Each of the skaters has won at least one AST Tour contest (Sheckler two) and the winner of the PlayStation will probably walk home with the Dew Cup and $100K.  Ortiz has the momentum, given his win last month.  Sheckler is injured and has not been himself this season.  And P-Rod?  He’s been his smooth self and could sneak away with the win if no one’s watching.

So who’s got the edge?  Ortiz.  But expect Sheckler to be given plenty of chances to win.

The Skate Park finals will take place on Sunday from 4:00-5:30 p.m. and will air live on NBC.

For more about the contest, check out AST.com.  Keep reading for the full results and start list for the finals.

Carlos De Andrade cr. AST

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

12. Greg Lutzka
11. Fabrizio Santos
10. Austen Seaholm
9. Chris Mendes
8. Rodney Jones
7. Carlos De Andrade
6. Danilo do Rosario
5. Timmy Knuth
4. Rodolfo Ramos
3. Paul Rodriguez
2. Chaz Ortiz
1. Ryan Sheckler

Skate Park Prelim Results – PlayStation Pro
October 16, 2008 – Top Nine Advance

1st – Ramos, Rodolfo – 86.75
2nd – Knuth (A), Timmy – 84.75
3rd – do Rosario, Danilo – 84.00
4th – De Andrade, Carlos – 83.00
5th – Jones, Rodney – 82.75
6th – Mendes, Chris – 82.00
7th – Seaholm, Austen – 82.00
8th – Santos, Fabrizio – 81.75
9th – Lutzka, Greg – 81.00
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
10th – Peterson, Mike – 80.50
11th – Fernandez, Chad – 79.50
12th – Rogers, Jereme – 79.50
13th – Bartie, Chad – 79.00
14th – Colamonico, Kurtis – 76.25
15th – Oliveira, Tulio – 76.00
16th – Dyet, Adam – 75.75
17th – Sereika, Christian – 75.50
18th – Ramos, Wagner – 75.25
19th – Hendley, Tyler – 75.25
20th – Barr, Jason – 74.25
21st – Corrigan, Danny – 71.75
22nd – Parent, Thomas – 69.00
23rd – Brummet, Dayne – 67.75
24th – Therres, Mathieu – 64.25
25th – Fuenzalida, Danny – 61.25

If there is any doubt that Paul Rodriguez is taking his skating seriously this season, it was gone Saturday after he clinched the Skate Park finals at the AST Dew Tour’s Right Guard Open.  The win follows his Maloof Money Cup victory of last week.

While P-Rod’s win was huge, two other stories dominated the day.  One was the continued emergence of Chaz Ortiz as a dominant skater this season and the other was how, for the first time in AST Dew Tour history, a skate park final jam session went down without Ryan Sheckler.  Shecker, who prequalified for the finals, needed a strong score to make the jam session and instead fell hard mid-run, injuring his arm and stopping the competition.

Viewers of the live webcast got to witness the fall, though the feed was cut almost immediately after the fall, returning about two minutes later with replay footage of the injury.

It was the first time this season the AST provided a live webcast of the finals, allowing fans across the globe to tune in.  All in all, the quality of the webcast matched the TV broadcast with the added bonus of every skater getting screentime.  The only negative?  The standard definition webcast took an HD picture and squashed it even though there was space in the player to show an HD picture.  Oh well.

The legendary Chris Miller was on hand to provide commentary along with Paul Zitzer, giving Kenan Harkin the ability to hang back and only jump in with obvious questions.

Between Sheckler’s fall and the start of the jam session, the webcast spent a good amount of time watching the skater as he was looked at by medical staff and spent time with his father, Randy, who appeared to be consoling him.

The injury proved to be a slight distraction as the top six skateboarders, led by Ortiz, took to the course for a seven-minute jam session to close out the contest.

Ortiz began his day with a flawless first run that included a late backfoot flip, while Sheckler was a full 10 points behind in fifth.  By the time Ortiz was ready to do his second run, he was still in first and Sheckler was out of the top six with a big score needed to make the jam session.

Before Ortiz started his second run Sheckler told him, “I’m so proud of you.  So sick.”  Then he added, “Can you do my run for me?”

Ortiz went on to have a solid run, including a sick kickflip frontside feeble, but a couple of stumbles left his first run his top score going into the finals.

The jam session was packed with solide tricks from everyone, though P-Rod and Ortiz were obvious frontrunners and Ortiz delivered some huge tricks including a frontside bluntside big spin out.

When it was all said and done, P-Rod pulled out his first-ever AST Dew Tour win, followed by Ortiz, Rodolfo Ramos and Greg Lutzka.

With his already-impressive history, P-Rod’s place at top should be no surprise, but Ortiz’s time may be around the corner.

“He’s probably going to be one of the best skateboarders to come,” Sheckler said of the 14-year-old phenom.

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

1. Paul Rodriguez Jr. – 90.75
2. Chaz Ortiz – 90.70
3. Rodolfo Ramos – 88.50
4. Greg Lutzka – 85.85
5. Rodil Araujo Jr. – 83.60
6. Carlos De Andrade – 77.45

 Rodolfo Ramos | cr. AST

Rodolfo Ramos and Rodil Araujo Jr. led the Brazilians back to the top of the skate park prelims at the Right Guard Open in Cleveland, Thursday.  The two actually tied on the top of the leaderboard but Ramos was given the top qualifying spot thanks to a tie-breaker.

Greg Lutzka helped stop a sweep of the top three spots by edging Carlos De Andrade for third-place.  Fabrizio Santos rounded out the country’s representation by taking the 9th spot in qualifiers.  Rodolfo’s bro Wagner (19th) was among the six Brazilians to miss the cut.

Austen Seaholm, Chad Bartie and Mathieu Therres were among the non-Brazilians to advance to the finals, where Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez and Chaz Ortiz await as the top three pre-qualified for the finals.

The finals will take place Saturday and be webcast live on AST.com from 1-2 p.m. ET/10-11 a.m. PT.

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

12. Fabrizio Santos
11. Mathieu Therres
10. Dayne Brummet
9. Chad Bartie
8. Austen Seaholm
7. Carlos De Andrade
6. Greg Lutzka
5. Rodil Araujo Jr.
4. Rodolfo Ramos
3. Chaz Ortiz
2. Paul Rodriguez
1. Ryan Sheckler

Skate Park Prelim Results – Right Guard Open
July 17, 2008 – Top Nine Advance

1st    Ramos, Rodolfo    86.5
2nd    Araujo Jr., Rodil    86.5
3rd    Lutzka, Greg    82.25
4th    De Andrade, Carlos    81.5
5th    Seaholm, Austen    81
6th    Bartie, Chad    79.25
7th    Brummet, Dayne    79
8th    Therres, Mathieu    78.5
9th    Santos, Fabrizio    78.25
———————————
10th    Fuenzalida, Danny    78.25
11th    Sereika, Christian    77
12th    Oliveira, Ricardo    77
13th    Barr, Jason    76.75
14th    do Rosario, Danilo    76.5
15th    Hyppolito, Fabio Sleiman    75.5
16th    Fernandez, Chad    74.75
17th    Colamonico, Kurtis    73.75
18th    Peterson, Mike    72
19th    Ramos, Wagner    71
20th    Cudlipp, Chris    69.75
21st    Grundy, Russell    69.5
22nd    Oliveira, Tulio    67.5
23rd    Fellers, Sierra    67.5
24th    Simonetto, Michell    64
25th    Jones, Rodney    62.5
26th    Kendall, Chris    57.75
27th    Mendes, Chris    50.25