Skateboarding

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