Gatorade recently funded a three-part video series featuring two of their team skaters Chaz Ortiz and Sean Malto. In part 1 of the series the duo cruise the streets of Austin Texas, searching out skate spots, while attempting to meet up. It eventually turns into a classic game of phone tag.

Besides the high quality filmmaking of Mike Gilbert and the rad song from Bibio, the thing that stands out the most from part 1 is the fact that Sean Malto wakes up in a Hyundai sedan.

Last year Malto won the 2nd stop of Street League earning himself $150,000, not too mention his main sponsors are Gatorade and Etnies. I'm not saying he needs to buy a Bentley, but he might want to get something a little larger if he plans to sleep in his car more often.

Check out the first part of the three part series.

GRIND TV Newswire via Alli Sports:Vegas, Nev. - Friday, October 15, 2010 - Chaz Ortiz of Chicago, Ill. won the skateboard park final at the Dew Tour Championships, crowning him the overall Dew Cup Champion for the second time in his Dew Tour career.

Ortiz's victory came after an intense final jam under the lights at famed concert venue, The Joint by Rogue. The six-man jam consisted of prior Dew Cup Champion Ryan Sheckler, of San Clemente, Calif., Canada's Ryan Decenzo, Mexico's Mario Saenz and 15-year-old Alec Majerus of Rochester, Minn. Majerus, the winner of the 2010 Gatorade Free Flow Tour, the Dew Tour's official amateur series, competed with the pros for the first time in his career at the Dew Tour Championships, making it all the way to the final jam.

Sheckler, age 20, was at the top of the leader board heading into the final jam, however 16-year-old Ortiz wowed the crowd by going big over the gap and on the rails, throwing out tricks like a nollie feeble 360, tre flip over the big gap, a smooth kickflip backflip and a kickflip front feeble, ending with a winning score of 91.50. Decenzo, age 24, showed enough consistency throughout his runs to place second with an 89.25, placing him fourth overall in the Dew Tour rankings. Sheckler rounded out the podium in third with an 83.10, which earned him the second place position in overall Dew Tour rankings.

"Ryan and I like skating courses like the one tonight, so it really just worked out. After he was in the lead going into the final jam, I knew I had to pull out some big stuff," said Ortiz. "Winning the Dew Cup feels amazing. I came in just wanting to win this contest, and to just win it all is so nuts. I am so happy."

Greg Lutzka, the lead contender for the Dew Cup heading into the Championships, didn't earn enough points to make it to the final jam, causing him to place tenth in the final and third overall in the 2010 Dew Tour season.

The four-day skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross event will continue tomorrow with BMX park and BMX dirt finals along with Hart & Huntington's freestyle motocross Best Whip contest. Sunday's events include BMX and skateboard vert finals at the HRH Beach Club pool and the Dew Cup awards ceremony and Wavves concert at The Joint by Rogue to conclude the 2010 season.

Dew Tour Championships
Friday, October 15, 2010
Las Vegas, Nev. - Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

Skateboard Park Finals
1.Chaz Ortiz, Chicago, Ill., 91.50. 2. Ryan Decenzo, Canada, 89.25 3. Ryan Sheckler, San Clemente, Calif., 83.10 4. Mario Saenz, Mexico, 82.48. 5. Alec Majerus, Rochester, Minn., 82.15. 6. Timmy Knuth, Melbourne, Fla., 81.43. 7. Philippe Zwijsen, Belgium, 77.95. 8. Sierra Fellers, Whitefish, Mont., 77.50. 9. Fabrizio Santos, Brazil, 70.20. 10. Greg Lutzka, Milwaukee, Minn., 68.30. 11. Robert Lopez Mont, Puerto Rico, 67.85. 12. Eli Reed, Boston, Mass., 63.50.
Skateboard Park - Tour Rankings
1. Chaz Ortiz, 414. 2. Ryan Sheckler, 371. 3. Greg Lutzka, 358. 4. Ryan Decenzo, 307. 5. Sierra Fellers, 257. 6. Mario Saenz, 244. 7. Paul Rodriguez, 240. 8. Fabrizio Santos, 219. 9. Bastien Salabanzi, 204. 10. Danilo Do Rosario, 201.

