Top Pro Skaters of 2011

When it comes to ranking skateboarders, the process can be a little fuzzy. Well, more like a LOT fuzzy! How do you tell? Some of the best skaters out there don't compete, or only show up to some competitions. And how to you weight the competitions, for that matter? Is the X Games more important than the Dew Tour? And do you count each stop of the Dew Tour, or only the finals? What about international competitions? The Maloof Money Cup? Dyrdek's Street League? How do all of these things fit together, and how do you tell who's the best?

And for that matter, since skateboarding has no rules, what does "best" mean anyway?! See? This is a crazy job. However, the good people over at World Cup Skateboarding HAVE compiled a list of the top skaters for the year. It's a MASSIVE job! They weigh each of their own sanctioned, pointed events the same, and then balance them all out. This means that some huge events like the Dew Tour and the Street League are ignored. But that's fine - it gives us all something to fight about! It also means that a skater who does just alright, but who shows up to more events, might beat out a skater who takes the gold at only a couple of events. Interesting, isn't it?

Below you'll find the World Cup Skateboarding rankings. You can find out a lot more off of the World Cup Skateboarding website - you can see points for individual events, and other details.

2011 Pro World Street Rankings
• Kelvin Hoefler Rodrigues - Brazil
• Rodolfo Ramos - Bazil
• Tomas Vintr - Check
• Milton Martinez - Argentina
• Daniel Viera - Brazil

2011 Pro World Vert Rankings
• Sandro Dias - Brazil
• Andy Macdonald - USA
• Marcelo Bastos - Brazil
• Bob Burnquist - Brazil
• Ronald Gomes - Brazil

2011 Pro World Bowl Rankings
• Pedro Barros - Brazil
• Kevin Kowalski - USA
• Nolan Monroe - USA
• Sky Siljeg - USA
• Josh Mattson - USA

2011 Ladies Bowl Rankings
• Lizzie Armanto - USA
• Julie Kindstrand - USA
• Abby Zsarnay - USA
• Nora Vasconcellos - USA
• Heidi Newton - USA

2011 Masters World Bowl Rankings
• Sergie Ventura - USA
• Lester Kasai - USA
• Steve Alba - USA
• Pat Ngoho - USA
• Steve Caballero - USA

2011 Ams 15 & Under Bowl Rankings
• Heimana Reynolds - USA
• Griffen Chase - USA
• Archer Braun - USA
• Tristan Rennie - USA
• Haden McKenna - USA

And those are the 2011 World Cup Skateboarding rankings. You'll notice that the USA and Brazil dominated this year. It'd be really great to see more diversity, and I think we are seeing more and more international competition! Who knows who will win 2012!