Poway skateboarder has all the right moves

Brendon Villanueva has a date in Salt Lake City in September, one that could give him his big break in the world of professional skateboarding.

The 16-year-old Powegian will be competing in the Gatorade Free Flow Tour Finals, scheduled for Sept. 16-19 in Utah during the Dew Tour’s Toyota Challenge. The winner will earn a chance to compete against professional skaters in the Dew Tour in Las Vegas in October.

Villanueva earned his way to the final last month, when he won a regional skate park competition at the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA in Encinitas.

According to the event’s website, the competition aims to give skaters and bike riders — the tour added a BMX dirt bike competition this year — of all skill levels the opportunity to have fun and compete, while finding top talent. The competition is open to those 21 and under.

Some who have taken part in the 6-year-old competition have gone on to compete professionally, such as Chaz Ortiz, who won the Dew Cup’s skate park competition in 2008.

This is the second time that Villanueva will head to the finals in Salt Lake. Last year he finished in third place at the finals.

“I’m just pretty happy to be going back,” Villanueva said. “It’s super fun and I really like being in contests.”

He said the competition is set in a professional-level course.

“It was probably the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” Villanueva said. “Getting that far and placing third was great, especially when there were so many good skaters out there.”

He said that the fact that last year’s winner is now a part of the Dew Tour and skating professionally has given him motivation to try harder to win it all.

After last year’s finish, Villanueva said he’s been trying to learn new and more complicated tricks, as well as entering skating competitions. His repertoire includes hard flips, kickflips and grinding on rails.

Villanueva said he practices daily, skating about six hours a day at the Poway Skate Park and other areas around San Diego.

“I just try to get down all my tricks and not fall as much, just focusing on my skating and on landing tricks,” he said. “When I’m trying to do something new, I just go for it and keep practicing until I land it and get it done.”

He said most tricks take him about a day and a couple of hours of practice to learn. Others can take days.

Villanueva, who is a former Poway High student, changed to Internet-based schooling this past school year. He said next year he plans to attend a charter school that will allow him to go to school for three days a week, so that he can focus on skating.

“I want to become a professional, so I have to practice a lot and keep skating,” he said.

He said that even if the finals don’t pan out for him, he’s still working on turning professional.

“You have to skate a lot and skate with the right people,” he said. He’s currently shooting a street skating video with friends, said Villanueva, adding that he’s hoping that the display will lead to magazine coverage and other opportunities..

Villanueva is currently sponsored by K5, Neff Headwear and Powell flow.

No related posts.

Short URL: http://www.pomeradonews.com/?p=5172

Posted by unestidstwern on Jul 8 2010. Filed under Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry