replicant
08-26-2013, 02:47 AM
Just got done watching the Street League Super Crown World Championship 2013 from earlier this evening. Chris Cole gets his 1st SLS World Championship after only a couple stops ago winning his 1st SLS stop win at SLS Munich. Cole is the King of 2nd place since he has gotten it 7 times out of 14 SLS competitions over the past 4 years. He skated very well and his efforts paid off. I am a big Cole fan and this was a long time coming. Nyjah and P-Rod both almost spoiled it for him. Luan to an extent as well, but I'll get into that later.
P-Rod got stuck and bailed on a Switch BS Tailslide on the Hubba which was his final trick attempt that would have won the competition. I admit that I was clenching my fists hoping for him to bail because I prefer Cole and get tired of P-Rod getting over scored for basic switch tricks (I am not proud of this, but I did it anyways. So, there...). Although, Switch is not easy and he has almost completely divorced himself from having a stance at all (Very Mullen-esque in that aspect.). It's pretty damn impressive actually, but for some reason I just don't click with him. I respect his talent, but I find him boring to watch. Nyjah got behind the 8-Ball early in the Flow/Control sections and even though he threw down a phenomenal Impact section it was just a bit short. He was down roughly a full point going into the Impact section and went big, but Cole had enough in his Bag O'Tricks to edge him out.
Luan was so damn close to winning and IMO I think he was honestly robbed of the overall victory. If you compare his Switch trick scores to P-Rod's for example you will see him scoring an average I'd say of about .5 per trick lower and that adds up quickly. Even the judges were a bit with me on that and Rowley was a little vocal about it which made me swell with pride as I have mad respect for Rowley. I've liked Luan ever since seeing him win the 2008 Damn AM Finals and he has grew a lot this year in SLS. No disrespect to my fellow US skaters and other skaters of the world, but no other country has a better style than Brazil when it comes to skateboarding. Luan Oliveira, Pedro Barros, or Leticia Bufoni can prove it to you if you don't believe me. :p For the record my favorite skater for sheer "STYLE" is Ben Raybourn who I could watch skate anything and not be bored. He's a Texas-Cali transplant so you see someone from the US can have style too. :D
The rest of the field ranged from a janky mess to "WTF?! Really?". Mikey was loveable as always, but was just too outmatched to make a dent. T-Pud was doing cool stuff and having fun, but he actually I think was too stoned to remember he was in a competition. Malto and O'Neill were doing some impressive trick combinations, but unfortunately were plagued by consistency issues when it was truly needed.
My Fave trick of the competition was a FS Half-Cab FS Bluntslide to Fakie by Cole down the Big Section 6-Set Hubba. An easy runner-up trick as my favorite was Luan Oliveira pulling off a Frontside Flip Disaster on the 10' Quarter in the Control Section. It was nice to see Shane O'Neill almost land his Switch Double 360 Flip again which is still one of my favorite tricks of the season. He landed it at the Portland SLS stop and scored a 9.9 with it. I think it was Geoff Rowley who nicknamed it the "Hummingbird" which isn't a bad name for it because of the crazy flips and rotations.
~Final Results~
1. Chris Cole - 52.8 (2013 SLS Champion)
2. Nyjah Huston - 52.4
3. Luan Oliveira - 49.3
4. Paul Rodriguez Jr - 44.8
5. Sean Malto - 35.5
6. Shane O'Neill - 24.8
7. Torey Pudwill (Eliminated - Control Section)
8. Mikey Taylor (Eliminated - Flow Section)
P-Rod got stuck and bailed on a Switch BS Tailslide on the Hubba which was his final trick attempt that would have won the competition. I admit that I was clenching my fists hoping for him to bail because I prefer Cole and get tired of P-Rod getting over scored for basic switch tricks (I am not proud of this, but I did it anyways. So, there...). Although, Switch is not easy and he has almost completely divorced himself from having a stance at all (Very Mullen-esque in that aspect.). It's pretty damn impressive actually, but for some reason I just don't click with him. I respect his talent, but I find him boring to watch. Nyjah got behind the 8-Ball early in the Flow/Control sections and even though he threw down a phenomenal Impact section it was just a bit short. He was down roughly a full point going into the Impact section and went big, but Cole had enough in his Bag O'Tricks to edge him out.
Luan was so damn close to winning and IMO I think he was honestly robbed of the overall victory. If you compare his Switch trick scores to P-Rod's for example you will see him scoring an average I'd say of about .5 per trick lower and that adds up quickly. Even the judges were a bit with me on that and Rowley was a little vocal about it which made me swell with pride as I have mad respect for Rowley. I've liked Luan ever since seeing him win the 2008 Damn AM Finals and he has grew a lot this year in SLS. No disrespect to my fellow US skaters and other skaters of the world, but no other country has a better style than Brazil when it comes to skateboarding. Luan Oliveira, Pedro Barros, or Leticia Bufoni can prove it to you if you don't believe me. :p For the record my favorite skater for sheer "STYLE" is Ben Raybourn who I could watch skate anything and not be bored. He's a Texas-Cali transplant so you see someone from the US can have style too. :D
The rest of the field ranged from a janky mess to "WTF?! Really?". Mikey was loveable as always, but was just too outmatched to make a dent. T-Pud was doing cool stuff and having fun, but he actually I think was too stoned to remember he was in a competition. Malto and O'Neill were doing some impressive trick combinations, but unfortunately were plagued by consistency issues when it was truly needed.
My Fave trick of the competition was a FS Half-Cab FS Bluntslide to Fakie by Cole down the Big Section 6-Set Hubba. An easy runner-up trick as my favorite was Luan Oliveira pulling off a Frontside Flip Disaster on the 10' Quarter in the Control Section. It was nice to see Shane O'Neill almost land his Switch Double 360 Flip again which is still one of my favorite tricks of the season. He landed it at the Portland SLS stop and scored a 9.9 with it. I think it was Geoff Rowley who nicknamed it the "Hummingbird" which isn't a bad name for it because of the crazy flips and rotations.
~Final Results~
1. Chris Cole - 52.8 (2013 SLS Champion)
2. Nyjah Huston - 52.4
3. Luan Oliveira - 49.3
4. Paul Rodriguez Jr - 44.8
5. Sean Malto - 35.5
6. Shane O'Neill - 24.8
7. Torey Pudwill (Eliminated - Control Section)
8. Mikey Taylor (Eliminated - Flow Section)