I'm not going to go into huge detail about the Dew Tour prelims events here at the Vans Invitational, except to say the obvious and hugely predictable: Shaun White won Vert, Ryan Sheckler won Park. Shaun White will win the Finals, too. But here's a wild prediction: I think this might be the one where somebody else finally gets Sheckler, and I'm going out on a limb and saying it's going to be Austen Seaholm, who has emerged as my favorite skater in these events.

Sheckler shinned himself on a strange fall in the Prelims contest, skirting off the side of a quarterpipe when he was clearly thinking way ahead of himself, then skipped his second run since his first place finish and his spot in the Finals were already guaranteed. But even at full strength, I think he's beatable on these Dew Tour courses. Here's why I like Seaholm (pictured above): He is fast, uses the entire course, and does crazy-technical tricks and combos that are the sort of thing you wish you had a rewind button for while you're sitting in the stands trying to comprehend them. I say he makes it to the jam sessions at the end of the Finals, then blows minds with some of the things he was working on in practice today, like the frontside flip late flips he was boosting higher than other people were busting straight grab airs.

I ended up out at the venue most of the day yesterday; today and tomorrow I'm going skating. An observation, mostly unrelated to skateboarding: Portland is cool. And strange. We went out and saw Talib Kweli last night, which was awesome – partly because it was the strangest mix of a crowd I've ever seen at a hip hop show – and then proceeded on to some serious dive bars on the outskirts of Portland out towards the Pier Park skatepark, which is huge, smooth, and a ton of fun. Anyhow... I learned all about the strange economics of the Portland bar scene, in which cruddy little dive bars dot the city and stay in business perpetually, essentially underwritten by the Portland Lottery, which pays the rent for these establishments in exchange for the space to run its video poker machines. The place we ended up in, a joint called Two Points, looked pretty much like the bar your uncle might have built in his basement and then invited all the cousins over to check out, and we held it down with some swaggering and staggering locals until the nice lady behind the bar tossed us all out at 3am. Did I mention I don't drink a drop, and never have? Good times. 

Stay tuned: I did a big interview with Dave Duncan about World Cup Skateboarding yesterday over lunch, and will transcribe it here when I have time. Also: Skate Park Finals update later tonight.