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| PAYDAY!!! The Maloof Money Cup |
| BLKPRJKT |
The tireless Joe Ciaglia gets the horns of approval from D Way.
The brothers Maloof getting stoked on some very heavy skating.
Big fat vert.
Surprising Opener---
The Maloof Money Cup. People have been talking about this thing since it's inception, and predominantly in the negative realm. After 13 years of the bad taste of the x games in our mouths, why wouldn't we be critical of yet another outside influence entering the skateboarding world? After a decade plus of corporate fuckballs buying their way into skateboarding, only to attempt to homogenize it and re-package it, all for the sake of selling advertising during a televised, canned stunt show. And as much as we would like to see our best and brightest have a decent payday for schlepping around Staples and the Home Depot center for 4 days, the end product is still the same, the bastardization of skateboarding to meet the goals of a boardroom full of executive buttfucks. The "death" and subsequent "re-birth" of the vert competition for this year's x-gayness is the punctuation mark on just how lame that whole spectacle really is. Enter the Maloof brothers. Owners of the Palms resort in Vegas as well as the Sacramento Kings. Immediately the red flags began to rise, for the aforementioned reasons. Our website had it's fair share of comments calling bullshit on their plan, and that's no big surprise. In the year that it took to bring this event into existence, most of us were highly critical. I was skeptical right up until MRZ showed me some photos 4 days prior to the event. It was at this point that I began to understand the vast difference between this event, and anything that had ever been done before. All purse money and media madness aside, the sheer scope of the vert ramp and street course built by JT and CA Skateparks for this event left no doubt that this thing was going to be a serious deal. And when I walked into the arena early Saturday, I needed no other confirmation. This was going to be mostly about skateboarding and money. Period.
The chicks ripped hard! Amy Caron bangs out a back lip with authority.
Lacey Baker skated away with $25,000 and some serious bragging rights. Tre Flip.
Adam Taylor destroyed his back with a vicious slam during qualifying, but he still came out and took a couple of walls in the finals. One tough kid with a very bright future!
Not only did Dustin Blauvelt annihilate the competition to win the Am street contest, this kid has insane tranny skills to boot. 16 stair Smith on lock.
These damned Brasilenos! Relentless and gnarly, Pedro Barros killed it to take home 1st place in the Am vert event.
The nuts and the bolts---
The events ran something like this: Pro, Am, and women's divisions in both Street and Vert, and a big game of S.K.A.T.E. Top money for the Pro men was as follows: S.K.A.T.E.-$15,000, Vert- $75,000 plus a Ford Flex SUV and a $10,000 Nixon watch, and for Street- $100,000 plus another $10,000 Nixon watch. That's just for first place. If I was more of a pimp, I'd be digging on the sick 10K Nixon watch, but since I usually get turned away at all of the hottest nightspots, I'll leave that diamond encrusted bling to the young and the beautiful. Add to all of this, World Industries putting up an additional 30 grand for the Am street event. Paydays like this don't just come along everyday in skateboarding. Basically, the cash purse alone totaled over half a million bucks. And if you watch the telecast this Sunday on CBS you'll get a taste of how much money was spent on top of that, to pull this thing off. The amazing temporary concrete street courses, complete with landscaping and foliage. The creatively-designed vert ramp. The Maloof brothers didn't spare any expense, and regardless of how you might feel about contests, the respect for skateboarding and the people who do it best was something special, if only for a brief moment in time.
You see those 3 blue shirts back there? That represents one sixteenth of Sheckler's security entourage. Front krookage.
The "little kid" no more, Nyjah is now officially a man. Tre Flip down the C-bad gap.
P-God, er, uh, excuse me... P-Rod delivers a 16 stair front feeble with a high degree of "I could really get hurt pretty bad doing this."
At age 32 Mike Carrol is still significantly better than almost everyone else. The EMB might only be an ethereal memory now, but this dude will last forever.
Busenitz was passing 2-3 guys on the way down to get hits in like this frontal nose blunt. Lightning fast, and drawing lines. I don't care who got the money, Dennis was authentic and core. Where others simply stopped and picked up their decks, Dennis just kept skating.
"I'll take 4 plates of frog legs please..." Actually, I highly doubt Chris Cole was dining on amphibian limbs in preparation for sticking just about every street trick that currently exists. 40 G's heavier, Cole can afford some serious haute' cuisine right about now.
The nuts on skateboards---
I purposely sought out Chuck Hults to be my personal color commentary partner for all of the events. Chuck has been in it forever and he appreciates the broader spectrum, vert AND street equally. We hand-picked a perfect set of seats in the stands for the vert and street events, surrounded by folks who are far less-informed. We probably seemed like the biggest assholes on the planet to these aliens, cheering for the tricks that mattered and scoffing at the ones that didn't. For example, Danny Mayer's low-to-high kickflip frontside air disaster on the extension had us screaming our lungs out, while the flying tomatillo's front 540 rodeo flip to monster truck heavy landing on the setback bank prompted more than one of us to yell "STOP SNOWBOARDING!!!" Chuck's running commentary had us in stitches and most of the photo captions are greatly influenced by his excellent analysis. Now I could sit back and be the pure negatron in my analysis of the skateboarding that went down at the Maloof event, but since I had a nice time there, and they served alcohol, I'm choosing mostly to describe the best and brightest shit. As far as the vert was concerned, a couple of brilliant moves stand out in my mind, and oddly enough they were all performed by guys who didn't finish in either 1st or 2nd place. Lincoln Ueda's alley-oop kickflip Indy about 11 feet out, Bob Burnquist's ridiculous switch one-footed ollie from the setback to to truck bash on the extension, Bucky Lasek's back lip transfer on the deck rail, Navarette's elegant slow rotating fully inverted 540's, and last but not least, young Alex Perelson showing the smoothness, power and style that will one day make him better than anyone has ever been. Old man Neal Hendrix was on fire as well, the guy skated like he was 19 again. Sick! The new 8-wall format, free of live television commercial interruption was definitely working, the skating was spontaneous, and with a 50 minute jam, guys had ample time to display a wider sample of their game. The canned run format is dead, Although one guy in particular hasn't quite figured that out yet. In the end, P.L.G. drove away in a new ford and 75K richer. He beat out the tomato, and held off Bucky, who coincidentally reeled off his first ever 720 at this event. I think that 4th place Danny Mayer along with Lincoln were my 2 favorite dudes to watch. Hults is already hard at work on a heat shield for Lincoln's decks to keep them from flaming out on re-entry into the atmosphere. One of these days I'm going to steal the judging sheets for a comparative analysis, but for now all I can do is stand by my own opinions and wonder just how much it must suck to be a judge.
I've been drinking vitamin water for years but D Way is still way out in front of me.
Alex Perelson has a style and fluidity that rivals Hosoi, and on a Creature deck no less.
This lien 360 is brought to you by Danny Mayer, as part of his blistering assault on our brains.
What you can't see here is actually quite important. Bucky Lasek ollied from a setback wall roughly 18 feet from where this nosegrind is currently taking place.
Sportsman of the year---
"I guess I was the polite guy."-Shaun White. True enough, polite guys throw down their boards in disgust and have temper tantrums when they can't hang with an open jam format. Polite guys also throw their arms in the air after each successful run and pump fists. This shit is a lot like a guy admiring his home run in a baseball game. If you're looking for a nice symphony of chin music, that's sure one way to get it. Fortunately for Rocky the Carrot, the rest of the guys up there are much bigger sportsmen than that. Those little tirades were the absolute lowlight of the event, even worse than the plates of fried frog legs.
