Gagnon rules halfpipe at Maloof event

COSTA MESA, Calif. – With $75,000 and a tricked-up SUV on the line, Pierre-Luc Gagnon flew through and above the halfpipe better than everyone else, including “The Flying Tomato” himself, Shaun White.

Gagnon won the pro vert competition Sunday at the inaugural Maloof Money Cup on Sunday. The skateboarding championships are sponsored by Joe and Gavin Maloof, the brothers who own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

Gagnon came out ahead following an action-packed, 45-minute jam session during which Brazilian Sandro Dias landed a 900-degree jump with less than a minute left and Bucky Lasek stuck a 720-degree turn he’d never landed before in nearly 20 years of competing.

White, the snowboarding gold medalist at the Turin Olympics and a gold medalist in the Summer and Winter X Games, had some solid runs and some equally wild wipeouts.

Gagnon, though, made off with the top prize after the 10-man final on a halfpipe set up next to the street course at the Orange County Fair.