STREET LEAGUE GLENSDALE ARIZONA

By Egan Click

This is the last and final stop of street league before the finals.  And was it a big one.  First off, I never thought I would be blogging about skateboarding.  Second, I love skateboarding.  Finally, I don't think this even fits with this blogs format ha.  Who knew a bunch of nerds, writers and artists would like a sport?  Well the only one I follow is skateboarding and for good reasons.  I grew up with it.

http://espn.go.com/action/skateboarding/streetleague/2012/story/_/id/8169104/glendale-ariz-finals-paul-rodriguez-wins

There is a lot to skateboarding that I could bring you up to speed but even Street League needs to be properly introduced.  Street League was started by Rob Dydrek.  Yes there are other well known skateboarding competitions and besides the Dew Tour, this is the only one that is an actual series of competitions.   Big prize money and Big corporate sponsors.  I am all for it.  There is 28 pro skaters that compete to get into the finals.  The finals consists of three sections (Run, Best Trick, Big Section.)  Each skaterboarder is amazing in their own "Style."


Nyjah Huston has won pretty much every Street League event besides last years finals and two others (6/10 is his ratio.)  He is only 17 and the youngest professional in the "league."  It's interesting that they promote this like any other sporting event and that's why I support these competitions.  Yes, skateboarding was always an alt-culture but boo hoo to you outlying assholes.  We need to get peoples attention and show that we aren't some band of misfits.  This is a sport, it's competitive, and built around one upmanship.  So let's raise the stakes.
Shane Oneil from Australia steals the show in the first two sections.  The run section is a little unbalanced (in my opinion) but I am glad it is included because it's the traditional skateboarding competition.  this is how X Games does it and Maloof.  It's how every other extreme sport is calculated and it's great to see these professionals link together some very big tricks and technical.  You'll here that a lot in skateboarding.  What does technical even mean?  Well, first off, a tricks technical awesomeness is judged on it's difficulty.  Board rotation is technical.  Body rotation is technical.  Stance (switch, nollie, fakie, regular) is a big factor in techiness and also "style."  Style can mean a few things but it is mostly determined by a skateboarders ability to launch, stick, and land the trick smoothly or with steez (badassery.)
The best trick section had something like 4 Nine club entries.  Nine Club means that they got scored by a panel of judges (LIKE THE OLYMPICS), and their trick was in the top ten percentile.  Switch kickflip lipside by P-Rod.  Feeble varial heel by P-Rod.  270 Nose slide by Cole.  Oneil had a nollie krook flip to rail slide for a 9.5.  Just completely amazing to watch and it really proves that these competitors are trying to either get into the Finals, make some money, or even be pushing skateboarding.
P-Rod wins who is the son of the famous comedian, Paul Rodriguez.  He dominated the big section which is where the skateboarders accumulate all their points because they widdled down the final contestants from 8 to 6.  It's his first win and just last week he won X Games Gold for street as well.  Even though I am really up and into skateboarding, I still get amazed what these guys can do first try.


My only problem with the win is P-Rod is a boring skateboarder.  Chris Cole and Oneil really innovate skateboarding.  Luan Oliveria pushes it as well.  P-Rod really only skates technical.  Everything he does is switch.  I am not saying switch is not hard because it's like trying to write a novel left handed or with an inverted keyboard.  But being a professional, switch becomes comfortable.  Possibly just as comfortable as skating their regular stance.  Skating has two ways to skate (Regular or Goofy).  Regular has your left hand facing the front of the board and Goofy has your right.  Then their is regular stance and switch stance.  Doing a trick switch is technical but my question is "Does it make the trick better?"  I would usually say yes.  I would always say yes if the trick was first done regular.  If you can do it both ways, then the trick switch is really worth it's weight in gold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkHKwsMbFd0I'm glad (and every one else) is glad Nyjah Huston lost.  He is a prodigy and we all hope he sticks to skateboarding.  Holy cow I can't even imagine.  But if skateboarding is going to start replacing baseball (I hope) we need some new faces.  Possibly even teams


Now how to review this.
Pros
-Skateboarding is fun to watch.  Also slams do happen for you masochists.
-Technical
-Professionalism
Cons
-Oneil should have won
-Consistency is rated over Creativity/Innovation
-Still needs a few other pros to have all star "league"
Suggestions
-Teams (Plan B, Girl, etc.)
-Try to reach other stadiums.
-Longer season or more frequent stops.