jackwardenx: Street League 2011 Wrapped Up in Newark With Malto as Champ ...

: Malto Street League Skateboarding 2011 Champ - California Skateparks images

The final Street League Skateboarding event, the SLS Championship, had Sean Malto winning against the toughest pros, including favorite, Nyjah Huston.

Hurricane Irene was blowing up the US East Coast, but not with enough force to stop the DC Pro Tour Street League Skateboarding ( SLS) Championships from happening at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. Sean Malto ended up winning in a huge upset, snagging the winner-take-all Street League Champ 2011 title from 2010 SLS Champ, winner of the three SLS events this year, and X Games 17 Skateboard Street gold medalist, Nyjah Huston.

Sean Malto Opportunity to Skate in Street League Finals

Malto had missed the first Street League stop this year, still recovering from knee surgery, and wasn't even one of the ten Street League finalists, but he got an opportunity to skate into the finals. Tommy Sandoval was in the finals because Torey Pudwill was out with a ankle injury, but Sandoval rolled his ankle, making a spot for Malto. The event got moved up from Sunday to Saturday, August 27 because of the threat of Hurricane Irene, so the skaters had to be ready with one less day of practice. It seems that all of these unusual circumstances set up some confluence of good fortune for Malto, who skated with a remarkable 100% consistency all day.

Street League Skateboarding 2011 Top Ten Final Results

Sean Malto
Nyjah Huston
Chris Cole
Chaz Ortiz
Paul Rodriguez
Mikey Taylor
Billy Marks
Shane O'Neill
Ryan Sheckler
Mike Mo Capaldi

The top 24 Street League skaters got whittled down to a mere ten to compete in the finals in the Street League Championship and it was anyone's to win; because of his three-event winning streak, Nyjah was a huge favorite. According to the Street League press release, ?We wanted to create the 'Super-Bowl' of skateboarding by adding the winner-takes-all championship to the series,? said SLS creator and commissioner, Rob Dyrdek.

This Street League contest featured the customary three sections:Tech or Best Trick, Line, and Big. In the Tech/Best Trick section, only successful attempts counted toward scores; skaters did not get penalized for failed attempts. In the Line and Big sections, all attempts counted toward a cumulative score with consistency and difficulty the key; difficult tricks earned high scores and errors or bails negatively affected scores.

Tricky Tech Section in Street League

The Tech section featured a short stair set, a sloped rail, a bump up to A-frame rail, and a pair of ledges over grass gaps and skaters had seven attempts to land something difficult or technical for major points. The A-frame rail and ledges were popular targets for landing tricks In this section. The first seven riders came up empty and then Sheckler came out with a full cab to backside lipslide off the A-frame rail that jump-started the contest and put him in first place.

Huston blasted out a backside 270 to noseblunt on the A-frame rail and Malto casually threw in an overcrook to shuv out on the A-frame. Mikey Taylor, not to be outdone looked smooth and tough with a buttery back lipslide to tailslide out on the rail. Billy Marks landed a tight nollie heelflip to boardslide out on the A-frame that wasn't enough to push him into the top three, but it kept him solidly in the contest.

In the sixth round of the Tech section, Ortiz banged out a trick he never even landed the entire Street League Series: a nollie bigspin heelflip up the A-frame rail to backside lipslide out for a 9.3 to catapult into first. Malto stayed steady and solid and nailed a nose grind nollie flip out on the ledge. Mike Mo Capaldi and Ryan Sheckler were the two skaters with the lowest scores eliminated at the end of the Tech section.

Street League Championship Line Section

Skaters had five attempts to attack the Line section with combinations of tricks or linking two or more tricks ? the more complicated and difficult the better. The Line section included a six-stair set with rails on either side, a low quarter parallel to a flat rail in the center of the section, and kickers over a huge grass gap framed by ledges at the end of the section. Huston came out with a kickflip backside lipslide on the rail to backside tailslide on the ledge but Malto answered with a back lipslide on the rail to 5-0 on the the ledge to move into first place. Rodriguez one-upped Malto with a switch kickflip to backside tailslide on the ledge and took over the top spot ? but not for long.

Malto was skating with perfect consistency, not missing one attempt whatsoever and he threw down a switch backside 50-50 on the rail to backside smith grind on the ledge and was back in first. Cole came alive with a sweet kickflip to backside lipslide down the rail to nollie crooked grind across the ledge to push himself into first. and Cole and Malto juggled the lead for another turn, but Malto ultimately pulled ahead with a switch crooked grind to 50-50 on the ledge and he held onto first going into the Big section. O'Neill and Marks didn't make the cut and were eliminated going into the Big section.

Street League Skateboarding Big Section

The Big section had an intimidating, wide eleven-stair set with hubba ledges on each side and challenging square rail down the center of the stairs that offered plenty of opportunities to shred with major tricks on either the hubbas or the rail. Huston came alive again and landed a nollie heelflip to backside lipslide down the rail and went seven for seven but it wasn't enough to take Malto down and he finished in second.

Cole banged out a big 360 flip to 50-50 grind on one of the hubba ledges to earn a 9.6 ? the highest score of the event. But he had been so inconsistent that it only bumped him into third place. Malto landed a beautiful backside overcrook on the rail and then Cole fell on his last attempt. Malto knew he had the win and he maintained his consistency for his final attempt and floated a nice little 50-50 down the hubba ledge and landed in the middle of a victory celebration.

Fans who can't get enough can watch the digital broadcasts of all Street League events and look forward to next year's edition of Street League. Congrats to all the skaters and thanks to Rob Dyrdek for an amazing season!