Street League Vacation Part 2 - Street League!

Now that I've unpacked, finished my laundry, and have two days off of work, I think it is time to start part two of my vacation blog. Before I get into it, I first want to say that Wednesday night, Street League made it's television debut on ESPN2 and it was awesome. It was so cool seeing it on TV, and the Glendale, AZ stop was great! It was really anybody's game up until the very last set of tricks and it was so intense to watch. I highly recommend watching stop 2 next Wednesday night on EPSN2, not only because it is the event I was at, but because I promise, it is one of the most exciting sporting events you will ever see.

My brother and I woke up at around 8am on Saturday morning and headed out to Ontario. I knew there would be traffic and we were staying about 45 minutes away. We got to the arena at around 9:45am and not too much was going on, so we headed to a little strip mall across the street and went searching for a Starbucks or Coffee Bean. We found a Starbucks, parked and went in. The second I got up to the counter to order, the girl behind the counter looked at my shirt and said "Hey, is there some sort of event going on?"

"Yeah," I said. "There is a Street League Skateboarding event at the arena over there."

"Oh, because that FAMOUS guy was just in here right before you, you just missed him!" She replied.

Me -"Who, Rob Dyrdek?"

Her - "Yeah, that's him!"

I thought that was pretty funny. I was actually kind of relieved that we didn't run into Rob at Starbucks because it really wasn't my intention to see him everywhere I went. It would have looked kind of weird if we showed up at the same time. Anyways, my brother and I got our drinks and sat down outside for a little bit.

After that, we decided to go to Target because we needed a case of bottled water for our room and a few other things. We parked and went in, and as we were leaving, we saw the Cat Car pull in! What were the chances?! Even though Big Cat did briefly say hello the previous night, my brother never really met him and I never saw the Cat Car in person. Being the huge Fantasy Factory fan that I am, I really wanted a picture with Big Cat and the Cat Car. We waited a few minutes to see if he would come out, and he did. I apologized for bothering him at Target, I explained that we were leaving and saw the car pull in and wanted to say hi. He said it was no problem at all, Big Cat was super nice, he always is. He took a picture with my brother and I, but my brother was kind of nervous and didn't really get too much of the Cat Car in my picture, haha. It was alright, I knew it was there. It was really cool to see in person. I thanked him and told him we will see him later, and then we headed over to the arena.

The morning of the event, I was planning on meeting up with a couple of my friends, both whom I've met through Drama's Young and Reckless street team, the Reckless Rangers. Rob (I'll call him Yusta so you don't get him confused with Dyrdek) and his girlfriend won tickets through a Young and Reckless contest and drove down to Ontario from San Francisco. Lisa, she is from Ontario and she wasn't able to buy a ticket for the event but she really wanted to go and she had made pillows for both me and Rob. Money is really tight for a lot of people right now, me included, but I really felt horrible because she was going to come out to the arena just to give me the pillows so I could give one to Rob. I didn't want her to do all that and not even get to see the event, so I helped out and bought her a ticket. I couldn't afford a lower level one, but the upper level was only $25 so that was doable.

When we pulled into the parking lot, I first saw Yusta and his girlfriend Jessica. It was cool to meet Yusta because we have been chatting on the Young and Reckless board for quite awhile now but we have never met. Both him and Jessica were super nice. I told Lisa I would meet her at the box office so we all walked over there and she was there with the pillows. They were SO CUTE! She made two, one for me and one for Rob, out of Rogue Status fabric. I love it. I bought her the ticket and we walked over to my car so I could drop off my pillow. After that, I saw people checking in already at the Guest Check In will call, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Doors technically didn't open until noon, but I thought getting in early would be awesome. I told Yusta, Jessica and Lisa that I would see them later, hopefully we could meet up after the contest and go over the the meet and greet together. The three of them have never met Rob before and they are all huge fans, so I thought it would be cool if they got to meet him.

We went to check in and they handed us our bracelets and tickets. The tickets were VIP main floor, general admission. We could sit on the floor anywhere we wanted! The bracelets were awesome because they said "Athlete Guest," haha. I've seriously never been a guest of anyone at an event like this, so the whole VIP thing was very awesome. Rob really hooked us up and I am more appreciative than he will ever know. It means so much to me that he gave us such amazing seats. We got in and sat in front row, a little bit off to the side. Perfect seats! I saw Talisha and thanked her again for everything. She really was so amazing to my brother and I. Rob was on the other side of the arena doing press and when he was done, he made his way over and said hi. I could tell he was really busy, this day was HUGE for him. The pro's started making their way to the course and we watched them practice. The arena was still fairly empty and time just flew by because i was concentrating on all the skating happening around me.

Soon it was noon and the doors opened to the public. People kept filling in and it was so awesome to see how many people came out to support Street League. Steve Berra was sitting behind me for awhile talking to someone else and then he went in the back. When he came back out he was standing by himself, so I went up to him to introduce myself. I've had a game of Words With Friends going on with Steve Berra, and I talked to him a little bit before I flew out to Cali, so when I introduced myself he knew who I was. He was super nice. We talked for a minute or so and then I went back to sit down. I've been a fan of Steve Berra for years, so it was really cool to get a chance to meet him.

