While you and the rest of the country are about to freeze your arses off because winter is just around the corner, the people of Sao Paulo Brazil (and Los Angeles) are living it up with some of the most beautiful weather around.  You may not have known this but them Sao Pauloins held the epic Oi! MegaRamp contest this past weekend and Oi! has a great website up for it.  Results as follows.

Final Results
1. Bob Burnquist
2. Jake Brown
3. Andy MacDonald
4. Buster Halterman
5. Rob Loriface
6. Adam Taylor

Best Trick
Bob Burnquist

Highest Air
Jake Brown

Go over to the OiMegaRamp website for fully loaded coverage with great photos, videos, and foreign language journalism.  Now I bet you wish you paid more attention in your Portuguese classes. 

To see Danny Way’s unfortunate injury due to a mega ramp slam, go HERE. 
 

It was supposed to be easy for Bucky — he was first in the points standing and needed a first or second-place finish (depending on where everyone else placed) to win his third Dew Cup.  Instead, he fell and ended up in last place, opening the contest up to Bob Burnquist, Andy Macdonald and Pierre-Luc Gagnon, who trailed him in the Dew Cup standings.

PLG took advantage by winning the contest with a huge 96.00 run — Andy Mac finished in second for the contest (and  only 13 points behind PLG in the Dew Cup race) and Danny Mayer came in third.  Burnquist ended up in sixth-place.

For PLG, the win comes three years after coming close to getting the Dew Cup in 2005 (he lost it when Lasek won it in the final contest).  PLG’s season has been a remarkable one outside the AST Dew Tour, with wins at the X Games and the Maloof Money Cup.  And while he has won at the Dew Tour before, this was his first win of the season (he had three second-place finishes).

Skate Vert Final Results – PlayStation Pro
October 18, 2008 – Orlando, FL
1. Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Canada, 96.00
2. Andy Macdonald, Boston, 87.00
3. Danny Mayer, Omaha, Neb., 86.00
4. Sandro Dias, Brazil, 85.25
5. Adam Taylor, Cocoa Beach, Fla., 81.00
6. Bob Burnquist, Brazil, 80.75
7. Anthony Furlong, Tampa, Fla., 79.50
8. Buster Halterman, Wellsville, Calif., 75.25
9. Jean Postec, France, 71.75
10. Bucky Lasek, Baltimore, 45.75

See some video highlights below.

It took four years but Andy Macdonald has finally won an AST Dew Tour event, taking the Skate Vert finals at the Toyota Challenge in SLC on Sunday.

Macdonald edged Pierre-Luc Gagnon by a quarter-point to take the win, throwing a monkey wrench into the Dew Cup standings with one event left.  Each Dew Tour event has been won by a different skateboarder and only Shaun White, who competed only in the Right Guard Open, is out of the race for the Dew Cup.

Bucky Lasek (winner of the Panasonic Open) currently holds a slim 5-point lead over Bob Burnquist (who won last month’s Wendy’s Invitational).  Macdonald is in third, 15 points behind, while PLG is fourth, 17 points behind.

If Lasek wins next month’s PlayStation Pro, he is in line to win his third AST Dew Cup.  He can still take home the cup by coming in second (if PLG or Macdonald wins — depending on a tiebreaker).  Burnquist can take home the cup with a win or a significantly better finish than Macdonald and Lasek.  Even PLG has a shot, though he would have to win outright and hope for some strange results coming after him.

It is not known at this time if Shaun White will be competiting at the PlayStation Pro, though he is out of the running for the Dew Cup.  White won it last year.

Check out the full results below.

