eS Footwear Press Release: P.J. Ladd Wins Eric Koston's éS Game of SKATE

Lake Forest, CA - éS Footwear's own P.J. Ladd took home the big $10,000 check at the end of Eric Koston's éS Game of SKATE this weekend at the Action Sports Retailer trade show in San Diego!

The second day of ASR kicked off with the Amateur National Championships of the éS Game of SKATE, including the top 13 winners from across the country, who were flown in for the weekend to compete for the Wild Card spot in Eric Koston's éS Game of SKATE. The winner, Orlando, Florida's A.J. Burnett, was then seeded into the first spot in Koston's Game.

The trade show slowed down for two hours as more than 2500 spectators watched as the 64 pro skaters in the Game of SKATE went head-to-head to narrow the field down to the top 32, then the top 16 skaters. Young ripper A.J. Burnett was still in there for round four, having beaten such notables as Stefan Janoski and Rodrigo Tx. in earlier rounds! It took top four finisher Chris Haslam to take out A.J. in the fourth round. Not bad for an unsponsored amateur skateboarder!

The top four skaters were Haslam, Javier Sarmiento, Eric Koston, and P.J. Ladd. Javier was a top six finisher at Koston's Game of SKATE last year and was back in the Semi-Finals once again--this time facing P.J. Ladd--in what many in the crowd claimed was the best match-up of the day.

As the game drew to an end, Eric Koston took out Chris Haslam to set up the ultimate match: P.J. Ladd vs. Eric Koston. After getting the first letter on P.J., Eric slowly took on letter after letter, as the two battled it out in a smile-fest that had the crowd in a fun-filled daze of amazement. Since both skaters are crowd favorites, everyone was rooting for one of them. The bets were flying, and more than a few lost as P.J. eventually took Koston out.

The buzz around the trade show for the rest of the weekend, and at many of the parties that night, centered around this fun-filled event: "The best part of the trade show was Eric Koston's éS Game of SKATE!"