The Street League Skateboarding Ontario, CA stop at the Citizen's Bank Arena has come and gone and a few things can be taken in from this past weekend in the Inland Empire (IE). First of all, we have a good idea of which competitors will consistently make the seven man final. We're also getting more evidence who'll be a threat on which types of obstacles. And we now know for sure that the young guys of this league are for real, and are not intimated by their heroes, who are now their competition.

Sean Malto, Nyjah Huston, Paul Rodriguez, Chris Cole and Chaz Ortiz have all made every final of the year. It's only been a total of two, but for now they are the constants and have to be the five favorites to win going into the final stop in Las Vegas. Huston won the Glenadale, AZ stop and finished third at the Ontario stop, so when the official season standings are tallied he should be the mid-season leader. He also further proved he can handle the pressures of this league when he failed to qualify last Friday. He was forced to skate the Last Chance Qualifier, an all out battle between all the competitors who did not make it through, all fighting for the one open spot in the final. Huston was able to land the tricks he needed and skated his way into the main event . Malto won the Ontario stop and finished forth in Glendale, so he should be in the second spot when the season standings are released. He proved he is a major force in this league this past Friday and Saturday by making all but one of the tricks he attempted. He skated a perfect qualifying heat landing 21 of 21 tricks, and 20 out of 21 in the Final.

As the landing percentages are added up and dissected we're going to get a good a idea who the standouts are on which obstacles, and which are going to be the Achilles heel to a few of the guys. Take Ryan Sheckler for example. In Saturday's final he was on lower end leader board going into the final obstacle, the "big" one. And that is Sheckler's zone. The kid goes huge! The Godfather of "going big" in street skateboarding, Jamie Thomas, once said he thinks Sheckler could of kickflipped the "Leap of Faith," a notorious two story ollie in San Diego, now extinct because of the addtion of an elevator shaft. Thomas being the only person to ever land it, an attempt he did not ride away from because he broke his board. The fact that he thinks Sheckler can kickflip it is a testament to the Street League competitor's ability to jump down giant obstacles. Back to the final on Saturday. Sheckler used the kicker at the top of the big four to simply put "go gigantic" three times: a kickflip, a backside 180 and a backside 180 kickflip (his signature move). He fell on a frontside flip and a hard flip that may have made this contest a different story. That said, his three giant tricks propelled him into full possession forth place within striking distance of third, a mere two points separated him and third place finisher Huston.

That's the thing with this league, different guys are going to excel on different parts of the course, making trick selection such a chess match. For example, if PJ Ladd, a ledge skating technical wizard, and David Gonzalez, a guy who loves to throw himself down huge obstacles, were in a final together they would have to know to put down the bangers in their preferred sections. Kind of like their home field. Ladd would have to link his most difficult tech combinations on the ledges, and Gonzalez would have to let it fly on the big stuff.

Another theme of this league is youth. The average age of the top three finishers in Ontario was 17, and in Glendale it was 20, with the winner in Glendale, Huston, being only 15, and the Ontario winner, Malto, a fresh 21 (his birthday was on the Thursday before the contest). So, it is safe to say the young guys of this league are handling the pressure well, with both teenagers of the league making both finals, the above mentioned Huston, and Ortiz, who is 16. Although, Ortiz did have a bit of an unraveling in Ontario when he fell on his last trick, giving Malto the win. He had been winning most of the final and was the last skater of the day. All he had to do was score a 2.0 or higher, a rather low score in Street League. He went for a crooked grind on the out rail of the big section, a harder trick than he needed to attempt. Thus, a mental mistake may have cost the teenager $70,000 since he missed out on the $150,000 first prize, and had to settle for the $80,000 that went with second. Besides that though ,he had been composed for the rest of the day, and will certainly learn from his mistake.

As Street League heads to it's final stop in 2010, Las Vegas, NV, there are still a few things up in the air. Will the same five guys be in every final? Or, will a few of the league heavyweights who haven't made both finals so far (just one or the other) such as: Torey Pudwill, Shane "Nugget" O'Neill, Ryan Sheckler and Greg Lutzka be able to shake things up a bit. Also, will any of the strictly video guys, who only flirt with contests like: Mark Appleyard, Marc Johnson, Brandon Biebel, PJ Ladd, Dyaln Reider, ect. ever make a final. We'll see.