Ryan Decenzo emerges triumphant in Skateboard Game of SK8 – X Games 17 Update
After winning his first X Games gold medal in Skateboard Real Street video contest on Saturday, Ryan Decenzo made his X Games 17 campaign even more memorable by walking away with a gold medal from the Skateboard Game of SK8 contest that went down at the
Event Deck at L.A Live in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday, July 31.
Skateboard Game of Sk8 had a rather unique format, where the leadoff skater attempted a trick and the next skater had to try and imitate that trick. If the skater failed to imitate the trick of his predecessor, he received a letter and the next skater attempted
a new trick. Once a skater received three letters, i.e. spelled out S-K-8, he was eliminated.
The line-up for Sunday’s Game of S8 contest was initially comprised of the top three skaters in X Games Real Street video contest of Saturday, namely Silas Baxter-Neal, Decenzo and Daewon Song, along with Real Street Fan Favourite, Brandon Westgate. However,
a last-minute decision by Song to pull out of the event left a void in the line-up, which was filled up by Austyn Gillette.
Once the competition started, the 20-year-old Gillette was the first one to get eliminated after a failed attempt at a front-side kick-flip over the bump-to-bar.
Winner of Saturday’s Skateboard Real Street video contest, Baxter-Neal, was the next one to get removed from the contention for the gold medal. He failed to imitate Westgate’s Ollie up onto the loading dock obstacle successfully.
With Gillette and Baxter-Neal out, the battle became real intense as Decenzo and Westgate, both on their last life, dug deep in their bag of tricks to bring out the most technical trick in their arsenal.
The fate of the contest got decided after Decenzo pulled off a switch-stance feeble. Westgate bailed on the trick and ended up conceding victory to his rival.
After winning his second X Games medal in less than 48 hours, an ecstatic Decenzo said, “Skating yesterday was rad, but this is totally different. Much more relaxed and jamming and a great time. The guys had me on edge for sure. Silas with the back-tail,
an Ollie backside flip and stuff like that. I hadn't done any of these tricks at all on this course.”
A silver medal in Real Street video contest had led Decenzo to party real hard throughout Saturday night, even putting his next day appearance at Game of SK8 at risk. One can only imagine the extent of celebrations that must gone on after the Canadian collected
an X Games gold. Collecting three medals in his first two years of X Games, Decenzo seems to have warmed up to the X Games stage pretty well.
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