Street League Seattle Practice Video

The preliminary stop of Rob Dyrdek's Street League contest circuit--held at Seattle's Key Arena just mere steps from the Space Needle--seems off to a promising start. As the gloomy and ever-present Pacific Northwest rain was beating down outside, as it's so prone to do, Paul Rodriguez, Chris Cole, Ryan Sheckler, Nyjah Huston, and tons more logged a few hours indoors for the first day of practice. The fact that Chris Cole effortlessly rifled off fakie ollie to switch back blunts on the bump-to-bar should serve as a proper indication of what's in store for the weekend.

And as a little tangential side note, from the employees in the rental car agency requesting more details, to the tons of 14-year-old girls hunting down autographs, people in the area seem genuinely hyped on it all. Probably the craziest of all, though: walking from the hotel to the Key Arena, a hopeful-looking kid of about 18 glanced at me--eyes beaming wide and bright--and timidly asked, "Do you know who Rob Dyrdek is?" "Yeah, of course," I immediately replied. "Well, I'm from Texas and managed to make it all the way up here. He's my idol. I would never normally do this, but there's a youth hostel down the road, and I was wondering..." That's some goddamned dedication right there. Whoever you were, random drifter kid, you earned my spare cash--sorry I didn't have more.

Stay tuned for more Street League coverage here at skateboarding.com.

Words by Kevin Duffel. Video by Chris Thiessen.