Cole and Perelson to defend titles at Maloof Money Cup, skateboarding’s biggest payday

Cole, Perelson defend skateboarding’s top titles

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Chris Cole and Alex Perelson will defend their street and vert titles next month at the third Maloof Money Cup, skateboarding’s biggest payday.

Cole is looking for his third straight $100,000 prize, having won the title at last year’s Maloof Money Cup as well as last month’s inaugural Maloof Money Cup New York.

Perelson, a San Diego teenager, won last year’s vert title and $75,000 after becoming the fourth person to land a 900-degree rotation, or 2 1/2 spins, at a major competition. Tony Hawk, also from San Diego, was the first to do it, 10 years earlier.

The Maloof Money Cup, set for Aug. 4-8 at the Orange County Fairgrounds, is sponsored by Joe and Gavin Maloof, the brothers who own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

Cole and Perelson will have some tough competition, including Bastien Salabanzi, Ryan Decenzo, Peter Ramondetta, David Gonzalez, Keegan Sauder, Geoff Rowley, Tommy Sandoval, Dennis Busenitz, Justin Brock, Anthony Van Engelen, Bob Burnquist, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Rune Glifberg and Bucky Lasek.

Gagnon was the 2008 Maloof Money Cup vert champion.

The Maloof Money Cup will start with a Masters of Street and a Masters of Vert demo featuring skating such as Christian Hosoi, Steve Caballero, Jesse Martinez, Ron Allen, Lance Mountain, Eddie Reategui, Eric Dressen, Chris Miller, Lester Kasai, Steve Steadham, Duane Peters, Tony Magnusson, Kevin Staab, Jeff Grosso, Eric Nash, Ben Schroeder, Pat Ngoho and Mike Mcgill.