Rob came out to start things off and everyone in the crowd went crazy for him. I actually took this really awesome picture of Rob with the crowd in front of him. The Last Chance Qualifier was intense, it was close but Nyjah Huston made it in. That meant that the seven skaters in the finals were Nyjah Huston, Chris Cole, Chaz Ortiz, Sean Malto, Paul Rodriguez, Ryan Sheckler and Greg Lutzka. That was a pretty crazy lineup because they are all so incredibly good. Shane O'Neill and Torey Pudwill didn't make it into the finals and they were both sitting behind me for a good chunk of the competition. Tracy walked by with his wife and I said hi to them briefly. The only people who were missing was Chanel (Who had a show out of town), Jeremy and Drama. Drama tweeted that he was on his way, better late than never.

It wasn't difficult to tell when Drama arrived because everyone in the crowd was screaming his name. People put on their drama masks (Young and Reckless was giving them out outside the arena) and Drama looked up at a group of three other Drama's in the crowd and started laughing. So many people wanted to get Drama's attention, there was a point where Rob grabbed the microphone and told Drama to go over and meet this one kid, just so he would stop screaming his name, haha.

The main event started and everyone was skating so well! I tried to take pictures, but my camera didn't take great action shots. I did get some pretty good ones of the skaters while they were waiting for their turn.







In between each of the sections there was a small break so at one point I went up to say hi to Drama. I told Drama I was a Y&R Street Teamer and I think he knew who I was. I told him Yusta drove down here from San Francisco and Drama asked where he was sitting. I pointed him out in the crowd and Drama waved to him.

There were only a few more minutes left of the break so I went back to sit down. It was getting close to the final section and it was REALLY intense. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat and it was really fun to hear both Pudwill and O'Neill get all worked up after every trick. Their commentary was SO AWESOME. The top two were Chaz Ortiz and Sean Malto and Malto ended up winning. I don't want to give too much of the excitement away because you need to watch it on Wednesday. It was a CRAZY ending!

When Malto won, everyone rushed over to him and picked him up. Everyone was SO excited. It was so awesome to watch, it looked like Sean was in a little bit of shock when he realized that he came in first. Rob presented the trophy and check for $150,000 to him. He also got on the microphone and briefly interviewed Chaz Ortiz and Sean Malto and asked Chaz why he picked such a difficult trick when all he had to do was land it and he could have came in first, haha. Chaz was a good sport about it, he said he was really happy for Malto and he deserved it.

After the event, people started clearing out and I told Lisa, Yusta and his GF we would meet them outside of section 117. We got our stuff together and when we went to meet them Yusta was standing with a bunch of the guys in the Y&R crew. I didn't get too much of a chance to meet them, but it was cool seeing everyone in person because I've only ever seen/talked to them online. There was a table with Street Dreams posters and I went and grabbed a few. I've wanted one for so long, haha, I was so excited they had them there. We hung around for a little bit trying to figure out where the meet and greet was, and I bought a Street League program. We figured out that it was outside and we all headed out there. The line to meet Rob was INSANE. There seriously must've been at LEAST 1000 people in it. Probably more. We headed over to the area and stood around for awhile. It was so hot. Ontario, CA hot is way different than Chicago, IL hot. It was a dry heat...but I guess that is normal for the desert. We were standing outside maybe 30 minutes and I got completely sunburned. It's probably because I am so pale, haha.

Rob came out and Talisha was so awesome and she helped us get over to Rob. Talisha has such a tough job but she does an amazing job. She stays calm in chaotic situations and make sure everything runs smoothly. She really is awesome. Rob saw me and he said "Get Carli over here!" He asked if I had fun and I thanked him and told him it really was a dream vacation. I introduced him to Lisa, Yusta, and Jessica and Lisa was able to give Rob the pillow. Rob gave me a hug and I told him hopefully I will see him again sometime soon. He said bye to my brother, told him it was nice getting to meet him, and then that was it. It was super short because like I said, thousands of people were waiting to meet Rob and I didn't want to take a long time. I was happy I got to say goodbye and thank him again, and I was REALLY excited that Yusta, Jessica and Lisa got to meet him.

When we were leaving they pushed us into this other area and Torey Pudwill and Shane O'Neill were sitting there. No one else was really around, it looked like they were getting ready to do a different signing. When they were sitting behind me, I told my brother how awesome it would be to get a picture with both of them together, but I never got a chance to. It must've been "destiny" as Rob would say because there they both were. I asked if I could get a pic really quickly and they were awesome. Torey Pudwill even drew a grizzly bear for Yusta, haha. As I was taking the pic, Sean Malto came out but at that point they wanted to get the line moving so I didn't get a picture with him.

After that, I said my goodbyes to Jessica, Yusta and Lisa, and my brother and I headed home. It was a truly amazing day, I couldn't believe my seats, who I got to meet, and just the overall experience of Street League. It was so much fun. Finally getting a chance to meet Yusta, Jessica and Lisa was great too!

I thought this was the end of my Rob Dyrdek/Street League vacation, and I was 110% satisfied with how things went. I already thanked and said my goodbyes to Rob, but little did I know that Monday, I would get to visit the Fantasy Factory! I will stop this blog right here because it is already running long, but stay tuned for my Fantasy Factory Visit blog!