It all comes down this. The overall Dew Tour Park Championship will be decided this weekend in Las Vegas, NV, a city where dreams are made and nightmares are cubed. A wise man once told me that the more glitter and lights a place has, the more it lacks substance. That may be the case most of the year in this isolated city of sin, but this week the Dew Tour Championships are in town.

Due to a scoring boost at the Championships the overall title in this division is wide open with Greg Lutzka being the favorite to win. All he has to do is win or finish second and he'll have his first Dew Tour Championship. And guess what? This year he has only finished first or second. He's about as consistent as it gets on the Dew Tour, and doesn't seem to be affected by pressure. Plus, he always has "The Lutzka" in his pocket, a front 270 to frontside boardslide and Vegas is guaranteed to see that one come Saturday. If Lutzka can continue his 2010 ways it's his.

Chaz Ortiz, Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez and Bastien Salabanzi are the four others who have a shot, but they are going to need some help from one or two of the other competitors. Help that won't be willingly given out.

In the second place slot going into Vegas is sixteen year-old, Chaz Ortiz. He's sitting in pretty good striking distance since he only needs one person to slip. If Lutzka finishes forth or lower and he wins or gets second he'll have his second title. And if there is a Lutzka slip, Ortiz will more than likely take advantage because as tour event announcer, Dave Duncan, would say, "he's coming in hot." And by "hot" I mean he won the last stop in Salt Lake City, UT and finished second at the Ontario, CA Street League event, with a mental mistake on his last trick being the difference. Not to mention, there isn't a single contender in this that finished ahead of Ortiz at any of the Street League stops. Dew Tour and Street League may be two different formats, but this is still skateboarding.

After Ortiz the hopes dwindle a bit, but there's still a shot. In third place overall this year is Ryan Sheckler. The ex-reality television star is about as competitive as it gets in skateboarding, and will be just itching to win his third Dew Tour Championship. He is however going to need some help from not just one, but two competitors. He needs to win which is always a possibly, and he'll need Lutzka to finish forth or lower, and Ortiz third or lower. From the looks of the course there will be several opportunities to get burly, and Sheckler always looks to go big and that's where he can separate himself from the others. Expect to see more than a few huge kickflip variations from this guy.

Next, sitting in forth, is the 2010 Wendy's Invitational (Dew Tour stop 2) winner Paul Rodriguez (P-Rod). If P-Rod is feeling it, he's almost unbeatable. He just gets into a cruise control like state and will just bombard the judges with all kinds of switch and nollie tricks. Like Sheckler he needs to win, but unlike Sheckler he needs reluctant help from three other competitors. He is going to need Lutzka to finish fifth or lower, Ortiz third or lower and Sheckler second or lower. Not totally out of the picture, but it is asking a lot.

Then there's Bastien Salabanzi, who the skateboarding world is so glad to have back after a bit of a European sabbatical. He first popped up earlier this year at the New York City Maloof, then did every stop of the Dew Tour with another Maloof appearance in between. Salabanzi is a skateboarder's skateboarder. I can remember talking to P-Rod in Boston during the first Dew Tour stop and he asked with the enthusiasm of a fan, "Did you see Bastein's heat? How'd he look?" That's the kind of respect this guy gets. He doesn't have much of a chance, so it's not worth going over what has to happen. I'll put it like this; he needs a plane crash, or an earthquake, or a few Jeremy Rogers-like spur-of-the-moment retirements, but you never know. And how good were his parts in those Flip videos.

There you have it. Everything comes down to Sin City with Greg Lutzka being the only competitor controlling his own destiny. It is Vegas, so I guess we can expect the unexpectable, but if everything goes as it has been we'll have a new Dew Tour Champion in 2010. And if he and a few others falter, it may get wild. We'll see.

