Age ain't nothing but a number. That Sheckler is GOOD. Jeff Hehlen © 2006 Lat34

Sheckler Takes Skate Street

It has absolutely nothing to do with how young he is, Ryan Sheckler simply skated better than everyone else on the course, but it was tight. Sheckler took first place in the Skate Street final at the Vans Invitational today with a 90.17, narrowly beating out Jereme Rogers who took second, with an 89.50.4
 
The contest consisted of 12 skaters at the beginning, they were split up into two heats of six and then the top three from each heat advanced to the final round, which was two jam sessions each dedicated to a specific zone of the course.
 
The first two heats were solid, but the jam sessions were two of the most impressive displays of skateboarding seen yet this year on the Dew Tour. There was a plethora of amazing tricks thrown down in zone one, Greg Lutzka’s cab 270 to frontside bluntslide was a highlight and Nyjah Huston stomped one of the most gorgeous frontside hurricanes any down-bar has ever seen. In zone two Sheckler’s backside flip was the highlight of the table feature, and Rogers was the first to frontside feeble the big down bar.
 
During the second zone of the jam session, they announced the current standings; Sheckler was in second and found himself having to fight for the top spot. Huston was tearing the course apart through the first zone and the beginning of the second, but took a tumble on the flat bar, hitting his head and finding himself on his back. He continued to skate but was never able to rise back to the level he had been skating at.
 
In the end, Sheckler beat Rogers by less than three quarters of a point – so it was a serious battle right down to the last second. One thing that’s clear is that no one proved himself a better skater than anyone else out there today. It was tight and everyone threw down some serious crowd pleasers, so maybe it was just that Sheckler landed more than anyone else, or that his tricks looked better, or that he simply did more of them, but either way he won today and no one disagreed with the results.
 

- Cody Allen