Photos courtesy of Black Box Distribution.

Professional street skateboarding is a strange little land. If you're lucky and good enough to become one of "those guys," you know, the ones who's names alone can sell skateboards, shoes, jeans, etc. There are some choices to be made. In a way it all depends on how good you are, your position in the pecking order of skateboarding for money, and how your current sponsors want to market you.

You have your strictly core video section, mag shots and demo guys, whose sponsors carefully present them to the skateboarding world, and try to make it look as best they can, that they only want "real" skateboarders to see. These guys wouldn't be caught dead at the X Games or Dew Tour for two reasons. One, it would ruin there image. And two, they're probably not consistent enough to even compete, skate videos are years in the making. The only major contests these guys are allowed to do are Tampa and Maloof, those two made it through "core" boot camp.

Then, you have your mainstream Dew Tour/X Games skaters. It's like the same four guys that win every contest: Sheckler, P-Rod, Chaz Ortiz and Lutzka (I'll get to Cole in a second). They have their skate industry sponsors, and then they have their world industry sponsors, not the skate brand World Industries, but corporations like Toyota, Axe, etc. These companies are what brings these skateboarders to the masses, and in return creates all the "Playa Hatin'" in the skate world. Every member of this crew has had legit video sections, gotten shots in all the mags and does the "core" stuff too, but they're choice to be in a TV show, deodorant ad, or car commercial has lost them their "core" credentials.

There really hasn't been someone who's been able to walk the fine line between the two worlds until Chris Cole. Koston to an extent, but he was never a super dominant force as far as X Games or Dew Tour go. Cole has been in just about every major contest this year, and either won it, or placed high. He is currently 1st in Dew Tour Championship standings, and has been on national television more times this year than Michael Jordan. The only time I saw MJ on TV in 09' was when he got inducted into the Hall of Fame.

At the same time Cole is getting all this mainstream attention, he's getting "core" love too. Mainly, because he puts in his time. He had a rad part in Fallen's Ride The Sky, which equals a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears (skate video sections don't just happen overnight). He destroyed Wallenberg and Thrasher editor, Jake Phelps, declared "it's a Cole world and we all just live in it." He stayed late last week at Jamie Thomas' grass-roots Crossroads Best Trick contest. A comp that anybody could of entered, he was pretty much skating with people that were probably fans of his. For his efforts he won a few hundred dollars (which I think he gave away), he could of made a lot more money up the 5 Freeway inking a deal with some corporation. That's another reason for no Cole hating, last time I checked all his sponsors were skate companies. And just the other day, he was part of the best Battle at the Berrics ever witnessed, where he and Dennis Busenitz put on a technical clinic. No money there, just the best of the best, battling for bragging rights.

If Cole keeps his tightrope act up, he could be one of the most successful street skateboarders of all time. He'll of made a lot of money, hell he just won $100,000 at the Maloof Money Cup, and will of never lost his membership card to the "core" street skateboarding community. We'll see.

Check out the videos below of Cole at Maloof (put the sound on mute for that video because the song is terrible) and of him killing the Black Box skate facility: