Brazil's newest rising star conquers the prelims in Skateboard Park.The PlayStation Pro® Skate Park course in Orlando is a street skater’s dream, with hubba ledges, a Euro gap and a big Florida-inspired “gator” gap, an A-frame rail, lots of transfer lines, and good flow for connecting tricks and stringing solid runs together.

In a contest full of big tricks and great runs, Brazilian skate-star Rodolfo Ramos came out on top, with Free Flow Tour winner Timmy Knuth and Ramos’ fellow Brazilians Danilo do Rosario and Carlos De Andrade close behind.

Ramos posted the biggest score of the day in his 2nd run, sticking big tricks like a frontside 180 to switch crooked grind to rack up 86.75 points. Ramos is having a big year: This is his second Dew Tour Prelims win in 2008, and he’s currently in 6th place overall on the 2008 AST Dew Tour. Earlier this month he won the Best Trick contest at the annual Goofy vs. Regular competition, and he’s aiming to get into the top-six Finals jam session on Sunday to show off more of what he’s made of.

Perhaps the biggest news to come out of the PlayStation Pro Skate Park Prelims was Timmy Knuth. The 17-year-old skater from Melbourne, Florida has been steadily climbing up through the ranks as an amateur skater and won the Free Flow Tour championships last month in Salt Lake City. The Free Flow Tour is the official amateur series of the AST Dew Tour, and the winner gets a golden ticket: Wildcard entry to skate in the PlayStation Pro.

Knuth cashed his golden ticket in big time, qualifying in 2nd place to advance to Finals, where he’ll face off against current Dew Tour leaders Ryan Sheckler, Chaz Ortiz and Paul Rodriguez, plus Ramos and the rest of the top qualifiers from Prelims.

He already has a hero to help show him the way: When asked which of the Dew Tour skaters he most admires, Knuth said, “Chaz all the way. He’s my favorite skater out here and he’s the one who helped show the way for what the Free Flow Tour could be about.”

Ortiz was last year’s Free Flow Tour winner, skating all the way to 6th place in last year’s PlayStation Pro Skate Park Finals, and has now made a name for himself as a Dew Tour rookie. Ortiz won the Toyota Challenge last month and is now in 2nd place, just 8 points behind defending champ Ryan Sheckler in the overall Dew Cup standings.

The showdown for the Skate Park Dew Cup is the main event in Orlando on Sunday, starring Sheckler, Ortiz, P-Rod, Ramos, Knuth, do Rosario, de Andrade, and Prelims qualifiers Rodney Jones, Chris Mendes, Austen Seaholm, and Greg Lutzka.