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| MALOOF MONEY CUP 2 / TRUTHS AND LIES |
| BLKPRJKT |
Appropriate lead-in photo for context...
...and something to help you recover, if only a little bit, from that one. Hey at least the muffin top is much more subtle.
Opening Statements---
This coverage is being written under moderate duress. To my horror and distaste, I received a jury summons some weeks ago. Imagine coming off of one of the better weekends for skateboarding and jumping right into not only having to appear, but ending up as juror #1 in a protracted domestic violence trial. Now that's what I call a downer. "...and justice for some" is how I sometimes view it. But I will endeavor to bring you not only some totally biased and opinionated reportage of the Maloof event, but I will also be attempting to be utterly impartial in a court room all week. And if I'm lucky, by the time this article goes to press I will no longer be a temporary servant of the county criminal court system. I'm all for civic duty and patriotism, it's just bad fucking timing, dig?
Mandatory goat sack inspection.
What would a pro skateboarding event be without a severe fingerboarding contest?
Mo Money, Mo Money---
2nd annual, 2nd ever, whatever. The Maloof family brought the Money Cup back to the OC this year, exactly as promised. I think both Joe and Gavin repeatedly said last year that this year would be even bigger and even better. And as cynical and suspicious as my feeble mind can be, I have to confirm that they delivered exactly what they promised on several levels. I'm not a big fan of contests, especially huge, media-rich events in which skateboarding gets overshadowed by the glitz, the hype, and the overall extreme-ness. Pound for pound, we all know the best skateboarding happens far from the spotlight, the limelight, and the big made-for-TV HMI lights. At least best from the perspective that it breaks all of the rules and conforms to nothing other than itself. We cover a fair amount of contests over here and to some people, that sucks. It's newsworthy from our perspective, if only to share something with the masses that they otherwise couldn't witness themselves. Yeah, we know, live webcasts handle part of that business for them. But sometimes we want to offer a different opinion than the highly commercialized commentary and nonsense that accompanies such an event, if only to say what we think needs to be said. Hell, maybe some people are just plain tired of Duncan's voiceover, but that's up to them to decide. So, brave reader, if you're up to the mental task, we offer you now, the backing documentation for why the Maloof event was better this year, along with some constructive criticism, and hell maybe even a little out and out trash talk. This is concrete disciples after all, if we didn't talk shit, it just wouldn't feel right. That said, much has been made of the temporary nature of the set-up, and how the Maloof event is such a waste. I agree, on some levels. What must be understood however, is that it literally takes years to get approval for the construction of a permanent municipal facility, and the process isn't flexible. No one ever seems to bring up this beef with the x-games, or the now-defunct soul bowl. In an ideal scenario I would like to see the Maloofs step up and put some money into helping get more public facilities built, perhaps through a grant program. If they truly love skateboarding as much as they claim, this is the next logical step after paying out purses that approach the level they should have been on for years. In this economy, public funding is drying up overnight, and municipal skatepark construction is very low on the priority list when it comes to spending on a city level. Time will tell just how down they are for us.
To say that Peter Ramondetta ripped is a vast understatement, this is an up and over back smith with power.
Is that Torey Pudwill? Fuck. Gnar kid!
Some people might ask, "why a photo of TNT when he didn't make the finals?" Simple, dipshit, just look at this gap to lip. Duh.
Laborers of Love---
California Skateparks once again drew the death card and opted to build out the Maloof setup for the second year in a row. For Joe Ciaglia, Brian Pino, Colby Carter, the rest of the CSP crew, all you need to know is that they go at it for 10 straight days and nights and barely sleep. Then for 3 days, they sort of rest, aside from course and ramp maintenance which is needed during the actual event, and by 9 pm on Sunday they are already demo-ing the whole thing. Without CSP's involvement, this event could never come close to the level it occupies, it's just that simple. This year's mystery guest obstacle designer was none other than Liverpool's favorite son and 2000 Thrasher SOTY, Geoff Rowley. Each of the street obstacles was designed to mimic an actual feature out in the real world, aside from minor scale changes, the omission of imperfections and the standard law enforcement hassles, that is. The vert ramp / mini-mega combo was also truly a work of art which produced a very high caliber of skating. The CSP stuff is epic, and they deserve all of the credit in the world for everything they do. As to the aforementioned complaints about the park tear-down, keep in mind that CSP does recycle many of the elements used at the Maloof event and installs them in their municipal park projects.
Tommy Sandoval handled 2nd place, but he pretty much should have been given several thousand extra dollars for raw effort and tenacity, on top of his vast winnings in the pro street category, like CEO bonus style.
Best Trick winner Adam Dyet.
