2007 Playstation Pro: Street and Vert Finals Results - Ryan Sheckler is the 2007 AST Dew Tour Champ - Ryan Sheckler won the PlayStation® Pro Prelims on Friday, securing a comfortable position for Finals, but his Finals competition put the pressure on
2007 Playstation Pro: Street and Vert Finals Results
Ryan Sheckler is the 2007 AST Dew Tour Champ
Ryan Sheckler won the PlayStation® Pro Prelims on Friday, securing a comfortable position for Finals, but his Finals competition put the pressure on right from the start. By the end of the first of two rounds, Sheckler was way down in 8th place – at risk of missing the top-six cut for the final jam session altogether.
Ahead of him – the biggest surprise of the night and one of the best stories to come out of the 2007 Dew Tour – was 13-year-old amateur skater Chaz Ortiz, the Free Flow Tour contest winner from Chicago who won wildcard entry into the PlayStation Pro Prelims, where he skated to 5th place and a chance to compete in Finals.
Dew Tour fans and folks who’ve been following his hit show Life of Ryan know Sheckler works well under pressure: In signature form, he pulled it together in his second run, bumping all the way up to 1st place and knocking Austen Seaholm out of the top six.
That left Brazilian skaters Rodil Araujo Jr., Carlos De Andrade, and Fabrizio Santos in the mix, along with Sheckler’s close friend and skate nemesis Greg Lutzka . Ortiz made the cut too, coming in on the cusp at number six to continue his enchanted trip to Orlando.
“We’re good friends, we’re here to have fun, and this is what skateboarding is all about,” said Lutzka.
In the Dew Tour Finals contest format, the top six skaters advance to two rounds of chaotic jam sessions and different sections of the Skate Park course. Sheckler’s been dominating in the sessions for the last three years and is awfully hard to beat in a free-form jam, but huge rail tricks helped Lutzka make a big leap from 4th place all the way up to number 1 after the first round, followed by Sheckler, Araujo, Santos, and Ortiz.
Earlier in the year, after winning the first three stops of the 2007 AST Dew Tour one after another, Sheckler dared to boast of his dreams of winning all five. Lutzka shut him down in Portland at the Vans Invitational. The two pros are close friends and former teammates from the Almost Skateboards team. Ever since Sheckler departed for the Plan B team, their contest rivalry seems to have been heating up.
The two skaters couldn’t be more different. Sheckler’s powerful, muscular style big airs and huge tricks have helped fuel three year’s worth of Dew Tour dominance and his huge popularity with skate fans and young ladies alike. Lutzka is lanky and laid-back, lounging around the course in a fedora – his tricks are every bit as big and as technical as Sheckler’s, but his style is more about subtlety and finesse – and he was hitting huge tricks all over the place here in Orlando, including a frontside noseblunt slide down the biggest rail on the PlayStation Pro course.
This must have been one of the most difficult contests of all time, from a judging perspective: All six skaters were on fire, and the call between Sheckler and Lutzka couldn’t have been closer. Sheckler missed more tricks, but hit a couple of huge ones, like 360 kickflip to flat; Lutzka seemed invincible, then took the hardest hit of the night coming down the big rail. In the end, it was Lutzka on top, Sheckler in 2nd, and Araujo in 3rd, followed by Santos, De Andrade, and Ortiz.
Sheckler sealed up his third consecutive Dew Cup championship with his Toyota Challenge win last month in Salt Lake City. That took some of the pressure off him coming into Orlando for the final stop of the 2007 AST Dew Tour, but Sheckler made it known he was skating to win, in pursuit of Dew Tour Athlete of the Year honors.
Sheckler was too stoked on his Dew Cup win and too happy for his friend to be disappointed. Lutzka’s PlayStation Pro win pushed him into 2nd place in the overall Dew Tour Standings. Rodolfo Ramos ended up 3rd in the 2007 overall standings, with Seaholm and De Andrade rounding out the top five.
“It’s all good,” said Sheckler, after the contest. “Greg had a pretty big fall, so I’m just glad he got back up and destroyed it out there.”
Vert Finals Results
1st Lasek, Bucky 95.5 2nd Gagnon, Pierre-Luc 94 3rd White, Shaun 91 4th Macdonald, Andy 88.25 5th Furlong, Anthony 83.75 6th Postec, Jean 83.25 7th Taylor, Adam 82.25 8th Dias, Sandro 71.75 9th Burnquist, Bob 68.5 10th Mayer, Danny 65.25
Street Finals Results
1st Lutzka, Greg 90.83 2nd Sheckler, Ryan 89.58 3rd Araujo Jr., Rodil 85.08 4th Santos, Fabrizio 84.33 5th De Andrade, Carlos 81.92 6th Ortiz (A), Chaz 80.42 7th Seaholm, Austen 81.75 8th Fuenzalida, Danny 81 9th Barr, Jason 77.25 10th Peterson, Mike 76.5 11th Ramos, Rodolfo 75.25 12th Parent, Thomas ---
Overall Street Results
1- Ryan Sheckler - 450 points 2- Greg Lutzka - 356 points 3- Rodolfo Ramos - 277 points 4- Austen Seaholm - 242 points 5-- Carlos de Andrade - 224 points 6- Fabrizio Santos - 224 points 7- Kurtis Colamonico - 167 points 8- Tulio de Olivera - 164 points 9- Danny Fuenzalida - 146 points 10- Mike Peterson - 137 points
Ryan Sheckler at the Skate Park Finals PlayStation® Pro Orlando 2007
