Pierre Luc-Gagnon got the better of Shaun White once again as he won the Dew Tour Championships in Las Vegas this past weekend. With the win PLG earned his third overall Dew Cup Title.

The rivalry continues for these two as they have squared off in three finals this year. PLG holds the advantage over White with two wins on the Dew Tour but Shaun won the big one at X Games 17.

PLG's winning run of a kickflip body varial 540, 720, switch heelflip 360 and a nollie heelflip indy 360 earned him a 92.00, just enough to hold of White's 91.50.

"I'm so excited to win the Dew Cup again," said PLG following his win. "This is what I'm working for all year. I'm glad it's over, I've been nervous all day. Now I get to relax and stop growing gray hair."



Bucky Lasek who sat in second place in the overall standings coming into the event finished in third in both the championships and the over Dew Cup standings.

Skate Vert Final Results
1.Pierre-Luc Gagnon 92.00.
2. Shaun White 91.50.
3. Bucky Lasek 88.50.
4. Pedro Barros, Brazil 84.50.
5. Andy Macdonald 83.50.

The overall Vert Dew Cup comes down to the last event of the season in Las Vegas as the three-headed vert monster which includes Bucky Lasek, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, and Shaun White battle it out for the title.

Defending Dew Cup champ PLG has the overall season lead with 190 points over Bucky Lasek heading into the Dew Tour Championships in Las Vegas this weekend.

Lasek is eight points behind with 182. If Bucky comes out on top in Vegas he'll collect his fourth Dew Cup. "I just fell short on one last trick before I was going to bring my last three tricks that were new and technical," he said after finishing third in Salt Lake.

Not too far behind sitting in third with 172 points is Shaun White, who collected his first and only vert Cup in 2007. In order to secure the Cup this year, he needs to win in Vegas and PLG must finish third or lower.

"I'm not out here to beat Shaun, I want to win," Gagnon said. "Whether he gets second or third, I'm just trying to win the contest. I just got to worry about what I want to do. I can't stop the way Shaun or Bucky or anyone is skating. All I can do is better myself to skate better at each event. If you start worrying about other people, it throws your focus off."

White said winning the Cup this season would be unreal.

"Just coming off these pretty heavy snowboard seasons, they take their toll on me," White said. "It's a whole different set of tricks and style of competing. So when I show up here it's extremely refreshing, but it's still frustrating. I got to relearn old tricks, I got to make up new tricks. I got to put it all together and hope to win. But the goal obviously is taking the whole Cup."

Watch the drama unfold on Sunday, October 16 on the ramp above the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino or live on NBC.

Photos courtesy of Alli Sports.

X Games 17 will officially get underway with Skateboard Park, one of the more fast and free flowing competitions at X. The custom-built concrete course is design for both skateboard and BMX park. The challenging course needs to satisfy both the skaters and the riders therefore making it extremely difficult to dial in their lines.
Veteran Rune Gliffberg and 15-year-old Curren Caples trying to figure out their lines in practice

This year's course is smaller than years past which will make skating tight and technical park lines especially critical if you want to win.

Veteran skater Andy MacDonald recently said this year's course will favor the younger generation of skaters who grew up skating more than just pool and vert.

Sixteen-year-old Pedro Barros fresh off his victory at the Dew Tour Open will look to repeat his gold medal performance last year at X Games. Super Grom Curren Caples style is suited well for this park coarse, plus he doesn't seem to mind the pressure of the big stage.
Pedro Barros looking to repeat as champion.

So much hype has been made of the older guys like Bucky Lasek, MacDonald, and Rune Gliffberg passing the torch to the new generation, but after watching practice on Wednesday we're not so sure their ready.

Gliffberg who won in 2008 and 2009 seem to have his line dialed while Barros was struggling to complete his tricks.

That was practice, everything changes as the cameras turn on and the lights shine bright.

Round 1 and the finals are Thursday at 5pm. Check out GrindTV's facebook and twitter as we will bring you live updates from X Games.


Omar Hassan continued to lock in his run. After several attempts he seemed happy with what he found.

Curren Caples looks like he's surfing with incredible flow from wall to wall.

The class of Skateboard Vert for the past decade or so showed once again he's not ready to pass the torch quite yet. On his final run of the competition Bucky Lasek found his rhythm landing combo after combo, including a fakie to fakie 540 and a McTwist 540 earning a score of 88.50 which was enough to take the lead from Pierre-Luc Gagnon.

After a long rain delay which included the evacuation of the competitors, staff, and fans from the beach due to lighting concerns one of the most competitive vert comps was set to go in Ocean City Maryland.

PLG had an opportunity to regain the lead but was unable to link together enough tricks to better Lasek's 88.50. The Vert competition is better than ever with the crop of young talent nipping at the heels of the experienced guys. Fourteen-year-old Mitchie Brusco finished in 6th place at his first ever Dew Tour while Skate Bowl champ Pedro Barros proved his abilities translate to the vert finishing in 4th.

Shaun White was back on a skateboard once again proving he's a serious contender in Vert but will have some work to do if he plans on winning this week at X Games.

As you would expect Lasek was ecstatic after his comeback victory "Oh man, I'm speechless right now, I guess I just like the pressure. I need something to push me and Pierre killed it. Shaun was ripping. Pedro was on fire. Adam, I've never seen him skate that good. And it was just go time. I think I just used that and I went off their momentum."

His excitement from his win won't last long as the competition resumes in Los Angeles on Saturday night as these guys battle it out for Gold at X Games 17.

Official results form the Dew Tour Pantech Open-
1 Bucky Lasek 88.50
2 Pierre-Luc Gagnon 87.75
3 Shaun White 86.25
4 Pedro Barros 82.50
5 Adam Taylor 77.25

photos courtesy of Alli Sports.

Back in May of this year, Bucky Lasek was primed for a 3-peat at the Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party. According to all accounts he was skating as good as ever, that was until he broke his ankle filming for a GoPro commercial in his backyard bowl days before the contest.

In an interview with ESPN Bucky said "I had cameras all over me so when I fell I was fumbling and tried to save the cameras, landed kind of low and put my foot down and just snapped it."

Fast forward almost 3 months later and Bucky is back feeling good and ready to compete at the first stop on the Dew Tour as well as X Games 17 later this month.

With Bucky set to compete again GoPro finally feeling better about what happened has released the commercial they were filming while he got hurt.

After watching the footage of Bucky and Andy Macdonald tearing apart his backyard bowl including an insane hand plant off the GoPro van, the injury may have indeed been worth it; at least for us the fans, but probably not for Bucky who had to live with a broken ankle.