Shane takes his first SLS win since the first season and Tiago Lemos and Tommy Fynn break into The League:

Today Shane O’Neill won the 2016 SLS Nike SB Pro Open in Barcelona with ease, dominating at every turn, making it difficult for the rest of the skaters to keep up with him. By winning in Barcelona, O’Neill earns his second Golden Ticket to the 2016 SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Championship. He got his first Golden Ticket in March of this year when he won Tampa Pro. That day, like today, he put down a superb performance.

McEntire was in fifth place and moved into first place when he was scored an 8.4 for a switch kickflip backside lipslide on the handrail. Huston moved up from eighth to fourth when he rode away from a nollie 180 nosegrind revert on the handrail, but O’Neill’s trick made McEntire and Huston’s hammers look ordinary. In eighth place and needing a 6.8 for fourth, Shane landed a switch big flip frontside boardslide on the handrail for a 9.2, and the crowd went nuts.

On the third round of attempts more separation happened between the skaters’ scores as the first four guys to try missed, and only three out of the remaining four landed their tricks. Huston was in fifth and needed an average score of 7.5 on his remaining tricks for first place. Nyjah tried a frontside half cab bluntslide to fakie on the handrail and landed it, but not cleanly, so he only received a 6.7. McEntire, who was in first place at the time, stayed in first when he backside flipped over the volcano – he got an 8.5 for it, but didn’t stay on top for long. Shane O’Neill knocked him out with an 8.5 of his own and took control of first place again.

On their fourth attempts just about every skater needed a 9 point average score or more in order to make any progress, but only Luan Oliveira and Paul Rodriguez earned points, setting the stage for the fifth attempts to decide it all. On their fifth attempts almost everyone didn’t land their tricks. McEntire was in second place when it was his turn but needed a 10 for first. Needless to say that 10 didn’t happen, so O’Neill was the presumptive winner with Huston still waiting to go. When his turn came, Huston was in fourth needing an 8.1 for second place. Nyjah made it into the 9 Club with a cab frontside bluntslide on the handrail, which moved Cody McEntire into third place and put the seal on Shane O’Neill’s second win this year.

SLS Nike SB Pro Open results:
1. Shane O’Neill – 34.8
2. Nyjah Huston – 32.8
3. Cody McEntire – 31.8
4. Paul Rodriguez – 31.0
5. Luan Oliveira – 29.9
6. Ryan Decenzo – 28.9
7. Chaz Ortiz – 28.4
8. Chris Joslin – 22.2

Words by Reggie Altema

The first chapter of #Macbalifers series filmed and edited by Charles Chaves with unseen footage of Kevin Besset, Isaac Verdejoach, Javier Carvia, Brayan Albarenga, Wesley Cardoso, Danilo Cerezini, Jesús Fernández, Daniel Lebrón, Thierry Gormit, Antoine Volle, Marek Zaprazny, David Vela, Arnau Truque, Roger Silva, Javier Sarmiento, Fran Molina and Billy Fernández.

The 2016 SLS Nike SB Pro Open returns to Europe’s mecca of skateboarding in Barcelona, Spain on May 21-22 to kick off the Street League Skateboarding (SLS) Nike SB World Tour. This international contest will be hosted for the second straight year at the Skate Agora BDN Barcelona concrete skate plaza, built in 2015 by Lateral Thinking in conjunction with Nike SB and the City of Badalona and designed by California Skateparks.

As the official international qualifier, this contest serves as gateway into SLS season of live televised arena events on FS1. The two highest scoring non-SLS Pros will advance into the series giving them a career-forging opportunity to make their mark alongside today’s greats of street skateboarding. In 2015, rookies Evan Smith and Cody McEntire outperformed a pool of international hopefuls for the last remaining spots in SLS, and then proceeded to shake up the rankings land in the final season top 10 ahead of several SLS veterans.

For existing SLS Pros, the SLS Nike SB Pro Open is a chance to gain crucial Championship Points for the season and compete for the coveted Golden Ticket: an express pass straight into the SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Championship this October in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Nike SB’s Nyjah Huston will be returning to Spain to defend his victory from 2015, alongside Paul Rodriguez who narrowly missed taking the top of the podium on the last trick.

New for 2016, the latest SLS wildcards, Kyle Walker, Kevin Bradley, Miles Silvas, and Chris Joslin, will also compete in Barcelona after joining this year’s SLS contest line-ups thru the SLS Picks gateway. The Picks will also be skating for their chance to join SLS. With the unique winner-takes-all first-place prize open to all finalists, innovation and continued elevation of skateboarding is guaranteed.

Day One of the SLS Nike SB Pro Open will cut the field of the best pro skaters not currently in SLS to eight Qualifiers. The competition lineup will be full of heavy hitters from all over the world such as Belgium’s Youness Amrani, Norway’s Karsten Kleppan, Australia’s Chima Ferguson and Americans, Curren Caples and Nick Tucker. On Day Two, the top eight qualifiers will compete against current SLS Pro Veterans and the newly named SLS Picks to form the Final, and compete for first place and the sought after Golden Ticket.

Who will advance into the SLS Nike SB World Tour and battle it out with the current seasoned SLS Pros? Can Nyjah Huston take his third straight Pro Open win and take the coveted Golden Ticket straight to the SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Championship? Will a rookie shake up the competition and earn the victory? Tune in on May 21^st and 22^nd for the live webcast on StreetLeague.com or catch it on May 22 on FS1.

For an official rider list, click here

International fans can watch each event webcasted live exclusively on StreetLeague.com. Fans in the United States can watch SLS on FS1 and customers of participating cable and satellite TV providers may access the live stream through the FOX Sports Go app for iOS, Android, Windows and Kindle devices, as well as on desktops through FOXSportsGo.com.

SLS NIKE SB WORLD TOUR DATES AND VENUES:

• May 21-22     SLS Nike SB Pro Open | Skate Agora BDN I Barcelona, Spain
• July 2             SLS Nike SB World Tour: Munich | Olympic Park | Munich, Germany
• August 28      SLS Nike SB World Tour: New Jersey | Prudential Center | Newark, NJ, USA
• October 2 SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Championship | Galen Center at USC | Los Angeles, CA, USA

TUNE IN SCHEDULE:

SLS Nike SB Pro Open Live Webcast – Saturday, May 21 (8:00 AM ET)

SLS Nike SB Pro Open Live Webcast – Sunday, May 22 (5:15 AM ET)

SLS Nike SB Pro Open on FS1 – Sunday, May 22 (9:30 PM – 11:00 PM ET)

SLS Nike SB World Tour: Munich on FS1 – Saturday, July 2 (1:30 PM – 3:00 PM ET)

SLS Nike SB World Tour: New Jersey on FS1 – Sunday, August 28 (5:00 PM – 6:30 PM ET)

SLS Nike SB Super Crown World Championship on FS1 – Sunday, October 2 (10:30 PM – 12:00 AM ET)

Be Skateboarding Mag just dropped this sick edit featuring a ton of Barcelona locals and friends including Javier Sarmiento, Dani Lebrón, Erik Pettersson , Ignacio Morata “Nachete”, Jesús Fernández, Anthony Lopez, Marek Zaprazny, Pol Catena, Juampe, Bruno Aguero, Gabriel Fortunato, Alex Lekinho, Dani Jenks, Jorge Simoes, Carlos Ribeiro, Ricardo Santos, Michael Sommer, Chris Ville and Fran Molina,