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.
 
 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.
 
 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 8th 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.


Skateboard Street Men’s Final Results
 
 Final standings from the Skateboard Street Men’s competition held at The Home Depot Center in Los Angeles, Calif. on August 1, 2009.
 
 
        Name/Rank            Hometown                      Score   
 1.    Paul Rodriguez        Northridge, Calif.             390.00
 2.    Nyjah Huston         Huntington Beach, Calif.    364.00
 3.    Adam Dyet             Salt Lake City, Utah          349.00
 4.    Rodolfo Ramos        Florianopolis, Brazil          348.00
 5.    Nick Dompierre       New Bedford, Mass.         310.00
 6.    Ryan Sheckler         San Clemente, Calif.        221.00


Laura Austin Photos