In the best display of skateboarding to ever hit New York City all at once, the Maloof Money Cup Finals went off this afternoon underneath grey skies and increasing wind. As the three jam groups were set to start the final section - the stairs and rails - the skies couldn't hold out any longer, and it began to sprinkle a little bit. A quick conversation with the skaters led to the decision to get it going while we could, and the result was almost desperate-feeling jams that had everyone on the edge of their seats. Sean Malto, Peter Ramondetta and Bastien Salabanzi all seemed on the verge of putting it all together as they hit the three sections, but the three top skaters from Saturday's qualifiers maintained their dominance and somehow even managed to step it up a notch.
As the time ticked down in the final jam, the skating was at a feverish pace as announcers Brian Schaefer and Ryan Clements called time, and it was just about a minute later that the rain let loose. It couldn't have been timed any better. The skateboards gods were on our side today: it rained long enough to get everything wet, but then stopped again for the awards.
The results were a slight shuffling of yesterday's P-Rod, Torey, Cole 1-2-3 placing. Torey Pudwill added $25,000 to his Tech Deck Best Trick purse and took third, with amazing tech tricks on every ledge, rail and gap in the Flushing Meadows Corona Skatepark. Paul Rodriguez was doing all his favorites: a perfect switch flip down the 9-stair, switch backside lipslide down the big rail... Actually Paul did so many switch tricks on every obstacle that it's easy to forget how tough those tricks are. The next rain showers were champagne on Chris Cole's head: although it was close, in the end Cole had just a few more makes, including a switch 360 flip down the 9 stairs, a sugar cane on the tech rail, and back-to-back first try bangers on the 9-stair rail.
Stay tuned here for more photos and videos throughout the week - we'll gather links from everywhere and post them here.
Until Orange County in August... Enjoy the skatepark, New York, and keep skating. We'll keep the Maloof Money Cup right on the money.
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2010 NY BLOGS
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