BOARDERS RIDE THE RAILS IN STYLE SKATE CHALLENGE BRINGS HOTSHOTS TO PEDLOW PARK.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

Teetering on rails, sliding down nearly 10-foot-high concrete walls, 70 skaters from across Los Angeles County competed in the city's first skate team competition at Pedlow Skate Park in Encino on Saturday.

And while a handful of parents and friends showed up in support, it was mostly other challengers, from impressive 8-year-old Louie Lopez to 47-year-old Steve Wright, who jeered and cheered as competitors from seven Los Angeles skate parks dazzled the crowds - or simply flopped, or ``bailed'' in skater terminology.

``The competition gives the kids something to work for. It gives them an incentive and a reason to get better,'' said Jodie Howard, recreational coordinator at Pedlow Skate Park, an 8,500-square-foot skate bowl.

For the first time, the city coordinated an effort to create skateboarding teams and regional competitions, helping bolster a Little League-like competition for a sport often sidelined but wildly popular with teens.

The competition was the brainchild of Manuel A. Mollinedo, general manager of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks, who hoped to promote the sport at the city's skate parks, most of which opened less than a year ago.

Tujunga resident Trevor Fisher, 16, hung his legs over the ledge of the skate park as he watched P.J. Harris, a 15-year-old from South Los Angeles, perform a nose grind - skidding forward on his skate board, two wheels in midair.

``The competition shows us different styles (of skateboarding),'' Fisher said. And in the lingo-laden world of skateboarding where the best always pushes the envelope, knowing the latest trick, the most stunning gag, can make the difference.

Teams from East Los Angeles' Hollenbeck and Lincoln skate parks, from South Los Angeles' Gilbert Lindsay and Wilmington skate parks, from Sunland Skate Park and El Sereno Skate Park competed.

For more than six hours, one skater after another swooshed through the bowl, jumping over rails and sliding along step-like islands. A disc jockey thumped hip-hop while a cluster of teenagers, with sweat still dripping from their brows, recalled their on-court foul-ups.

Louie Lopez, who came with his mother, wowed the crowd as he flipped the skateboard underneath his feet and coolly returned to ledges he easily jumped with the skateboard.

Competitions like this, he said shyly, not only encourage him but teach him new moves.

Gilbert Diaz, 19, competed in the 18-and-older group. ``The new generation is really stepping up because of events like this,'' he said as he sat in the stands watching the under-12 competition.

Yep, agreed Wright. ``This really gives them an environment to become good instead of the street, where it can be illegal,'' he said.

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Competitors take note at the city's first team skate competition at Pedlow Skate Park in Encino on Saturday. Seventy skaters showed, ranging in age from 8 to 47.

Allison Meadows/Daily News