Paul Rodriguez Qualifies First for Skate Park Finals

Today’s skate park prelim was as heated as a finals competition with trick after trick landed on nearly all the course obstacles throughout the two-hour competition.

Twenty five of the leading pros were divided into six heats to battle it out for only nine spots available to advance to Saturday’s park finals. The skaters will join the top three Dew Tour riders in the finals, Greg Lutzka, Ryan Sheckler and Chaz Ortiz.

Tyler Hendley grabbed the lead in the first heat and hung onto it for a while until Paul Rodriguez and Ryan Decenzo took over the top spots, and Hendley finished sixth.

Tyler Hendley

P-Rod landed a switch front blunt and was just on fire with every tech trick dialed, and he finished as the top qualifier with 89.25 points and a huge lead over the rest of the guys.

Paul Rodriguez

Decenzo had everyone cheering after landing a kickflip over the kicker to barrier and then turning around and frontside flipping it, and he qualified fifth.

Ryan Decenzo

Bastien Salabanzi took to the Dew Tour like a natural at his Boston debut, and he rode the momentum here in Portland to qualify in second. Mexico City’s Mario Saenz finished third.

Bastien Salabanzi

Brazilian skater Rodolfo Ramos qualified in fourth and Jani Laitiala finished seventh.

Two more Brazilians took the last two spots, with Danilo do Rosario in eight and Fabrizio Santos grabbing the final spot in ninth.

Results

1. Paul Rodriguez, 89.25
2. Bastien Salabanzi, 86.00
3. Mario Saenz, 85.50
4. Rodolfo Ramos, 84.25
5. Ryan Decenzo, 82.50

For the full results from the prelims, click here.