Paul Rodriguez Street Skate Finals/Credit: Dom Cooley/Shazamm/ESPN Images

Los Angeles, Calif. – Paul Rodriguez finally got the monkey off his back. After becoming the first skateboarder ever to win back-to-back gold in the X Games Skateboarding Street contest in 2005, P-Rod failed to podium for the following two years and was held to second place last year by X Games 14 gold medal winner, Ryan Sheckler. All that changed today, with his commanding win in the Skateboard Street Finals.

In the Skateboarding Street competition, each skater gets 10 attempts per session to land tricks on a specific set of street features. The top three scores from each session get added to their overall score. Rodriguez unleashed a flurry of switch tricks early on that earned him top scores, and had him leading the pack going into the third session. Unfortunately, the final set of street features, consisting of two steep banks and a 12-step staircase, seemed to cause problems for nearly all the competitors, including P-Rod.

Nick Dompierre Street Skate Finals/Credit: Dom Cooley/Shazamm/ESPN Images

Going into the final attempts of the third session, Rodriguez had failed to land more than two solid tricks. Fourteen-year-old Nyjah Huston pulled a kickflip back lipslide on the rail on his ninth attempt, putting him into the lead, but in the final moments he nailed a switch heelflip down the stairs, that propelled him into first and the gold.

“It’s like an itch that finally got scratched. It’s been four years [since I won Gold],” Rodriguez said, adding with a nod towards second place finisher Huston, “It’s good to know that I can still hang with these youngsters.”

Adam Dyet, who skated and crashed equally as hard throughout the contest, was in fourth going into his last run, but a nollie full cab down the stair set earned him high scores, pushing Rodolfo Ramos out of medal contention just as the session came to a close.

Adam Dyet Street Skate Finals/Credit: Dom Cooley/Shazamm/ESPN Images

Sheckler, whose first place standing from last year prequalified him for the finals today, skated the contest with an injured back. After multiple falls in the first session, he seemed to be warming up going into the second session, landing a switch heelflip and a nollie heelflip backside 180 down the three-flat-four staircase. A bail on the 8^th of his 10 allotted trick attempts left him visibly shaken, and a hard fall on his last attempt caused him to roll his ankle. He did not move on to the third session.

Coverage of all X Games events can be found on www.xgames.com. Story Courtesy espn.com

According to a post by made by espn it looks like X Games park builder Nate Wessel is talking to California Skateparks with regard to building a concrete bowl in the parking lot of the Home Depot Center. Hmm this is right down the street from my house I am going to have to get in and verify this with my skateboard. For now here is a picture courtesy espn

A Concrete Bowl At the X Games

I know this is old news but I saw it again and thought I would post it up to remind people how narly the megaramp stuff is. Jake Brown‘s unbelievable slam from the Big Air Competition at the X-games 2007.

With tree-trunk forearms covered with skin ink and a head as shiny as Mr. Clean, Jason Ellis brings an accented attitude with aggressive and sometimes bizarre opinions, making him skating’s own Howard Stern.

Minus the hair, of course.

If Guinness is Australian for beer, than Ellis is Australian for Hardcore. Skating since the 80’s, “The Aussie” has taken no prisoners on his quest to conquer some of the most challenging ramp sets engineers can craft.

Between paranoid rants, on his skate radio shows, about super-intelligent primates trying to make Earth a true planet of the Apes and cursing Partridge Family members and in-line rollerbladers, Ellis takes time to talk about the sport with co-hosts “The Illusionist” and Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who brings martial arts skills to the crew.

Jason Ellis is himself a bit of a multimedia production, leading a band called Taint Stick in between skating expositions, sporadic rolls in movies, and trying to free our world from our simian masters. Best known for his vert skating successes with Team Quest, Ellis is also an accomplished motocross champion.

Born Down Under, Ellis has a trademark twang to his tough-talking skate radio show, embracing the typical Outback down-to-earth attitude and love for challenge. Growing up in hilly Australia bred him for tackling any terrain, be it made by Nature or man. Motorcycle oil runs in the blood, and motocross has also seen the acrobatic exploits of “The Aussie’s” younger brother, Lee.