Snoop's Upside Ya Head and Dude, Back Da Fuck Up---
Are you fucking kidding me? Snoop Dogg emerging from a dank haze to perform live at the Maloof Money Cup? The Meanest dog to ever emerge from the LBC laid it down for a solid 20 minutes. Snoop's blinged out mic was badass, and his entourage of sharkskin-suited homies kept the crowd in check. What no one could have predicted was that moments later Kobe Bryant and his wife entered the arena, surrounded by an army of security guards and OC sheriffs. Since Chuck Hults and I are such suave lady killers, Kobe's girl made a bee-line for us and sat a mere 2 seats away. I don't fan out on anything or anybody, least of all an NBA star but it was worth wasting 1.3 megapixels on my camera phone, even if the majority of my composition is the large arm of the law. Thankfully Kobe and his girl relocated soon after, leaving Chuck and I to watch the street semis in peace without being trampled by a bunch of suck-up fucks and large authority figures. No sooner did things ease back towards the business at hand, when that recent retiree, I mean quitter, Jereme Rogers suddenly appeared. I thought heavy rap dudes always had an entourage, but where was his? Oh. Right. Maybe he was trying to roll incognito.
For all you Lakers fans, Kobe Bryant closer to me than I would have liked. Hey cop, nice watch.
Quitter and Shitter.
Snoops upside ya head.
Omar skated the qualifier on the mini mega, but he got injured and couldn't continue. This is one of the gnarliest things to go down on the rail all weekend though, feeble to fakie. O'Gnar!
TNT and offspring.
Maloof Money Brothers.
Get to the Fucking Skateboarding Already---
The body politic in skateboarding has become a stench-producing rotten corpse, the ghost of skateboarding contests past, perhaps. How else would you explain huge scores going to street dudes who completely avoid 2 of the 3 areas in zone 1 for example? And consider on top of this, that in the vert events, the mini-mega was a mandatory, and represented 33% of a rider's total scoring. How does that balance out? Vert guy has no choice but to man up. Rail champ "A" can't handle a bump/gap/picnic table or a incline corner ledge and simply doesn't touch them. And oddly enough, a few of the biggest marketable names in the game weren't down-scored for pussing out on these items? Yeah, something stinks for sure. It didn't really affect the top 2 street placings taken by Chris Cole and Tommy Sandoval but beyond that, some serious discrepancies exist between my mental scoring sheet and the official one. We all know it's never going to be 100% legit right? So here are my "dudes who got burned" for the street finals:
11th place Peter Ramondetta-- Pete was on fire all weekend, literally, suffering from heat exhaustion, and vomiting all over the course, but he absolutely destroyed and should have gotten no less than 5th.
8th place David Gonzales -- This kid was just gnarly, there is no other way to describe it, he should have taken 6th at least.
4th place Torey Pudwill -- The Pud was beyond impressive, and I had him ahead of Nyjah on my sheet with room to spare.
This shit happens. It always has, and it always will. Fair and impartial judging is a rare commodity, perhaps only found in courtrooms. I think the thing that bothers me most is dudes that have only one gear in the box. With all due respect to the technical difficulty of some of the stuff they throw down, 2 miles per hour just doesn't cut it. Call me old and washed up all you want, but skateboarding was never meant to be slow, period. 2 words: Dennis Busenitz. He represents what skateboarding needs, and at the speeds that he travels at, everything is just that much better. 2 more important words would be Alex Olson. In spite of the scoring fiasco though, the street skateboarding overall was super heavy duty to watch. As far as the vert event was concerned, some very excellent surprises were in store, and only a few minor disappointments. I was a bit confused about the mandatory mini-mega ramp part of the event, especially since only the rainbow rail portion of the mini-mega was scored. Then again, it was forcing some guys into new and uncomfortable challenges which is always healthy, if for nothing else, the sake of progression. Rune has been injured lately and didn't make it to the finals. His presence was sorely missed in the final, along with high flyer Lincoln Ueda. At one point during qualifying, Lincoln attempted to reel in a nearly 14 foot high body jar coming in off of the mini-mega, and left everyone hoping to see him get another crack at it. Aside from these minor discontentments, the pro vert event was heavily loaded with the best stuff. First off, the flying tomato was a no-show. This gave me great pleasure as I didn't need to witness another whiny crybaby temper tantrum like last year. Burnquist skated at a level that seemed to even surpass some of his wildest and best performances through the years, combining his mega ramp skills with 16+ wall runs of pure gnar on the vert. Roll-in on the mini mega to board to fakie on the rail to a 10 foot+ switch stale fish? Ridiculous. Everything Bob does is so wrong, which makes it all very, very right. I thought he and PLG were in a dead heat for 2nd place, really too close to call. The judging on the vert though, was nearly perfect, and the winner was an obvious choice. Everybody killed it, but the biggest and best part of the pro vert final was without a doubt, Alex Perelson. We've been excited about this kid for a really long time along with a few of the other young vert upstarts. It was simply a matter of when and where Alex was going to open a can of whoop-ass on the veteran vert elite. Sunday was his day, and he opted for a 55 gallon drum of extra strength, rather than the smaller household version. The beauty of it was, he already had it handled halfway through the final vert jam, and kept pouring it on until the final horn sounded. Even if you ignore the 900, it would have been nearly impossible to beat him, his voodoo was just that strong. Congratulations Alex, and thank you for raising the bar. Basically, the skateboarding at this year's event was unbelievably good, and once again free of motorbikes, rally cars, and dry-skiing. The fingerboarding contest and Captain and Casey commentary were rather unfortunate, but I'm slowly learning to block stuff out, much like I have to try and un-remember things stricken from the court record. One thing that I'm having trouble purging however, is the Ryan Sheckler "double pits to chesty" axe promos that ran incessantly on the big screen all weekend. Thanks once again Ryan, for making skateboarding look utterly stupid to those who don't know any better, you're 2 for 2 in that department.