There's a flag on the play, and it looks as if Shaun White has been fined $37,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Wild in the streets---
The Pro street division held my attention like no other street event ever has. I know that this is largely due to two distinct things. For one, the street course built by CA Skateparks was built for high performance and included replicas of actual spots out in the world. Secondly, the riders list included not just the over saturated rock star street pros, but a lot of guys who have been laying it down heavily for a decade plus, far from the strobes and death lenses. Mike Carrol might be considered an elder statesman in the realm of street skating, but being one of the best ever, he is still right on top of it all. Mike, Dennis Busenitz, Bryan Herman and the tenacious Leo Romero were pretty much the only dudes going upstream like so many spawning salmon. Leo, Bryan, and Mike didn't make the finals but along with Dennis, they showed how creative and adaptive skateboarding can and should be. Busenitz was the thinking man's shredder, drawing lines throughout the entire arena. If you were looking for the guy who was going to bust the switch flip krooks down 16 stairs, Dennis ain't him, but if you wanted raw speed, power, and endless energy combined with a deep bag of stunts, that was all you needed to see. As far as the finals went, it was pretty tight between 5 guys. Scheckler, P-Rod, Darrel Stanton, Chris Cole, and Nyjah Huston. It was looking at times, like a handrail game of S.K.A.T.E. with dudes one-upping each other and putting it all on the line. Nyjah has started growing, and with size comes power, and the pint-sized kid novelty has been safely put to rest. P-Rod was typically solid, and in his natural form was landing everything with authority and in his trademark style. Scheckler had to leave his armada of video people and security goons on the sidelines when the heats got rolling. Watching him skate, his skills almost supersede the rock star TV tard bullshit. It makes you wonder what he might be like without the fanfare, without the minions of 9-year old girls fantasizing about making out with him and letting him get to second base. Darrel Stanton took his game to a new level out there. I don't know if it was the cash on the line, or Darrel is nowhere near his peak just yet, but this kid is unreal. Soft spoken, but heavy and ready to rumble. For a minute or two I had him winning it all on my scorecard, and I imagine Darrel is just getting started. Chris Cole. What can I say about this guy? Well, he cut the hesh hair off and dispensed with the headbands some time ago, and that's a good thing. Cole is just one of those guys, a lot like Rune Glifberg, who can just keep raising the bar on everybody. I thought he took the whole thing home, but apparently I must have been watching some other contest. I know that 4 X $7 Coors lights weren't enough to cloud my perceptions this badly. Chris Cole ended up in 3rd, behind 2nd place Nyjah, and P-Rod, the crowned winner.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to now believe that P.L.G. stands for Paul Loves God, and perhaps some sort of covert christian agenda was at play. The realist in me says Admiral Tojo just might enjoy this Nippon air.
True to his porphyriac state of being, the Vertical Vampire avoids the sun and stalks his victims at night. Navs kicking out the jams.
MRZ is an artist. Bob casually floats a switch mute fakie in the late afternoon.
End run---
Given that this was the inaugural Maloof event, it went far better than anyone could have expected. If I could offer suggestions for improvement, I have but a scant few. First and foremost, if they can find a way to construct permanent structures to leave behind for skaters after the event, this would be the greatest gift the Maloofs could give skateboarding. Even the x-lames donated a vert ramp or two to local skateparks in the past, so it's not logistically impossible. To see all of that sick terrain reduced to rubble less than 24 hours after the event is a difficult thing to swallow. I'd also like to recommend that comedian Paul Rodriguez never again be allowed to announce during any skate event at any time. As Chris Pastras was trying to call tricks to keep the crowd informed, Paul was shouting over him, providing such intelligent comments as "Holy cow, that was a spicy churro!!!" Other than that I don't have too much to offer. I had planned on being insanely critical, but the event largely lived up to the hype. The best part is, it made the x-games look even lamer than they already do. I think Don Bostick said it best, "The best thing about this, is that I get to come out here for a week of skateboarding, and I don't have to listen to fucking stupid motorcycles and rally cars whizzing around." Big thanks to the Maloof brothers for showing us some serious respect! There is already talk of next year and the distinct possibility of a concrete pool contest being added to the schedule. We've got our fingers crossed. Joe Ciaglia and Brian Pino and the entire CA Skateparks crew worked 24 hours a day for 2 weeks to build an amazing environment for skateboarding and even in their fatigued state by event's end, both Brian and Joe were excited about doing much more next year. That's how dedicated these guys are, and it's that type of dedication skateboarding desperately needs. My hat is off to you guys. I'm done. Watch the thing on TV this Sunday, 12PM CBS, make your own decisions.
P.L.G. Pro vert champ.
Parting shot: Lincoln Ueda must be fireproof. A re-entry like this doomed the Columbia when it's heat shield malfunctioned. Large mute.
Check the MRZ Galleries:
Maloof Money Cup Photo Gallery
Complete results here:
Maloof Money Cup Official Site
-BLKPRJKT / PHOTOS MRZ |
Friday 18th 2008f July 2008 07:48
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