Ryan Sheckler takes a break to sign autographs

Sheckler Takes Another One to the Bank
September 12, 2004

True to the spontaneous nature of skateboarding, the park comp presented a couple of surprises before the preliminary round drew to a close. First of all, despite some stylish skating, skateboard icon, Eric Koston did not qualify for the final round. Second of all, 13 year old am, Colin Provost qualified in 4th place, and, since ams can’t technically win cash in pro comps, he agreed to forego prize money so that 11th place qualifier, Chris Senn would be able to compete in the finals.

Despite some auspicious preliminary round skating, Austen Seaholm could not quite pull his final runs together. He did however pull one of the best tricks of the day: a nose slide to fakie front truck grind down the ledge. Street icon Ronnie Creager stuck a smooth backside 180 kick flip, a pop shuvit and a switch frontside flip over the barrier, but couldn’t climb higher than 10th.

Chris Senn stuck another one of the best tricks of the day: a backside board slide down the kinked rail. Colin Provost appeared to buckle under the pressure in his first run, trying and missing the backside 360 off the moto launch three times before landing it at the end of his run, but his other runs proved more successful as he nailed the backside 3 and continued to pull a kickflip to fakie, a frontside air over the hip and a solid 50/50 down the ledge. After a couple of shaky runs, Rodney Jones finally pulled it all together with a run that featured a switch frontside flip up the bank, a backside 50/50 down the ledge and a huge stale off the moto jump.

Dayne Brummet mixed up old school style with some ultra-tech tricks like a kickflip into a noseslide down the ledge, and a nollie to frontside 50/50. Kyle Berard just pulled ahead of him with his backside 180 kickflip, frontside blunt on the jersey barrier and a lofty stale 360 off the moto jump. After qualifying in 3rd place with a nearly flawless prelim run, Wagner Ramos slipped into 4th with a few sketches peppered in with sick tricks like his nollie 360 flip, a big frontside kickflip and a nollie heelflip to fakie.

The podium runs were easily the best of the day. Wolnei Dos Santos nailed a sick backside 180 nollie flip transfer, a smith grind down the rail and a frontside hardflip off the bank to the deck of the quarter pipe.

Fabrizio Santos sails over the fairgrounds

Fabrizio Santos, who qualified 1st with one of the most stylish runs of the day, put together another one of the most stylish runs of the day for his third final run. His kickflip into the bank to indy air off the moto launch was one of the best combos of the day. Mix that up with a 50/50 down the ledge, a 360 flip over the pyramid and a 5-0 down the ledge and Fabrizio took the silver home to his one-week old daughter.

But there was no touching Ryan Sheckler, whose screaming fans lined the front row of the street course. He stuck a massive kickflip indy off the moto launch, a lipslide down one rail, a smith grind down another, then gapped to crooked grind down the ledge. When the scores came in, the judges voted unanimously for Sheckler to take home the gold.

When asked what he would do with the $30,000 prize check, he was quick to answer. “I’m going to put it in the bank and use it to pay for my new car, a 2005 Range Rover.”

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