The ladies just keep getting gnarlier. Leticia Bufoni going ballistic.
Pedro Berros owned the Am vert division.
Alex Perelson's back smiths were money on the mini mega.
Bucky Lasek. Methodology.
Bob being Bob. He had a little extra in the tank this time around and it definitely showed.
Adam Taylor conducting launch dynamics.
PLG had the goods. I discovered he has quite a good sense of humor, even for a Canadian. Cab nose grind.
A casual Alex Perelson, via long lens.
Closure and Out---
Another Maloof Money Cup is in the books, and once again some big money went out to some very deserving skateboarders, and some very heavy stuff went down. I'd like to say thanks to Chuck Hults, my number one fellow analyst and color commentary assistant at the Maloof for the 2nd year running. A huge thanks goes out to MRZ who slaved relentlessly for 3 days of pure sunstroke conditions to get the goods. Thanks to Tony Trujillo for nailing the first line I thought of when I got there: the roof gap to roll in on the metal 1/4 and several cinderblocks worth of vert. No thanks to the Los Angeles Times who commandeered so many media seats, many in the legit skate media were relegated to SRO, and on the subject of media, some of you skate media guys who bring your kids in to take up those media seats, please show me exactly what the fuck your 9 year old does at your magazine that makes it more important for him to have a reserved media seat than somebody who actually does something like write or shoot photos. Really, I'd like to know. Aside from that, it was all good. I managed to avoid running afoul of Mark Waters and getting "watered down", I got to session the street course for an hour on Sunday morning and I watched the pro finals from a birds-eye seat with Chuck and a couple of rare, lovely Canadian people. I probably spent 120 dollars on beer at 50 cents an ounce over the course of the 3 days, do the math. By the time you read this, the entire street course will have been jackhammered and removed, and the ramps will be long gone. And with any luck, I will have completed my service as a juror. You may choose to believe all or nothing of what you've just read. Good night, and good luck.
Parting Shot: In addition to winning 75K and a blinged out watch, Alex Perelson also received a Jake Brown necklace and a $500 bottle of Dom.
2009 Maloof Money Cup results:
Mens Pro Street Finals
1. Chris Cole
2. Tommy Sandoval
3. Nyjah Huston
4. Torey Pudwill
5. Ryan Sheckler
6. Sean Malto
7. Greg Lutzka
8. David Gonzalez
9. Paul Rodriguez
10. Mark Appleyard
11. Peter Ramondetta
12. Dennis Busenitz
Men’s Am Street Finals
1. Felipe Gustavo
2. Shane O’Neill
3. Ryan Decenzo
4. Abdias Rivera
5. Davis Torgerson
Best Trick Adam Dyet - Kick flip backside tailslide on the Rincon rail
Mens Pro Vert Finals
1. Alex Perelson
2. PLG
3. Bob Burnquist
4. Andy MacDonald
5. Bucky Lasek
Mens Am Vert Finals
1. Pedro Barros
2. Sam Beckett
3. Paul Luc Ronchetti
4. Sam Bosworth
5. Dylan Taylor
Ladies Street Finals
1. Leticia Bufoni
2. Lacey Baker
3. Elissa Steamer
4. Amy Caron
5. Marisa Del Santo
-BLKPRJKT / PHOTOS MRZ |
Thursday 16th 2009f July 2009 06:45
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