Shane O’Neill & Lacey Baker are the 2016 SLS Super Crown champions

Shane O’Neill is the 2016 SLS Super Crown champion. Winning it was no easy feat. In order for him to emerge victorious in his fifth Super Crown appearance, he had to withstand a feverish final round of Best Trick attempts that featured a flurry of 9 Club scores. O’Neill has been on point virtually all tour. Earlier this year he won a Golden Ticket at the Tampa Pro contest and he took first at the SLS Nike SB Pro Open in Barcelona. Nyjah Huston took home second place this evening. And Cody McEntire finished in third. The final results were up in the air for most of the contest with no clear-cut or established frontrunner. In prime SLS fashion, with every attempt taken the standings were shaken up. 

Early on, with the way Chris Joslin was skating it looked like another rookie was going to win the Super Crown similar to Kelvin Hoefler last year. At the end of the Run section, Joslin was on top with an 18.2. He literally set a rookie Super Crown record by earning a 9 Club score on his first run and then following that up with another 9 Club score, a 9.2. The only people to come close were Shane O’Neill and Nyjah Huston who had 17.2 and 16.5, respectively.

O’Neill turned up the heat in the best trick section where he separated himself from everyone else with consecutive 9 Club scores. His first score was a 9 for a switch tre switch lipslide. Huston earned an 8.8 for a gap to nose bluntslide. On attempt two, Huston stepped into 9 Club territory with a kickflip front boardslide for a 9.3. Cody McEntire landed a euro-gap-clearing backside flip for an 8. And then on his third attempt, Cody put down a switch flip backside lipslide for an 8.3.

On O’Neill’s third try he landed a switch flip front boardslide for a 9. The only other person to land a trick was Paul Rodriguez for another 9 Club score—a 9.2 for a nollie crooked grind nollie heelflip out on the ledge.

Despite missing it on his first three attempts, Joslin succeeded on his fourth go at the ollie to fakie from one quarter pipe wall to the other. He lost out on points because it took so many tries. That trick was so impressive that the crowd went nuts and the judges scored it a 9.5—which was the highest scored trick of the day. 

Including Joslin’s, that fourth round of attempts in the Best Trick section saw four 9 Club scores. Luan Oliveira landed a backside flip over the box for a 9.1. Tom Asta landed a nollie heelflip back noseblunt slide for a 9.3. And Shane O’Neill turned the whole show on its head with a nollie tre front boardslide on the rail for a 9.4.

With O’Neill in the lead and Huston in second, the highlight of the fifth and final attempts was another 9 Club score. This time from Cody McEntire—who moved into third place with a 9.3 for a nollie bigspin heelflip over the bump to flat. Huston and Joslin bailed their last tricks. That left O’Neill—who was chilling in first place—as the 2016 SLS Nike SB Super Crown champion. This might be the most exciting SLS Super Crown ever.

You can view the full results below.

1. Shane O’Neill – 36.4

2. Nyjah Huston – 34.6

3. Cody McEntire – 34.4

4. Luan Oliveira – 33.5

5. Paul Rodriguez – 31.9

6. Tom Asta – 31.4

7. Chris Joslin – 27.7

8. Ryan Decenzo – 19.1

Words by Reggie Altema / SLS

Follow this link to read the 2016 SLS Women’s Super Crown Recap including the full results. And why not visit SLS Facebook page...

Shane O'neill stuns the crowd at the 2016 Super Crown (video by SLS)

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