Here is how the ad for the Red Bull Manny Mania contest was filmed. It went down in Toronto and it went down like this.  Two large 18-wheeler semi-trucks pulled up at the Yonge-Dundas intersection followed by a mini-van with a secured flat roof that served as a mid-drop landing pad. Once all three vehicles came to a complete stop with bumpers touching, Ryan and Magnus rushed out of a nearby van to get into place. Decenzo climbed on top of the first truck, ran full speed towards the man-sized gap between the two semi’s – kickflip – still flying 20 feet above Canada’s busiest intersection, the second gap approached fast. After an ollie down to the reinforced van, and not a second later, another 8 foot drop down to street level presented itself almost too suddenly – frontside 180. Boom. Priceless.

Let the contest battles begin.  And I’m not talking about skateboarders competing for obscene prize money. I’m talking about the apparent faceoff between Maloof Money Cup frontman Joe Maloof and Street League big guy Rob Dyrdek. I could be wrong, but when Maloof announced the Platinum Circuit, offering a $1,000,000 bonus to the winner of four consecutive Maloof Money Cup street contests, I figured he’s just trying to entice Chris Cole (who’s already won three straight) to ride in next year’s event.

Maloof wants to stage all future contests on permanent street courses. Organizers have had to tear out the course the last three years at the Orange County Fairgrounds. “I’m never tearing it down again,” Maloof said. Despite competition between the Maloof Money Cup and Street League, big money has come to pro skateboarding. Street League will offer nearly $400,000 in prize money at each of the three stops beginning with Glendale, Ariz. on Aug. 28 and followed by Ontario, Calif. on Sept. 11 and Las Vegas on Sept. 25. Dyrdek said first place will be worth $150,000. Street League has signed 24 skaters, including Cole, Paul Rodriguez — who won the first Maloof Money Cup — Ryan Sheckler, Sean Malto and Torey Pudwill. Malto was third at last weekend’s Maloof Money Cup and Pudwill was fourth. The Maloof Money Cups give $100,000 to the street winner and $75,000 to the winner of the vert competition.

Let the contest battles begin.  And I’m not talking about skateboarders competing for obscene prize money. I’m talking about the apparent faceoff between Maloof Money Cup frontman Joe Maloof and Street League big guy Rob Dyrdek. I could be wrong, but when Maloof announced the Platinum Circuit, offering a $1,000,000 bonus to the winner of four consecutive Maloof Money Cup street contests, I figured he’s just trying to entice Chris Cole (who’s already won three straight) to ride in next year’s event. Sacramento Kings co-owner Joe Maloof is expanding his skateboarding competitions and offering a $1 million bonus to any skater who can win four in a row. Maloof came up with the bonus as a way to keep momentum going following the third Maloof Money Cup Orange County last weekend in Costa Mesa, Calif. ”I thought it would set the bar high,” Maloof said in a phone interview from Las Vegas, where his family owns the Palms Casino Resort. “It gives these kids an opportunity to stretch for the moon, because this will be one of the biggest prize purses in sports, really, when you look at it. It’s pretty big.”

Chris Cole has won three straight Maloof Money Cups — and a total of $300,000 — but won’t be able to skate for the bonus because he’s committed to Rob Dyrdek’s new Street League, which starts later this month and requires exclusivity. Maloof said that at the time he came up with the idea of the bonus, he wasn’t aware that Cole would be bound to the Street League. “I don’t know if he’d be able to skate in ours, but if wants to, he’s welcome,” Maloof said. “If he decides not to skate, OK, no problem, someone will start a new streak. Basically, somebody’s going to win it.” Cole couldn’t be reached for comment. Dyrdek, the pro skateboarder and MTV star, confirmed that Cole wouldn’t be able to compete for Maloof’s bonus. ”It’s so crazy,” Dyrdek said. “I’m just so curious — is that a singular ploy to get Chris Cole?” Maloof emphasized that it’s not, that he simply wants to keep expanding the Maloof Money Cup concept. “I don’t know how everyone will react to it, but I believe it’s one of the biggest opportunities in skateboarding history. I wanted to add momentum to the Maloof Money Cup and extend the spotlight on the skaters,” he said.

Maloof and his brother, Gavin, started the Maloof Money Cup in 2008 in Orange County, with both street and vert competitions. They expanded to New York in June, with street competition only on a permanent course the Maloofs built and donated to the city, with help from sponsors. Maloof said that after the New York competition, he was contacted by 27 cities about hosting future Maloof Money Cups, including Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Atlanta. He said no agreements are in place, but that he’d like to stage at least four competitions next year in the United States, as well as a previously announced contest in South Africa. Maloof wants to stage all future contests on permanent street courses. Organizers have had to tear out the course the last three years at the Orange County Fairgrounds. “I’m never tearing it down again,” Maloof said. Despite competition between the Maloof Money Cup and Street League, big money has come to pro skateboarding. Street League will offer nearly $400,000 in prize money at each of the three stops beginning with Glendale, Ariz. on Aug. 28 and followed by Ontario, Calif. on Sept. 11 and Las Vegas on Sept. 25. Dyrdek said first place will be worth $150,000. Street League has signed 24 skaters, including Cole, Paul Rodriguez — who won the first Maloof Money Cup — Ryan Sheckler, Sean Malto and Torey Pudwill. Malto was third at last weekend’s Maloof Money Cup and Pudwill was fourth. The Maloof Money Cups give $100,000 to the street winner and $75,000 to the winner of the vert competition.

Ishod Wair took first place in the amateur finals of the maloof money cup. This is a video clip of the top 5 finalists. Here is more info about the Maloof Money Cup.

Joe Maloof tried skateboarding one time in his life. It didn’t go well.

The owner of the Sacramento Kings was a kid growing up in Albuquerque, N.M., when he and a friend ventured to an underground parking lot at the local mall. Maloof zoomed down the ramp, hit a drain pipe at the bottom and went flying.

“Fell on my face,” he said. “That’s the last time I got on a board.”

What the crash didn’t damage was Maloof’s appreciation for the skill and athleticism it takes to ride a skateboard artfully, and it ultimately led to an unlikely marriage between the wealthy Maloof family and a sport climbing from the neighborhood sidewalks to unprecedented popularity.

The evidence comes in the form of the richest event in skateboarding — the $450,000 Maloof Money Cup OC that is being contested this weekend at the Orange County Fairgrounds. From the painstaking and expensive reproduction of real-life skate spots on the Street course to the Maloofs’ hands-on rapport with the skaters, the Money Cup is skating’s edgy All-Star Game.

While the 16-year-old X Games might garner more network TV time and mainstream attention, it’s the Maloof, only three years old, that gets far more points on the street cred scale.

“I don’t say this braggadociously, but I think that to be considered one of the best you have to win the Maloof Money Cup,” Joe Maloof said. “Nobody has the collection of skaters that we do.”

A pair of San Diegans are the reigning champions of the Orange County version of the Maloof, which now has to be distinguished from the wildly successful New York event that was staged in Flushing Meadows in June. Chris Cole of San Marcos won $100,000 in the Street finals last year in O.C. and this year in New York. Bonita native Alex Perelson captured the $75,000 first prize in the 2009 O.C. Vert by becoming only the fourth person in a major competition to pull off a 900 — 2?1/2 rotations in midair.

“I think it’s really cool,” Perelson, 19, said of the Maloof. “It’s just different than your typical skate contest. People who don’t usually enter contests are there.

“When I first heard about the $75,000 (prize), I thought it was crazy to give somebody that for skateboarding.”

If Joe Maloof’s skateboard career began and ended with a single fall, it was another horrendous slam that compelled him to get involved in promoting skateboarding.

Maloof, 54, said he was both sickened and mesmerized by the crash of Australian skater Jake Brown during the 2007 X Games’ Big Air competition. Brown looked like a man falling from a high-rise window when he plummeted 45 feet and landed with such a terrible impact that his shoes flew off.

“In my heart I felt for the kid,” said Maloof, who didn’t know a single pro skateboarder at the time. “It was emotional. It really got to me. After that, I just wanted to get involved in the sport somehow.”

The Maloof family, which owns The Palms hotel and casino in Las Vegas, along with television and music production companies, considered adding skate camps to their already successful basketball camps in Northern California. But the skateboarders with whom they spoke were dreaming of something bigger: a top-shelf competition that would be unlike anything else.

“We love the X Games, and we love the Dew Tour, but we wanted to do something a little bit different,” Maloof said. “This is 100 percent skateboarding; there’s no motocross or BMX.”

The Maloofs recruited pro skateboarders to design the Vert ramps and Street courses, and in the Orange County Fair’s outdoor arena, California Skateparks has been able to duplicate numerous famous skate spots, from the railing at Rincon Middle School in Escondido last year to this year’s nine-obstacle lineup that includes the Santa Monica pier’s steps and the Venice Ledges.

Unfortunately, the Orange County parks have been torn down when the competition ended, but in Flushing Meadows, corporate sponsors provided the money to build a permanent park. That is a model Maloof would like to follow in the future, when he hopes to create a Maloof skate tour and leave a legacy of skateparks all over the country.

“We’re doing all we can to make skateboarding as popular as we can,” Maloof said.

Hanging out with and watching the skateboarders practice their craft has only made Maloof more passionate about it.

“People don’t realize what great athletes these guys are and how hard they work at what they do,” he said. “They get knocked down and get back up on their feet like nobody else.

“I found out in skateboarding there is a brotherhood like I’ve never seen in any other sport. They go at each other in competitions, but at the end of the day, it’s all about skateboarding.”

The win Saturday night over Bob Burnquist and Andy Macdonald came eight days after the 30-year-old Canadian star won his third straight X Games gold in Skateboard Vert. Pierre-Luc Gagnon, who lives in northern San Diego County, won $75,000. Coupled with his X Games win, he’s won more than $100,000 during the last two weekends.

The win Saturday night over Bob Burnquist and Andy Macdonald came eight days after the 30-year-old Canadian star won his third straight X Games gold in Skateboard Vert. Gagnon, who lives in northern San Diego County, won $75,000. Coupled with his X Games win, he’s won more than $100,000 during the last two weekends. Brazilian Sandro Dias landed a rare 900-degree jump during the mini-mega ramp portion of the finals.

The competition is hosted by Joe and Gavin Maloof, the brothers who own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

Milton Martinez shot by Martin Gustafsson Bowlriders

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