Largest pro skateboarding purse comes to OC Fair

The largest pursed professional skateboarding event will be at the Orange County Fair & Event Center starting today.

Big names like Rob Dyrdek, Paul Rodriguez, Jake Brown, Chris Cole, Ryan Sheckler and Vanessa Torres are expected to compete at the Maloof Money Cup in Costa Mesa, a skateboarding hotbed.

The three-day U.S. professional skateboarding championship event, sanctioned by World Cup Skateboarding, is backed by Joe and Gavin Maloof, owners of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The event will offer nearly $450,000 in prize money.

There will be six events, highlighted by the U.S. Pro Street Championship, top prize is $100,000, the U.S. Pro Vert Championship, first place receives $75,000, and the U.S. Women’s Pro Street Championship, first place gets $25,000, considered the largest prize in women’s professional skateboarding history.

The championship event starts tonight at 8 with preliminaries. The semifinals will be Saturday at 8 p.m. and the finals Sunday at 7 p.m.

During the day, there will be the éS Game of SKATE Amateur World Finals, starting today at 1 p.m. with qualifying action. Saturday at 2 p.m. will be the amateur finals.

— From staff reports