Kobe, Snoop Dogg drop in on Maloof Money Cup; Burnquist rides rail to top spot in vert semis

Burnquist tops vert semis at Maloof Money Cup

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Kobe Bryant and Snoop Dogg gave the Maloof Money Cup skateboarding championships some celebrity buzz.

Bob Burnquist gave it some good skating.

Burnquist, best known as the guy who rode a skateboard into the Grand Canyon three years ago, had the best score in the semifinals of the vert competition Saturday afternoon at the Orange County Fairgrounds. He and five others advanced to the finals on Sunday. They’ll join Pierre-Luc Gagnon, who as the defending champion was prequalified all the way to the finals.

Burnquist appears ready to give Gagnon a run for the $75,000 top prize. The Brazilian has mastered the mini mega ramp and the rail that skaters grind across before dropping into the half pipe.

Burnquist is familiar with the rail, having ridden a similar but larger one into the Grand Canyon. He parachuted the rest of the way in.

“The idea’s there, but definitely a different scale,” said Burnquist, who now lives in northern San Diego County, where he has a huge ramp in his backyard. The rail he rode into the Grand Canyon was about 30 feet long; the one here is about 15 feet long.

“It just feels good to be able to skate and the ramp design worked out,” said Burnquist, who helped refine the mini mega ramp idea along with Gagnon and Jake Brown. “Everyone was excited about the format. It’s loose. The rail jump felt really good and I wanted to do well there so I could cruise on the vert ramp.”

Burnquist had the best score on the rail, in the half pipe and overall.

He landed several different rail grinds, both regular-footed and switch-footed.

“I had a list in my head and it all worked out,” he said. “I did a switch shove-it board slide in the end that was really technical, something that I wanted to save for finals but I wanted to see how big I could get it and it happened right at the buzzer so it was really nice.”

Alex Perelson, who got the last spot in the finals, tried a few 900s, failing to land them.

“But he’s going to,” Burnquist said. “I think we might be seeing that tomorrow. That’s exciting.”

Bryant, who led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA championship last month, caused a stir when he entered the outdoor arena to watch the semifinals of the street competition. Bryant knows top street skater Paul Rodriguez, the defending Maloof Money Cup champion who’s trying to win $100,000 for the second straight year.

Snoop Dogg gave a brief concert in between the vert and street competition, telling the skaters to “Get your roll on.”

The Maloof Money Cup is sponsored by Joe and Gavin Maloof, the brothers who own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. It’s the biggest payday in skateboarding, with some $450,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs.

While it might still seem odd that mainstream sports owners are paying attention to skateboarding, the Maloof Money Cup has quickly gained credibility with insiders.

“I think this type of event is the beginning of what you’re going to see of skateboarding,” said Pierre Andre Senizergues, the CEO and owner of Etnies, which makes skate shoes and clothing and is a presenting sponsor of the Maloof Money Cup.

“For so many years skateboarding has been kind of undercover. People realize the dedication and passion kids are putting into skateboarding. Now you’re going to see more and more on TV because more and more kids are actually influenced, or they see it on TV or they see other kids wearing skateboard products, that they actually want to be part of the culture.”

Etnies has put on skateboarding competitions over the years, so Joe Maloof came to Senizergues when he decided to branch out from running basketball camps and into some kind of skateboarding competition.

“He was seeing a lot of kids skating. Pretty soon he realized there actually are a lot of skateboarders,” Senizergues said. “Actually there are like more skateboarders in the United States than kids playing baseball. So it’s huge. But you don’t necessarily see them all the time. They skate in little groups, like a little tribe, so it’s hard to see them. But there are a lot of them. So he realized that, wow, maybe they should do a skateboard contest.”