Chris Cole Reigns Supreme in a Skate Street Final Full of Rebellion

Aug 05 2006 / Los Angeles, CA

Skate Street is all wrapped up and Chris Cole is walking away with the gold around his neck.  Putting together a run consisting almost entirely of no-complys and airwalks, Chris then went on to show the manual pads/ledges, pyramid, and four-stair set a good time.  Ryan Sheckler came in second and Andrew Reynolds skated his way to third place.

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There was plenty of action in the skate street finals, but there was an overwhelming display of apathy from almost all parties involved (with the exception of the young guns, Sheckler & Nyjah Houston).  Everyone skated through their runs with ease, rarely overextending themselves and not doing too much aggressive pushing.  The course doesn't favor speed & consistency, being mostly split up into three sections, but the only skater who seemed to be really trying was Sheckler.

Everyone seemed to be trying to enjoy themselves, and when tricks did get thrown down, they were pretty amazing - Chris Cole's highlights were a backside 360 kickflip down the four-set and a varial/boneless variation where he planted his back foot on the fencing while airing out of the pyramid and over the fence into the velodrome racetrack that surrounded the course.  This same spontaneously invented gap saw Billy Marks' no-comply, Sheckler's frontside flip, Koston's perfect backside flip, and a lot of confusion & reprimanding from the Home Depot Center staff who said that any activity on the velodrome (including walking) was STRICTLY prohibited.  This did not seem to sway anyones intentions in the slightest, and the session went on.

The four-set/rail/ledge section was the highlight of the competition (save all of Cole's airwalks) and it saw the most action by far.  Paul Rodriguez: nollie noseblunt; Houston: kickflip backlip, kickflip backside smith; Jereme Rogers: half cab flip, switch crooked grind, bluntslide to fakie, switch backlip; Reynolds: frontside half cab kickflip, backside heelflip, swich frontside lipslide; Lutzga's gorgeous 270 to frontside bluntslide on the rail; Sheckler's hardway 270 to backlip on the rail; and Cole's backside 270 to boardslide on the rail.  In fact, Cole destroyed this section - making up for the certain level of perceived lack of interest he displayed on the other sections - with a crazy boneless variation on the ledge, a nollie heelflip over the set, and a frontside bluntslide on the ledge all adding to the glory of the backside 360 kickflip.

In the end, all seemed to work out - the standings were just and the skating was enjoyable.  The crowd loved the fence gap session and the stair session kept everyone firmly on the edge of their seat (or off it completely) for the entire duration of the action-packed 15 minutes.

- Cody Allen