Thanks to the Maloof’s for kicking down some serious money into skateboarding and to the Sole Tech crew for letting us post up in their VIP area. Thanks to Mark Waters, Tim McFerran, Leslie Kelly, and Candice Blackstone for getting us everything we needed to make things happen over the weekend. Most importantly, thanks to all of the skateboarders and industry heads that come out to support what we do and show us so much love. See you all very soon.

Ryan

Saturday: Ripping Skating at Maloof Money Cup

Another Trip, Another Travel Blunder for Porpe

Thank You Mr. Maloofs For The Party