Santa Cruz native Raven Tershy made the most of his first appearance at X Games when he bettered the score of last years park champion Pedro Barros to win X Games Gold.



After qualifying fourth in the elimination round, Tershy gained momentum in round one finishing as the top qualifier going into the finals against Ben Hatchell, Kevin Kowalski, Omar Hassan and Barros.

After 3 runs in the finals Barros appeared to have the win locked up with a combined score of 81 points. He was throwing down 540's all over the place; stalefish 540's, melon 540's, and indy nosebone 540's.

In Tershy's second to last run, he put together the perfect line combining massive transfers with technical tight lines. The crowd went nuts when he earned a 44 out of 50 which was enough to get the score to edge out Barros 82-81 for the X Games Gold.

"I'm stoked. I wasn't expecting this," Tershy said. "It was a great time."

On his last run having no idea he already had the highest score Tershy took a hard fall as he went for broke right before the buzzer for what he thought was his last chance to beat Barros. He stayed down for a few minutes but quickly felt better when he learned he just won the comp.
Raven Tershy realizes he the X Games 17 Skateboard Park Champ

The bright lights and cameras never seemed to bother Tershy as he ripped the coarse apart all contest. He has quietly made a name for himself on the bowl circuit with a win in June at the 2011 Copenhagen Pro Bowl Jam and now with his X Games Gold.

Top Qualifier from the elimination round Ben Hatchell completed his successful X Games campaign with a third place finish.

Super Grom Curren Caples was forced to withdraw from competition before it even started as he took a massive fall during practice sustaining a concussion.

Official Results:
1. Raven Tershy 44 + 38 = 82
2. Pedro Barros 41 + 40 = 81
3. Ben Hatchell 39 + 36 = 75
4. Omar Hassan 35 + 31 = 66
5. Kevin Kowalski 34 + 32 = 66