X Games 14 - Street Report - Ryan has been good for so long, I got his back. Anyone who watches the TV show and thinks the kid can’t skate, you are wrong and he proved it today. If you don’t know what TV show we are referring to, then good on ya, y
Ryan has been good for so long, I got his back. Anyone who watches the TV show and thinks the kid can’t skate, you are wrong and he proved it today. If you don’t know what TV show we are referring to, then good on ya, you are too busy living your own life to watch too much TV, next subject.
The X-Games (They hate when you hyphen the name) started out a long time ago with some bunk courses shared by skaters and bikers. They were parks really, it was called skate park right? In 2002 they still had park (at least the park was separate from the bikes then) and introduced ‘Skate Street on the side of the Staples center. No wait they had some real street in Philly on 01’ maybe. Anyway, they have been evolving the course since then and this year it looked pretty sick. The contest consisted of three jams, 7 minutes each in the three zones. All the zones were pretty sick and harder than most skaters could do. Zone 1 was full of ledges, rails and some drops off roofs and stuff. Zone 2 consisted of a gap jump and a wave ledge. The gap seemed to be most pros favorite obstacle. Sheckler went so far as to say it actually was his favorite. Zone three was a sick double set. So the set ups are getting better and this years was nice
For zone one is it was looking like Sheckler, P-rod and Lutzka from the get go and remained so for the rest of the comp. At the awards all three of them were commenting on how hard they push each other. They talked about how they are not so motivated at first but when the bells go off and they got 7 minutes, it’s like a feeding frenzy. It was fun to watch in person, the format was good, the stands were full, the skating was good – good show.
“You feed so much off the other guys, if it was like these 7 minute jams when we were filming video parts we would get our parts done in a day” – Greg Lutzka
Brayden and Chris Cole talking shop before the finals
Ryan Sheckler front blunts in section 1
Paul Rodriguez Sr. mugs it up for the SkateboardRev.com camera
Greg Lutzka kickflips to front board in the first section of the finals
Paul Rodriguez Jr. – switch front blunt, $100,000 richer after the Maloof Money Cup recently, got some more shackle for second place in the 2008 X Games Street
This roof section was also included in zone 1. Here is Ryan Sheckler getting the big drop. It was pretty clear from the get go that Ryan would be a favorite. I asked his dad and brother who they thought would and they looked at me like I was retarded
Sheckler – massive Tre Flip off the roof again, this shot gives a better view of the size of the drop
Moving on to zone, 2 Adam Dyet ollies the gap to gap. The street event was moved this year from the Velodrome at the Home Depot Center to the Event Deck at LA Live which, as you can see is right across the street from the Staples Center. In fact it is located where the old Big Air ramp and “X Festival were” All that stuff is at the Home Depot Center now
Adam Dyet did not seem to be really competing in the Finals but was always skating in practice. Here is a backside 3 off the wave thing which was part of zone 2. By the way Chris Cole 5-0 grinded the whole thing, that was sick and Ryan ollied the gap between the two waves, my favorite trick in practice
Dyet getting pissed after not making a kickflip back 360 ollie. Dyet was actually one of my favorite skaters from the group, him or maybe Lutzka
“Jamie Thomas called Chris Cole and said get retro” – Jason Lee. Chris Cole did indeed get retro on zone 2; it was pretty cool but blew chances of winning
Greg Lutzka front flips the gap
Lutzka again
Last years X Games winner Chris Cole getting some 80’s on
This was one of “the” tricks of the contest, once Sheckler did this kickflip cab, it was clear who the winner would be
P-Rod could easily have won based on the other 2 sections but he did not rip this gap nearly as hard as Sheckler. P-Rod seemed to have the greatest number fans in the crowd and there were not so many psycho Shecker fans this year, a nice change
Welcome to Zone 3
On to zone three which was the double set, Sheckler got right to work with this back smith
Jereme Rogers was in there with tricks like this switch feeble
Greg Lutzka cabs on
Switch Krooked by Rodolfo Ramos
and a switch krooked by P-Rod
Chris Cole got over the retro thing for zone 3 – back tail to 180 out
You know this was something gnarly by Jereme Rogers I want to say switch nollie back lip but not totally sure
Jereme Rogers switch back flips zone 3
P-Rod Jr.
Jereme hooking up a fan
Podium shot, Sheckler was pumped to win. Of course all the guys wanna win but he seems more focused on the win than the other guys. Lutzka seems down right not to care. Kinda like his skating actually, looks totally mellow then he kills!
Lutzka with the Bronze
Ryan talks to a lot of people that probably don’t skate in the press conference but you know what, thats fine. The non-industry pumps a lot of dough into skateboarding so to heck with it
Results:
Womens Street 1- Elissa Steamer 2- Marisa Del Santos 3- Amy Caron 4- Rachel Reinhard 5- Leticia Bufoni 6- Vanessa Torres 8- Evelien Bouilliart 9- Lorena Lima 10- Sophie Poppe
Mens Street 1- Ryan Sheckler 2- Paul Rodriguez 3- Greg Lutzka 4- Chris Cole 5- Rodolfo Ramos 6- Jereme Rogers