Jason Ellis set the world record for the highest free-fall onto a ramp measuring 70 feet, making him not only a media personality whose voice narrates the biggest events in extreme sports, but a figure of global proportions in the annals of history. His has become such a household name in the world of skateboarding, that you can actually play him as an avatar in the popular video game, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, or THAW.

Various brands have tripped over their feet to sponsor the enigmatic Ellis, including Monster energy drinks, Red Dragons, and DC Shoes. Naturally enough, the skateboard giant also skates under the banner of Ellismate, his own line of skateboard decks and completes.

His colorful zaniness conceals a fine touch with the media. Ellis is also in many ways the Howard Cosell of extreme sports, spending as much time behind the mike as in front of the camera. He is the only host of Faction’s skate radio shows to have previous broadcast experience, including announcing the X-games between from 2002 to 2006 and hosting the Gravity Games in 2004.

If it’s badass, Ellis is into it. The Aussie is a huge fan of UFC fighting, especially Chuck Liddell, training under the legendary champion Kit Cope. But with all his tough-guy image, Ellis is well-liked throughout the industry, counting many extreme sports luminaries as personal friends, such as Tony Hawk and Jesse Fritsch, as well as motocross star Carey Star and his wife Pink.

The Jason Ellis Skate Radio Show happens for four hardcore hours every weekday afternoon on Sirius Faction radio, as well as another six hour slot, Monday through Friday, when the Aussie appears on Sirius Octane.

Let’s face it, the sports world is dominated by men. While there are havens for female athletes, such as volleyball or softball, the plain fact is that spectator competitions generally focus on contests among males.

Skateboarding is no different. Vert skating in particular is a parade of masculine, tough-talking daredevils exemplifying what is perhaps the defining male trait: willingness to risk neck-breaking injury for the sake of a good trick.

Why should this be? There is certainly no shortage of athletic prowess in the gender which dominates sports like gymnastics and roller derby, sports that demand the same type of skills.

And you certainly you see enough girls skateboarding. In some towns, the skateboard has replaced the purse among independent, DIY-minded girls who don’t need to be taken for a ride. Girls tend to be lighter and stronger in the legs, which would seem to give them an edge over boys.

So why is the skate park usually a sausage festival where boys practice their age-old pastime of one-ups-man-ship? Why is practically every skateboard video displaying the acrobatics of all-male teams? And, most importantly, who will be the female Tony Hawk?

I mean, the guy has moves, but he’s not all that easy on the eyes. Fortunately, the last few years have seen the emergence of a number of mommas with some serious talent. And a whole new wave of girl power is taking skating by storm.

Megan Baltimore of Girl Skateboards, known as the “Matriarch” can handle herself on a board, but is known more for her work behind the camera than in front of it. Strangely, she is the only female among the management of the image-conscious brand.

Holly Lyons, however, is a bona-fide pro. Out of Walnut Creek, California, Holly Lyons is currently ranked first in the world in Women’s Bowl Skating and second in Women’s Vert, behind Cara-Beth Burnside. She created Sk8Grl Clothing company and headlines their professional team. She has also been sponsored by Cool Girl Decks, Sweeny, Manitoba Harvest, Anarchy Eyewear, etnies girl, and Nixon Skates.

Cara-Beth Burnside was the first president of the Action Sports Alliance as well as consistently making the top rankings in both skateboarding and snowboarding. She was on the first American Olympic snowboarding team in 1998, where she placed fourth snowboarding half-pipe in the competition.

Burnside also ranked first in the summer X-Games skateboarding vert event that same year. She has been sponsored by some of the leading skateboard manufacturers including Vans and Hurley, and holds the distinction of being the first woman to have had a signature skate shoe made for her.

Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins has been competing professionally since she was only 11 years old. When she was 10 and still learning to skate at the All-Girl Skate Jam summer camp, world renowned skater and skate-camp pro counselor, Cara-Beth Burnside is said to have offered her a hundred dollars to give the vert ramps a go, but Lyn-Z wouldn’t do it. Last year, when she was 17, she placed first in the Women’s Vert competition in the X-Games.

These stars are paving the way for a new generation of girls skateboarding-slick, streetwise, and ready to take the boys to the concrete.