As the Vert skaters on AST Dew Tour head into the Finals at the Toyota Challenge, all of the attention and hype is focused on superstar skater Shaun White and his three-win streak. Pierre-Luc Gagnon says hes planning to put it to an end. Hes impressed by Whites achievements, but says hes seen enough.

Shaun Whites been on a pretty good streak, but I qualified first in the Prelims on Thursday so I feel like I already broke it, says Gagnon on Whites 6th place finish in Prelims.

Gagnons got a nice little hat trick of his own going. Hes won both the Prelims and Finals at three major pro vert contests in the last month, with wins last week at X Games Mexico and at the Action Sports World Tour events in Phoenix and San Diego earlier in the month all events White didnt make it to. In recent head-to-head match ups, Gagnon finished 2nd after White last month in Portland at the Vans Invitational, and White bumped him down to second at the last minute in X Games 13 competition. A lot of other skaters on the Dew Tour talk about the friendship, mutual respect, and camaraderie they share with all the other skaters on the Tour; Gagnon talks about all that too, but he also talks about revenge.

Im feeling pretty confident and just want to stay positive and stay on my board, says Gagnon, greedily rubbing his hands together in a way that brings curious new meaning to the concept of staying positive. Ive got a pretty good shot at it. Shauns got a great run ready, but Ive got a pretty bangin run too. Its going to be a good contest. I think I can get him.

The two make for a great match up. White brings speed, power, aerial awareness, and big spins to the ramp, much of it brought over from riding pipe [snowboarding]. Gagnon brings much of the same, but grew up skating gnarly Canadian vert ramps and playing ice hockey. Where Whites speed and power is fluid and flowing, Gagnons is tough and brutal. He rips in backyard pools and concrete skateparks, and hes got big air experience and aerial awareness of his own, having become one of the stars of the Megaramp. The two skaters styles couldnt be more different people compare Whites to his Olympic-class snowboarding; they compare Gagnons to his slapshot. If both skaters nail their runs, the clash could be spectacular.

Regardless of the outcome, Gagnon is stoked beyond belief at how far skateboarding has come and how far its taken him.

Skateboarding is worldwide, and its awesome, says Gagnon. In the last year, hes skated in Melbourne, Mexico City, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, and Tokyo. Rune's from Denmark, Mathias' is from Sweden, Bob's from Brazil, Jake's from Australia, Im from Canada, Bucky and Shaun and a lot of the guys are from the States its all these people from different cultures and different parts of the world, and we all meet up and relate through this one thing.

When he first started skating as a young kid in Montreal, the window of opportunity for skateboarding was only five months long, between cold spells.

There was a vert ramp right by my house, so that was natural for me to learn on that. Id go to the vert ramp every day after school, and I was the only kid who was that young and dropping in, so from the beginning I was skating with older guys who were really pushing me. His dad built him a ramp in the basement and eventually helped lobby the city to build an indoor park, but Gagnons real break came when took a six month trip to California.

Actually, I never went back! That six months turned into a permanent residence in Carlsbad, California. Now I skate and skate hard pretty much every day, all year long. And thats why Shaun White is going to have to watch out for me.