After 2 successful years in Orange County, the Maloof Money Cup was brought to Queens, NY and along with it came some of the biggest names in skateboarding.  Focus Skate Mag gave us 25 tickets to the contest.  We gave out 21 tickets for the Maloof Cup finals on Sunday but 4 of the tickets must have gotten “lost” and then reappeared in my car. Weird huh.

I rolled up early on Saturday to visit some friends before the rest of the crew came up the next day.  Instead of just heading right into Manhattan I made my first trip to the Bronx to visit my good friend George Williams.

George has one of the most insane shoe collections that I know of, he plays Call of Duty non-stop, knows just about everyone in NYC and is part owners in the Bronx’s finest skateshop, QuestNY.

They’re about to get a tight little skateplaza across the street from the new Yankee’s Stadium and maybe a new location.  If you’re up there skating- look them up and tell them Homebase sent you.  They’ll show you some love and all the good spots.

Saturday night was mayhem in with all the Maloof Cup parties going on.  I won’t name drop too heavily but think of a pro-skater and they were most likely somewhere out in the Lower East Side.  I did almost see a wasted Dustin Dollin almost get hit by a car- good thing his homies know to watch him closely.  Sunday got to a slow moving start but by 12pm we were on the way to Maloof to meet up with the Kuato homies from Long Island, Bubba, Wes, Villa and Amy.

After taking the worst directions of all time courtesy of Google Maps, we arrived and lucked out and got the best parking spot ever: right behind the 5Boro tent and right next to the bleachers we were sitting at.  I’ve never bothered going to the X-Games, the Dew Tour or any other high profile skateboarding event so I don’t have anything to compare this to but the Maloof’s did a great job.  It looked like they spared no expense- including the $250,000 in total prize money given out over the weekend.

Felipe Ortiz rips but dang- dude looks like a lady fo’real, fo’real.

What up Long Island.

5Boro was there being all New York-like.  What those dudes are from Florida and Delaware.

Susan Sarandon was in the VIP tent checking out all the hottie skaters- why else would she be there?

Yeaaaaaaah.

Guess who was most hyped on Lil’ Jon? JR of course.

GONZ SIGHTING.

The Chief.

Enough of the TMZ like stalker photos.

Got to the contest just in time to see the Finals.  48 skaters from the previous day were narrowed down to 12 including Chris Cole, Greg Lutzka, Paul Rodriguez, Keegan Sauder, Sierra Fellers, Ryan Decenzo, Sean Malto, Torrey Pudwill, Bastien Salabanzi, Caswell Berry, Peter Ramondetta and David Gonzalez.

Sierra Fellers and Ryan Decenzo got robbed- they murdered it.  But damn Torrey Pudwill is good- look closely at the blue shirt.

Greg Lutzka might be a kook but damn he’s good- but not as good a P-Rod.

Got nothing bad to say about Sean Malto’s style.

The odds are stacked against Peter Ramondetta in these events but he always kills it and you always wish he’d win because that would mean the world’s not so bad after all.

The final heat basically came down to the Top 4 ranked skaters.  That 7 minute heat could put 3rd place into 1st or vice versa and determine who took home the $100,000.  Regardless what you might think of contest skating or guys like Chris Cole and Paul Rodriguez- the raw fact is they kill at will on their skateboards. My clip doesn’t do any of the skating justice but it does show you how quickly these guys rifle off banging tricks.  You might call them mechanical but I fully respect anyone who can handle themselves that well under all that pressure.

My view from the nosebleeds

Transworld’s view from the good seats (Not all footage from the finals)

I don’t have a any great shots of Chris Cole spraying champagne from the 1st place spot on the podium because the rain started to fall and I wanted to break out to Brooklyn before the traffic got craze.  But here’s one of him doing a backside 180 nosegrind.

After the 7 minutes was called the rain started pouring and we were out.  Mainly because I was starving at this point and nothing like some BBQ from Fette Sau in Brooklyn.

Didn’t see Bubba, Pat and Wes at Maloof but we linked up for dinner and a session at 12th & A

A long time homie of mine was moving back to California so we headed up to the roof for his going away party.  Rooftops and friends are always appreciated on Summer nights in the City.

Said goodbyes and headed to Gallery Bar for the debut of another friend’s book debut, “Full Bleed.”

Walked to see most of the am’s and pro’s who were at Maloof all hanging out taking in NYC’s rich skateboard history documented by Alex Corporan and other east coast photographers.

5Boro’s Steve Rodriguez was there.  See, that’s the top of his head that’s probably thinking about the subway, the Yankees and skitching off cabs.

I remember seeing so many of these photos in old Transworld’s and for those who remember, Strength Magazine.

Alex Corporan and Felix Arguelles. . .  probably reminiscing about when NYC was raw.

To be continued. . .