Photos:

Greg Lutzka fronside noseblunt via Allied Sports

Chaz Ortiz and Ryan Sheckler via Allied Sports

Chaz Ortiz has been on a roll lately. A second place finish at the most recent Street League event follwed by a win at this past weekend's stop of the Dew Tour, The Toyota Challenge in Salt Lake City, UT. He's a contest machine, but in between contests Ortiz also films real street skateboarding, and consistently gets clips clips. Check out this Chaz Skates All Day video courtesy of Gatorade:

What was the biggest mistake you made when you were sixteen? If you've yet to reach that age, then what is the biggest mistake you've made so far in life. For most people the list of big mistakes in their sixteenth year goes something like: bad grades in school, a fender bender in your parents car, or maybe getting caught experimenting with some substances. For a few of you on the high end of the gnar scale it could be the creation of a life, or a jail stint of some sort. But for the most part mistakes at this age aren't the biggest of deals.

When I was sixteen the biggest mistake I made was answering a dare to run across the street barefoot after a street paver had just gone by. Some second degree burns on the bottoms of my feet, and what ever my mom's health insurance co-pay was later and a grand total of the error in judgment could of been determined. Probably around fifty bucks for everything medical and a few weeks off my feet.

For pro skateboarder, Chaz Ortiz, the biggest mistake he made so far this year, his sixteenth, may have cost him $70,000, the monetary difference between finishing first and second in Street League Skateboarding. Ortiz, who is one of the best young competitive street skateboarders in the game was on his way to a victory two weekend's ago. Known for being very consistent he was landing everything in the Final. Difficult trick after difficult trick he just he seemed to be locked into cruise control with his destination first place. This would of been his first Street League victory, in only the second contest in the league's history.

All final long he had been making extrmely difficult technical combinations look effortless, and when his day was one trick from being over, all he had to do was land a trick worth 2.0 or higher, a rather low score in Street League. After the contest he would say it was the most nervous he's ever been in his life, which may be the reason for what happened next. Ortiz attempted a crooked grind on the out rail, otherwise known as the nutcracker special - it was a high rail. It was a much harder maneuver than he had to attempt. The rest is history, his truck got stuck, and he kicked his board and $70,000 (the difference between first and second place) away.

At the press conference after the contest Street League founder and skateboarding legend, Rob Dyrdek, asked the youngster why he chose the trick he did. It was a very tongue and cheek question, and most in attendance couldn't help but snicker. Rob does have a very comical way of putting things, enough so that he's earned himself a spot as a legit television personality on MTV. Ortiz couldn't really put into words what he was feeling.

One thing Rob and the rest of us have to remember is hindsight is 20/20; I know cliche, but I've always wanted to type that. Anyway, Ortiz was sixteen years-old and skateboarding in an arena full skateboarders, soccer moms, celebrities and a good chunk of the skateboard industry. All eyes were on him to do one trick on an obstacle he could of probably done at least fifty. There was no coach to weigh out trick selection options for him. It was just one sixteen year-old, by himself, making a decision that may have won him $150,000. He chose a harder move than he needed, which isn't a total mistake, he could of chose a move not difficult enough, and he even could of even stuck the crook and pocket 150K.

That was two weekends ago. I've heard the true test of a competitor is how well they bounce back from a disappointing loss. Well, this past weekend was Ortiz's opportunity. He would be skating in another contest, this time on the Dew Tour at the Toyota Challenge in Salt Lake City, Utah. A contest series he was in the running to win. He and Greg Lutzka had been the standouts all year, and the favorites to win the overall the championship.

All Ortiz had to do was finish ahead of Lutkza and he'd have good shot at the Dew Tour Skateboard Park Championship going into the final stop in Las Vegas. On the Dew Tour this year finishing ahead of Lutzka practically means you have to win the contest . Well guess what? The kid bounced back from his very public mental mistake, and won the contest by The Great Salt Lake, edging out ratings leader, Lutzka, who finished second.

I think it can go down as a very important win in his career. He proved he can stay composed, even after things go wrong, and finish on top. Now, he has back-to-back Vegas contest coming up. Sin City is the final stop of both Street League Skateboarding and the Dew Tour. If things go right for Ortiz, he could walk away as overall champ of both leagues. The fact that he is only sixteen could work to his advantage in Vegas since he's not of age to get distracted, unlike most of his competition.

Photos: Elsa via Getty Images