Skate Vert Final Results – Toyota Challenge
September 14, 2008 – Salt Lake City, UT

1st – Macdonald, Andy – 90.50
2nd – Gagnon, Pierre-Luc – 90.25
3rd – Burnquist, Bob – 88.25
4th – Taylor, Adam – 87.75
5th – Lasek, Bucky – 87.00
6th – Dias, Sandro – 82.75
7th – Bastos, Marcelo – 77.00
8th – Hendrix, Neal – 75.50
9th – Halterman, Buster – 68.75
10th – Perelson, Alex – 51.50

Skate Vert Prelim Results – Toyota Challenge
September 12, 2008 – Salt Lake City, UT

1st – Macdonald, Andy – 85.75
2nd – Dias, Sandro – 84.25
3rd – Perelson, Alex – 82.50
4th – Taylor, Adam – 79.75
5th – Bastos, Marcelo – 77.25
6th – Halterman, Buster – 75.75
7th – Hendrix, Neal – 73.25
8th – Millar, Renton – 71.00
9th – Stafford, Josh – 70.25
10th – Sloan, Elliot – 70.25
11th – Mayer, Danny – 64.75
12th – Furlong, Anthony – 64.25
13th – Ueda, Lincoln – 63.25
14th – Postec, Jean – 52.00
15th – Glifberg, Rune – 48.00
16th – Lorifice, Rob – 45.00

Third-place went to Tony Trujillo, who was making only his second-ever X Games appearance.

Keep reading for a recap of the event.

“With this course you have to know exactly what you are going to do at all times or else you can get lost in it,” Glifberg said of the new SuperPark course. “I put in a lot of practice this week and it paid off, so I’m super stoked.”

Another record was broken today when Macdonald accepted his silver medal in the event. He is now the proud owner of 17 X Games medals, second only to Dave Mirra (who holds the record at 22 medals). Before today’s competition, Macdonald and Hawk were tied at 16 medals.

“It’s been four years trying for it and I finally got it, but man I’m tired,” Macdonald joked about surpassing Hawk in the medal count.

Macdonald used his usual consistent style and numerous huge transfers from the back bowl to the clover and the 90 degree hip to the opposite wall to earn the second place position.

Tony Trujillo dominated the elimination round to secure a spot in the five-man lineup for the final. He started off the final rough but came back in the last half of the jam session to move into the third place position and take home his first X Games medal. Trujillo is regarded as one of the most versatile skaters in the industry and has not graced the X Games with an appearance since 2004. This is his second appearance and first medal.

SKATEBOARD SUPERPARK FINAL RESULTS
Results from ESPN X GAMES 14 at The Home Center in Carson, Calf. on Sunday, August 3, 2008. (Final Standings)

Name / Hometown / Score

1. Rune Gliford / Copenhagen, Denmark / 108
2. Andy Macdonald / San Diego, Calif. / 101
3. Tony Trujillo / San Francisco, Calif. / 93
4. Omar Hassan / Costa Mesa, Calif. / 91
5. Chad Bartie / Queensland, Gold Coast Australia / 80

While Macdonald did take part in the qualifiers, a host of familiar names didn’t, including Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist and Shaun White — the reason?  You know what it is.

Here are the full set of results.

SKATEBOARD SUPERPARK MEN’S ELIMINATION RESULTS
Results from ESPN X GAMES 14 at The HOME DEPOT Center in CARSON, Calf. on Saturday, August 2, 2008. (Top 10 advance to tomorrow’s final)

Name / Hometown / Score

1. Rune Glifberg / Copenhagen, Denmark / 108.00
2. Kyle Berard / Virginia Beach, Va. / 96.00
3. Omar Hassan / Costa Mesa, Calif. / 94.00
4. Andy Macdonald / San Diego, Calif. / 93.00
5. Chad Bartie / Queensland, Gold Coast Australia / 91.00
6. Mike Peterson / Jacksonville, Fla. / 89.00
7. Bruno Passos / Oceanside, Calif. / 85.00
8. Tony Trujillo / San Francisco, Calif. / 83.00
9. Chris Cudlipp / Kihei Maui, Hawaii / 82.00
10. Daniel Cardone / Bologna, Italy / 76.00
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
11. Aaron Homoki / Phoenix, Ariz, / 75.00
12. Alain Goikoetxea / Algorta, Spain / 71.00
13. Jimmy Marcus / Clearwater, Fla. / 70.00
14. Alex Chalmers / Vancouver, BC Canada / 69.00
15. Joshua Borden / Orange, Calif. / 68.00
16. Sergie Ventura / Virginia Beach, Va. / 60.00

 Shaun White | cr. AST

Shaun White followed up a strong second-place finish at last week’s Maloof Money Cup with a win today at the 2008 Right Guard Open in Cleveland, the second stop of the AST Dew Tour.

