As you all know by now, Shane O’Neill took the win over the weekend at the Street League finals in Las Vegas. The event came down to a trick for trick finale in the big section in which Chris Cole missed a huge kickflip over the replica Rincon eight stair and put the US$150k firmly within O’Neill’s grasp. His back lip saw Rob Dyrdek handing over the cheque and the trophy to an ecstatic O’Neill. I caught up with the man briefly last night…

First up, congratulations on the win Shane. You must be stoked. Sean Malto was paying off a mortgage with his stop two winnings, what have you got planned? I hear you can pick up a nice Porsche for around that figure…
Thanks alot! I’m so psyched, it was a great day. There are a few people from this years Street League that will be chillin’ for a while with their winnings. [Laughs] I am just going to save it up, I don’t think I’ll be getting a Porsche, I’m probably going to get taxed pretty hard too. [Laughs]

You finished on 146.0 with 3 times MMC winner Chris Cole right behind you on 143.8. When Cole lost it on that last kickflip, did that cause you to change your final trick? Were you just focussed on what you were doing or were you aware that it was yours to lose on that run?
In Street League you can see the scores the whole time so before Chris tried the kickflip he was two points ahead of me, if he had made it he probbly would have been about six or seven points ahead of me which would mean I would have to try something really hard. My options were switch flip back lip if he made it and just a backside lip if he didn’t because I’d only need two points to win.

Is strategy a big part of the contest for everyone now that you can each see everyone’s score progression?
Yeah, it is. I just skate like normal and try to land whatever tricks I can do. Usually, for me, I come up with the most points in the ledge sections. A lot of the other competitors seem to be a little more strategic than myself  because I try different tricks.

Street League is only in its first season, how was it competing in the new competition format and with the new instant scoring system running? Did it change how you approached the contest at all?
It’s amazing because you know what’s going on the whole time and there’s no way for anyone to get cheated for the win. I just do whatever tricks I feel like doing on the day at contests… It seems to work out alright for me.

There has been a lot made in the media of the rivalry between Street League and the Maloof Money Cup. What’s your feeling on that? Is there a consensus between the riders that SL has the initiative and will be the dominant contest or do you think the MMC will reassert itself  before next year?
I know that Street League is a better contest, it’s so fun for us skaters and the way its run it isn’t tiring. I also think with all of the main winners of the Maloof contest now being in Street League it will give a lot of others professional skaters the chance to win the Maloof contest, which is awesome.

What’s on the cards now? Are you coming home or have you got more time in the US still to go?
Wednesday night is the Battle at the Berrics finals so hopefully I can do well in that also. Other than that, I’ll just be heading over to Spain for 10 days to film for the new Transworld video, then heading back to Melbourne for a while and just have fun and skate.

Thanks for your time Shane. Congratulations again and best of luck for Wednesday!

(Thanks to Chris MIddlebrook at Nike SB for his help in getting this together)