White fell on his first run but scored a 90.25 on his second run, which would have still been enough for a win, before scoring a 92.00 on his third and final run.  White was skating fourth from last so three skateboarders (Bob Burnquist, Pierre-Luc Gagnon and Bucky Lasek) all had chances to catch up but all had their share of bad luck.

Lasek’s second-place 88.25 was his first run’s score and falls on his last two runs kept him from reaching White.  Meanwhile, PLG was uncharacteristically sloppy and fell on all three of his runs, dealing his hopes for his first-ever Dew Cup a blow by landing in eighth-place.  Burnquist had one solid run to give himself an 83.00 which was good for fourth.

Andy Macdonald found himself in third with a strong 87.25.

White missed the opening stop of the AST and is expected to miss next month’s stop so at this point Bucky Lasek is in the driver’s seat for his third Dew Cup championship if he can remain consistent.

Skate Vert Finals – 2008 Right Guard Open
July 19, 2008, Cleveland OH

1st – White, Shaun – 92.00
2nd – Lasek, Bucky – 88.25
3rd – Macdonald, Andy – 87.25
4th – Burnquist, Bob – 83.00
5th – Taylor, Adam – 78.25
6th – Millar, Renton – 75.75
7th – Stafford, Josh – 74.75
8th – Gagnon, Pierre-Luc – 62.75
9th – Menezes, Rodrigo – 51.50
10th – Halterman, Buster – 50.75

 Shaun White | cr. AST

Shaun White may have missed the first stop of the AST Dew Tour last month in Baltimore but he was back close to his old self Thursday at the Right Guard Open.  White finished first in the prelims, edging Andy MacDonald and Buster Halterman for the top spot.

White’s 83.75 was anything but dominating but after finishing second in last week’s Maloof Money Cup there’s no doubt he will turn things up for the finals.

Though no official explanation was given for his missing the contest last month, White revealed he was injured while skating at the YMCA in Encintas.  However, it looks like White will miss next month’s Vans Invitational because of his brother’s wedding.

Several top performers from Baltimore were unable to remain hot this time around as top qualifier Danny Mayer, Sandro Dias, Rob Lorifice and Neal Hendrix all missed the cut this time around.

Some new blood made the finals with 17-year-old Josh Stafford joining 18-year-old Adam Taylor in the finals.

Already qualified thanks to last month’s performances are Bucky Lasek, Pierre-Luc Gagnon and Bob Burnquist.

The finals will take place Saturday and be shown live on NBC from 4-6 p.m. ET.

Here’s the lineup for Saturday’s final (in order)

10. Renton Millar
9. Josh Stafford
8. Adam Taylor
7. Rodrigo Menezes
6. Buster Halterman
5. Andy Macdonald
4. Shaun White
3. Bob Burnquist
2. Pierre-Luc Gagnon
1. Bucky Lasek

Skate Vert Prelim Results – Right Guard Open
July 17, 2008 – Top Seven Advance

1st    White, Shaun    83.75
2nd    Macdonald, Andy    82.5
3rd    Halterman, Buster    79.25
4th    Menezes, Rodrigo    79
5th    Taylor, Adam    74.75
6th    Stafford, Josh    71.25
7th    Millar, Renton    68.25
—————————-
8th    Postec, Jean    66.75
9th    Dias, Sandro    66.5
10th    Mayer, Danny    64.75
11th    Perelson, Alex    64
12th    Glifberg, Rune    59.5
13th    Hendrix, Neal    58.5
14th    Furlong, Anthony    54.25
15th    Ueda, Lincoln    50
16th    Gentry, Chris    48
17th    Lorifice, Rob    44.5

Bob Burnquist cr. AST

A trio of well-seasoned skaters led the field Thursday as the Skate Vert finals went down at the Pansonic Open in Baltimore. Danny Mayer, Bob Burnquist and Andy Macdonald rounded out the top three, who will join Bucky Lasek and Pierre-Luc Gagnon in the finals. Last year’s Dew Cup champ Shaun White is missing the event so his absence opened up one more qualifying spot in the prelims, allowing Neal Hendrix to make the cut. Hendrix had been tied with Sandro Dias but would have otherwise missed the finals thanks to a tiebreaker.

Two younger SoCal skaters, Alex Perelson and Josh Stafford (who won Wednesday’s open qualifiers) failed to make the cut but Adam Taylor did, finishing sixth. Rune Glifberg, Jean Postec and Lincoln Ueda were among the other athletes to make the finals.

The Skate Vert finals will take place on Saturday from 7:30-9 p.m. ET and highlights will air on USA at midnight ET.

Here’s the lineup for Saturday’s final (in order)

10. Neal Hendrix
9. Sandro Dias
8. Renton Millar
7. Rob Lorifice
6. Adam Taylor
5. Andy Macdonald
4. Bob Burnquist
3. Danny Mayer
2. Pierre-Luc Gagnon
1. Bucky Lasek

Skate Vert Prelim Results
June 19, 2008 – Top Eight Advance

1st — Mayer, Danny — 83.75
2nd — Burnquist, Bob — 83.25
3rd — Macdonald, Andy — 83
4th — Taylor, Adam — 81.75
5th — Lorifice, Rob — 78.75
6th — Millar, Renton — 78.25
7th — Dias, Sandro — 76.75
8th — Hendrix, Neal — 76.25
—————————————-
9th — Furlong, Anthony — 76
10th — Menezes, Rodrigo — 75.25
11th — Halterman, Buster — 74
12th — Perelson, Alex — 73.25
13th — Stafford, Josh — 72.75
14th — Ueda, Lincoln — 72.5
15th — Bastos, Marcelo — 69.75
16th — Postec, Jean — 64.75
17th — Glifberg, Rune — 63
18th — Simao, Mizael — 58.75

The YMCA in Encinitas held a pretty secretive non-publicized pro event for the first time in fifteen years this past Saturday June 7th through the hard work and determination of skateboarding legend Steve Steadham. 

I suggest two things.  One, don’t wait another 15 years to have another pro event.  It’s great for skateboarding and it’s really good for the community.  Sure the prize money won’t equal to that of the Money Cup but at least it’s good to know that the grass roots level of skateboarding is still alive and well. 

Second, publicize it.  Because I along with many other southern Californians didn’t know about the event, I was caught up with watching the “Saved By The Bell” marathon on the TBS channel.  I would have definitely left the house for the skate contest. 

Anyway, check out the contest results and as you can see, many top names were there. 

PRO’S
1. $1,000.00 Andy Macdonald – Positiv, Sobe,
2. $500.00 Jake Piasecki – Sector 9
3. $250.00 Cookie Head Jenkins’ – Gravitey
4. $150.00 Chris Reeves – Pro Tec
5. $100.00 Mike Brookman – Gridlock
6. $75.00 Joshua Rodriquez – Gridlock
7. $50.00 Blake Cuthbert – Gridlock
8. $50.00 Bennet Harada – SMA
9. Tuma – SMA, Ace Trucks, DVS Shoes, Venice Originals
10. Allan Young
11. Danny D
12. Chad Jackson
MASTERS
1. $500.00 Mike McGill – Airspeed
2. $300.00 Josh Nelson -
3. $200.00 Steve Steadham – Steadham Skate Ind., Hurley, Urban Footwear, Independent, S-One, Tech Deck, 187, Skull Candy, Ninja, Messiah, Sambazon,
4. $100.00 Lester Kasai – House Of Kasai, Hurley, Tracker, Black Fly’s, 187, S-One, Bones,
5. $75.00 Buddy Carr – Tracker
6. $50.00 Adrian Demain – House of Kasai, Tracker Trucks
7. $50.00 Tom Knox
8. $50.00 Eric Nash
9. Eddie Reautigui – Daggers, Independent
Womens
1. $300.00 Julie Kindstrand
2. $200.00 Lyndsey Adams
3. $100.00 Megan Brown
4. $75.00 Leah Taylor
5. $50.00 Alicia
Highest Air Sponsored By Ollie Pop Tie Results taken from actual contest runs.
Jake Piasecki $125.00
Cookie Head Jenkins $125.00